Unknown beetle..

I have a number of unknown beetles on my lemon balm, sage and rosemary (and probably on other things!).  Can anyone assist with identifying it, and advise what pest control to use - it is ladybird size, it is <span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;">iridescent silver/black with dark brown/red stripes down its back.

<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;">

 Thanks in advance.

I don't know what it is - but isn't it beautiful?

Jules63 wrote (see)

I have a number of unknown beetles on my lemon balm, sage and rosemary (and probably on other things!).  Can anyone assist with identifying it, and advise what pest control to use - it is ladybird size, it is <span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;">iridescent silver/black with dark brown/red stripes down its back.

<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;">

 Thanks in advance.

I am a bit concerned about "pest control"-it might not be could be a friend-has it done any damage?

Looks like a baby chafer bug of some kind.  Look them up.  They are beautiful.  I get the rose chafer bug on my spireas.  They glitter in the sunshine like gold.

I rather like the go-faster stripes! Vrooooooom

This is a mercenery thug.  I was aware of it in the garden for a couple of years and thought it was beautiful due to its golden colours.  I really became aware of it when I realised something was killing my rosemaries.  It is so much more destructive than lily beetles.  I posted photos on the BBC website but I can't find them on the site now - after posting I deleted them from my photos because they were too depressing to look at.  This is the only photo I have left and it was taken in 2008 a couple of years after killing my rosemaries and beginning their assault on the lavenders. I still have them and cannot get rid of them. I have tried re introducing rosemaries but the beetles are relentless.

http://apps.rhs.org.uk/advicesearch/profile.aspx?pid=555

Okay I've found the link - I hope it works and the photos are on thread 25.  There are lots of very interesting postings on the thread regarding the beetles.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/mbgardening/NF2759007?thread=5782683

Thanks for that link figrat - sorry my last post crossed with yours.  When I first spotted them there were very few related articles.  The photo on your link has captured them perfectly.  Basking on mass on my beautiful, gone but not forgotten rosemaries.

Thank you all for your help and the links!  Sorry to hear that you have lost Rosemary's etc too, I will attemp to spray again but since this is the 3rd year I am not holding my breath completely!

Have you tried putting a bird feeder, maybe some fat balls near to the Rosemary and Lavender bushes to let the birds have a go at clearing them for you.

I'm not preaching but we kill everything we don't like and then complain there are no bees, butterflies or birds.

Beware if you grow lavender, these buggers love it, i found the easiest way to get rid of them is just collect them, to escape they just drop so come from beneath and in to your hands they fall. Dont leave them cos they breed, and breed

Thank you for posting this thread, Jules63! I think you may have saved my rosemary!  I bought one a few weeks ago from a reputable garden centre but kept it indoors as the weather up here in Scotland has been dreadful ( it snowed the first weekend in May ).  I found a beetle on it, which my husband 'eradicated' and we thought no more about it.  I'd never heard of rosemary beetles.

This morning I was trundling through the website and saw your thread and all the replies...so I went and had a look at the rosemary...and sure enough, there was another of the wee so-and-so's.  I have, I'm sorry to say, squished it.  It was so pretty and looked so innocently harmless, and I feel like a murderer now.  But if it's the thug that these responses suggest I can probably live with myself.  I have put the corpse on the bird table, so it's life was not in vain.

I'm certainly not suggesting any gardener should ignore a pest problem, but after gardening today and finding one of these in my soil, I realised that they are the same iridescent beetle I've been seeing for as long as I can remember. I grow a lot of lavender and have four Rosemary plants but have not yet suffered any infestation.

I shall be alert from now on, but I'm not about to bulldoze this beetle population until I am sure there is a problem.

Best of luck with your gardens.

I found four of these yesterday, on one of my lavenders.  They were squished immediately, as I could see where they'd been munching.  I also felt bad, as they were incredibly beautiful, but I do prefer my lavenders to them. 

This is the first time I'd ever seen them and this is also the first year that I've found red lily beetles (on my snakeshead fritillaries).  Shame that such beautiful creatures do so much damage.  I live in the north west of England and wonder if they've migrated here from another area as they are completely new to me.