This strange-looking tent is an attempt to shade a summer lettuce bed I’m trying to start. It’s just some floating row cover stapled around a couple of pvc frames. (The sticks in the ground are to discourage the cats. I don’t think it’s working).
It’s going okay so far but I noticed something strange this morning. I saw a lump under the cover in the “rod pocket” area. I took a closer look and found there were several clusters of beetles caught up under there, their legs stuck in the fibers of the nonwoven cloth material of the row cover. Dozens of them. Can you see them under there?
I peeled the cover back to see what kind of bug this was.
I went straight to the Insect Identification Forum at Dave’s Garden and tried to get an ID. I wasn’t the only person looking for a name for these bugs.
The best I can come up with is that they’re Asiatic Garden Beetles. So far they haven’t done much to my garden that I can tell. Maybe because they all got caught up under that fabric before they could go to town? I suppose I will see soon if there are more where those came from.
In the meantime I’m going to see what the chicks think of them. . .
TL
{ 24 comments… read them below or add one }
Your goats are awesome. I can’t talk the hubs into chicks or goats yet. He just won’t bend. And then I read an article in “Hobby Farm” this weekend about how hard they are to keep in a fence and how they like to climb. Are they worth the trouble?
It looks like a june bug to me. My chickens don’t prefer them.
In LA they call those June bugs (they’re not like the June bugs I grew up with in Tennessee – those were the scarab kind, much prettier). These California June bugs are purely-dee dumb.
Jenny
We call ‘em June bugs in Texas, too.
Yep, I’d say that’s a June Bug.
Yup, that’s just a bunch of mentally-deficient June bugs.
debmoulton–I waited until they had gotten a bit dried out so mine didn’t care for them much either.
Jennifer Krieger–That makes sense. I’m accustomed to calling those big scarab things June bugs myself, so I wasn’t used to this one, apparently an actual June beetle.
Jenny–Well, Texas is right as usual. But I didn’t have to tell you that, did I? Love me some Texas . . .
Sarah F–Ha! They crawl in but they don’t crawl out!
Yes, it looks like a June bug to me also. The kids around here love them if you catch one and tie a string to its leg you can fly it like a kite. Oh the summer fun you can have! Anyway, there is a great website called “whats that bug?” it shows thousands of bugs for identification. In addition, if you can’t find the bug you have, you can email them a picture and they will identify it for you and write back. They are awesome. Within a few days they helped my son identify a strange white caterpillar that he found. Check them out.
http://www.whatsthatbug.com/
The chickens will eat them if they’re alive. I bet they came in from the ground… do you see many larva when you dig in the garden?
I was also going to mention that I call those June bugs. I’m from Texas, when we moved to Georgia and called them that all of our “Yankee” friends were flummoxed:). They were not used to the swarms of June bugs I grew up with, I think they’re pretty harmless.
In MN, we call them ‘June bugs,’ too, but when we looked them up in the official insect book, they called them ‘May beetles.’
It’s a Japenese Beetle but quite often called a June bug- the true June Bugs are those big ones that eat your fruit!
My chickens will eat them, but like Don said they need to be alive. If you ever want to see some excitement put a light inside the coop at dusk and watch the commotion. The Larva is what is damaging, the grubs will turn your lawn brown quickly by chewing on the roots.
Yeppers, them thar is June Bugs. Beatle stage of grub worms. My chickens LOVE these bugs! Crispy on the outside, creamy on the inside!!
Yup those are june bugs here in Illinois as well. Those bugs are dumber then all get out. I keep finding them dead int anything that collects water. No other bugs, just the june bugs. lol
Melissa–I think I have seen that kite/bug thing! Ha!
I will keep that website handy. I’m always finding mysterious (to me) creatures.
Don–Is that what those are? I do see them. I’ve been wondering what they turn into, now I know.
Rhilborn–Wait a minute–Georgians are Yankees to Texans? Hang on there. What does that make Tennesseans?
Jennifer in MN–May beetles sounds much more elegant than June Bugs.
Sue–Oh, dear. Now I’m confused.
Stephen–Oh, those long summer nights. Better than watching reruns.
JavaLady–Now I’m gettin’ hungry!
Y’all are so funny! We call them June bugs here in S GA too. And they are dumb! They fly around in the light and slam themselves into the door. One night I heard an extra amount of ruckus outside the back door. The June bugs were flying around and the kittens were jumping up, doing all kinds of acrobatics, and catching & eating them.
Those pesky beetles are properly called Melolonthinae or chafer beetles. You call them June bugs – in the Southern Hemisphere we call them Christmas beetles because they come out in force around December, which is our summer.
They eat the ever living heck out of my rose bushes… and fly around my house and knock over and over and over into things till you can almost tear your hair out and they die in obscure places so you spend the rest of the year fishing little beetle corpses out of dusy corners and vases and shoes…sigh….
Looks like a june bug to me. They come from grub worms. YUCK!
We call them June Bugs here in California too. Had a ton in June – of course – but now they’ve dwindled to just a few each evening. Throughout June, my oldest daughter and I collected them each evening at dusk to give to our chickens the next morning. She learned quickly to feed them individually to the chickens – the first morning she dumped them into the ark and they all flew away. She was in TEARS and the birds couldn’t figure out where they went!
Ewwww Those beetles eat my bean plants. They are Mexican Bean Beetles….Destructive lil Buggers
Nicole–Oh, no! Well, at least there were more the next day! Thanks for the story (and the advice!)
June bug or “Brown Light Bugs” due to their habit of buzzing window screens and yard lights at night. Annoying but harmless in their beetle stage, they are murder on your lawns. Feed them to the feathered veloceraptors.
Oh, and my hubby says anyone north of the Red River border with Oklahoma is a yankee.
Phyllophaga sppecies if that helps. These are big bugs, not teeny like bean beetles.