new comer to the PNW

i have recently retired to the PNW & have a strange happening down on the river bank
http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/596603/
is this a common problem in the PNW ?
can anybody shed a light on this ?

thanks
Dick

Hi Dick!!
Are you in Oregon? If so welcome....
Edit..
Wrong Link
Sorry.

This message was edited Apr 28, 2006 8:07 PM

Welcome to retirement and the NW- great choice!

I cannot shed any light on your beetle herd, but I wonder if it isn't a hatch to account for so many in one spot? Or a particularly desirable food source? I've not ever seen a crowd of black beetles like this: many individuals staking out their own turf far apart, yes, but this looks like a regular Beetle Gang to me.

If there is a bug forum here at Dave's try there. Those folks are wizards when it comes to ID and behavior of insects.

hi Kin
i'm as close to being in Oregon as you can get AND still be in Calif. where the Redwoods meet the ocean
we shop & buy gas in Brookings Or. 14 miles north of us
so i figure i am in the Pacific North West :-)

Poochella
the beetles move from a plant once they wipe it out to the next one
i agree they have all hatched at the same time
& they also have a brilliant turquoise flourescence
the closest to a bug forum i have found here is the garden foe forum where i posted the ?

Dick

Strever, try this link: lots of wonderful bug experts there who have helped me out on a couple occasions. And let us know what you learn, please, so we know if we should all be on guard against these shiny marauders.

Good luck!

http://nature.gardenweb.com/forums/insect/

Hey Dick! Sanna here in Eureka ~ (and I figured I could horn in on the PNW forum too, since the California forum seems to be mostly southern CA folks) I too had some of those guys here last summer! I didn't have the real big ones, but a small amount of the small ones. I had posted a question once before about them (I think on the garden foe forum) and don't remember if I ever really figured out what they were. At least I think they're the same guys. Good luck and let me know how you handle them!

Sanna

Okay now looking back at your picture I see the "big guys" are actually a photo inset. Duh,.....

Sanna

They aren't the dreaded japanese beetles are they? We don't have those here........ yet.

That's what I had wondered, when I first posted the photo last fall. But no one seemed to think so. And if I remember rightly, when I researched it more, it didn't seem like them. But hey! That was months ago and my memory isn't all that great!

Sanna

no Pixy they are NOT Japanese beetles
the closest i can get in the peterson bug book is
one of the 1500 specie of Darkling beetle ? ;-(
i was hoping the plant would be a clue
here is a better pict of the plant
Dick

I didn't think they looked like them. I haven't seen them in years, but I always thought they were really pretty for a bug. It was your comment about the turqoise coloring that caught me. I figured it just didn't show up much in the photo. Hope you can identify them.