bug question

I was digging up some of my irises and noticed a few with holes in the rhizome right where the leaves and rhizome meet...then in digging another, noticed the hole and some mushy part on the rhizome, cut the rhizome there and saw a black bug burrowed in the rhizome. What is that booger?

I know crickets and grasshoppers will sometimes munch on rzs if they can access them, but I assume you'd recognize a cricket if you saw it. If you find another one of the black bugs, take it into your county extension service for identification.

Laurie

Oh good idea, or I could post a picture here I suppose. I got my iris BIBLE out and there's no mention of this bug. It's a hard shell black bug, I squished the one I found.

There is such a thing as an iris weevil which is a tiny (smaller than a ladybug), hard-shelled black beetle with a pointed snout, but they don't eat rzs. They burrow into seed pods where they lay their eggs, and they eat holes in the flowers.

Laurie