I believe you have the four-lined bug. They are very fast and can be killed with direct contact of insecticidal soap. They change to a green and black bug in a few weeks. Try to get them now. They do not kill plants but make them look ugly. I had way too many of them last year so I cut most of my plants back in the late fall and threw the debris in the woods. I have only a few here and there this year. I have learned how to chase them and have become faster than them!

what are they doing to the buds??? how big are they??? .. where are you ??? please dont use any more chems until you get an ID ... a pic would sure help ... ken

Wow, thanks, Roselee, and thanks to Cindy also. He's a Asphaera lustrans all right! Since I have several clumps of pink skullcap around, he must have decided I was laying out the welcome mat! I guess I don't begrudge him a bite or two.

Maybe a species of Largus. Very young baby bugs--as they get older their wings start to form and these guys don't seem to have that. (Beetles are really different and go through a pupal stage like butterflies before they show any similarity to adult beetles, but true bugs like these just gradually change into adults as they mature.)