With the use of sellotape, I have just caught between 100 and 200 tiny beetles on my French marigolds and strawberry flowers. The culprits look very much like flea beetles but I thought they only went on vegetables!
Can anyone tell me if they will be causing harm to my plants or should I let them stay? I don't want to spray the flowers as there was a bee visiting one of the marigolds. I am prepared to carry on with the sellotape treatment if damage is likely to be done. The plants look healthy at the moment.
I have just destroyed another couple of hundred on my two patio roses.
the only tiny black beetles I know are on my squash flowers and help pollinate so are definitely good guys :)
They are probably pollen beetles and visit a lot of flowers just to collect pollen to eat. Thus by wandering over the flowers they effect pollination and the amount of pollen they eat is negligible compared to the good they do.
Toadspawn, I have just "Googled" pollen beetles and that is definitely what they are. I now feel guilty for killing such an important pollinator. The web shows that they are abundant on oil seed rape. That was being grown in the field next to our garden last year. I expect my lot have hatched out from the soil in that field. I will leave them alone now I know they will not harm my plants.