Do they look like tiny shiny ladybugs but brighter color?
If so I have them. I was going to post the same question
but forgot. Mine are also found under objects.
The other day I dug a 1' deep hole and they were everywhere
hiding under dead grass along a fence line.
I don't have a clue what they are I tried looking online
with no results. I just want to know if they'll hurt my
garden.
good luck
Tree

I haven't seen bugs like that, but I'll link a bug ID page from the Tulsa Master Gardener's website. Maybe the mystery bug is on it.

Here is a link that might be useful: Horticultural Insects, Spiders and Pests of OK

Here they are:
{{gwi:1108723}}

{{gwi:1108725}}

Your description and picture seem to be different things. I think the link will describe what the picture shows.

Here is a link that might be useful: The ladies without spots

If you look at the second picture, you will see more clearly that the bugs are half black and half red. The pictures are blurry because I was in a hurry, but the stages of lady beetles that I have seen show the larva stage to be much larger than this.

Also there are no spots on my bugs. The picture does not show it clearly unless you look carefully, but they are a solid color either black or red.

I did describe them in reverse, but they are all (each and every one) half black and half red. None are a solid color.

Lady bugs come in just about every color combination available and in solid colors like red, orange, black, green and pink. My most favorite ones are the hot pink ones with black spots, but I only see them occasionally. Ladybugs come with spots. They come without spots. Some have a lot of spots. Some only have a couple of spots. I would lean towards these being ladybird beetles based on the admittedly-blurry photo. If they are not ladybird beetles, they are closely related to them.

Check out some of the photos of different kinds of lady beetles at bugguide.net which I've linked below. If you page down the linked page, you'll see a lot of interesting lady bugs.

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: Ladybird Beetles at Bugguide.net

If Sammy is talking about the same ones as me
The bugs are tiny.
They all look alike but some half the size as the tiny
ones. They just resemble a ladybug at first glance.

Dawn
cool ladybug pics. I really like the pink ones.
Thanks
TREE

I will try to get another picture, and put a pencil or something common by them to compare the size. I would consider the size more like that of a tick than a lady beetle. I had thought of putting a leaf by them, but the leaves vary just like bugs do.

Seeker, we are probably seeing the same bug.

Sammy

I saw on Google yesterday that you can do an image search with an image. I haven't tried it - and maybe we've always been able to do that and I just didn't know - but it might be worth a try.

Good Morning, Y'all,

I'd suggest you not allow a preconceived idea of the 'proper size' of a ladybird beetle influence you into thinking these are not ladybugs.

Ladybird beetles come in a wide range of sizes, with the smallest ones being just 1 mm long and the larger ones being up to 10 mm long. I suspect you're just seeing one of the smaller types.

Sammy, Saying something is the size of a tick is just as confusing because ticks come in a variety of sizes and I feel like we have all of them on our property. The smallest ticks we have here, and they usually are not an issue for us personally as long as we don't walk through the woods, are very small. One of them could sit comfortably on the head of a pin. The larger ticks are more common in our pastures.

Ladychips, That's an interesting idea to search for an image using an image. What will they think up next?

Dawn

I cannot get the camera to focus something so small. Today when I took pictures, I saw that they have some black markings on the red. It is either two lines or a triangle. I need to go outside, then will see if the picture is any better than the last one. I am not too good with the camera.

I thought the same thing about the tick, but when I looked at their size beside a kitchen match and a dime, I thought about the size of a tick when I have seen them crawl on me. True, I have pulled off some so small that I thought they were a piece of dirt. I am having trouble trying to think about household items that are consistent.

I appreciate all of your input. My major resistance to it being a lady beetle is that I have so many much larger that are in the larva or other stages. I thought they had to go through those stages. Is it obvious yet that even though I have been gardening for many many years, I am still a novice? LOL

Sammy

Sammy,

Just keep telling yourself that bugs come in all sizes just like people! White grub worms are a great example. While a lot of them are about the same size, I have found teeny tiny ones the size of a grain of rice and I often find big ones in my garden that are the size of my thumb. I think Mother Nature varies the sizes of all critters moe than we think because we focus on the ones we see most often.

I have lady bug larvae in all sizes from teeny-tiny to quite large and, if you looked at the larvae photos on bugguide.net, while most ladybug larvae look similar, some are very different from the ones we usually see.

The more I learn about gardening in general and bugs in particular, the less I know "for sure". I'm just going to keep gardening until I don't know anything at all "for sure".

Dawn

I don't think what you are showing are any relation to lady bug beetles. I have them all over my flowering gardens this year worse than ever before. They range from very small babies to much larger adults which are about 1/2 inches long to 3/4 inches long. I will find a source to tell us what they are! They are destroying my hostas, I can tell you that.

Kristin,

If you have a red bug that size eating your hostas, they probably are the red lily leaf beetle.

Dawn

If you've got what I've got, I'm pretty sure they're milkweed bugs, and they're EVERYWHERE!