Those are the June Bugs I grew up with in Arkansas. I see a few here, but not a swarm.

Great pictures! They are really pretty bugs :-)

like pkp I call them June Bugs. We had them like soup in North Carolina growing up. I hate them...but I hate insects in general. My cousin would tie dental floss to their legs and have them hovering all around him. Weirdo.

Thanks y'all! Seems they should be called September bugs in Texas. But the name doesn't have that certain ring to it.

Pam, I agree. They are really pretty. Some of them were brighter green then the one I caught.

Mkull, boys think up the craziest things to do with bugs. Some are not so nice. Your cousin's idea wasn't too bad.

Out here in SoCal, we call them Fig Beetles. They'll go after some rose blooms, definitely after tomatoes, and they'll of course, devastate figs.

They're so slow-flying, it looks like they ought to crash. At least they're easy to catch and kill.

Jeri

We had a dozen or so around our yard for the first time last year. Seemed to mostly hang out on our damaged and struggling Shantung Maple. They emit pheromones when they eat which attracts the others. Not obvious what they were eating in our yard either, assumed they either found something in our compost pile or ate on some cantaloupes the rodents chewed open. Have only seen one so far this year.

Here is a link that might be useful: Green June Beetle: Biology, Damage and Control

Jen, thanks. I wonder what they'll be eating around here. The critters get most of the figs before I can. And there's not many roses left in my yard so I'm not sure what the attraction is. But I guess it would take just one mama to lay lots of eggs and make a swarm. They seemed to have hatched in the side yard. I've used beneficial nematodes in the back for years so that would have cut down on their numbers.

Bostedo, thanks for the link. There's plenty of organic matter around here for the grubs to feed on.

This post was edited by roselee on Fri, Sep 5, 14 at 20:48

I have them on my figs if I don't keep the ripe ones picked. I think they're figeater beetles, Cotinis mutabilis.

Here's a link to Garden Betty's article on them.

Here is a link that might be useful: Fig Beetles: Bumbling Pilots of the Garden