Garden Pests and Diseases: Friend or Foe #2, 1 by Night_Bloom

Night_Bloom wrote:
margu - many earwigs are cosmopolitan eaters, meaning that in addition to organic matter, they also prey on small insects and mites and/or their eggs and pupae. The earwig mothers are surprisingly maternal, usually guarding their eggs and even staying to feed the nymphs for a few days after they have hatched and until they are big enough to start eating on their own.


bluekat - I'm sorry to say that it is difficult to tell from that picture exactly what you've got. My best guess would be that it is some kind of leaf beetle (family Chrysomellidae), but I'm sorry that that isn't much to go on as that is a very large family of beetles there. I would keep an eye on it to see if it gets any friends, and then if so, I'd see what they were up to - hee. One or two shouldn't be much to worry about I suspect though. I get a few plant munchers that I basically like to watch because they don't seem to do too much damage. Here's an example...

This is not a good bug, but as long as they don't get too numerous, I don't mind, because I think they are beautiful. You can't see it here, but when the sun hits these tortoise beetles (family Chrysomellidae) they shine brilliantly like golden jewels even when you are a few feet away.