If you can stand it, remove and crush the beetles. They leave a trail for other beetles to visit so you should look in the same places for infestation. You could carry a container with soapy water and place them in that. I've found that the catbirds and other birds eat the beetles I've crushed and left on the ground. The beetles particularly like certain plants. If those plants are grown in afternoon sun, they will attract more beetles than those growing in a shady site in afternoon when beetles are the most active. Roses, azaleas, crape myrtle, Oenothera, Gaura and some Clematis attract them here.

okay so maybe they are fungus gnats, i really looked at them close and they look like tiny mosquitoes. and they don't really fly around too much, just along the dirt and leaves. i really do think that they bite but maybe its just something else, i know that whatever it is that bites me is also very small. but actually might be smaller. i read that the fungus gnat is not only attracted to over watered dirt, but also decomposing material. one of my plants i know for a fact has a lot of wood rot on the root structure. that plant also seems to be the most infested. also it is very very very humid here so they might be finding enough moisture just from that. i am going to continue to try and let my plants dry out as much as possible, and i am throwing away the insecticide because it doesn't effect them and it is kind of harsh on some of my softer tissued plants. i might get rid of the tree that is decomposing, its a wild cherry tree i dug up last year to try and turn into a bonsai but i think its pretty much a lost cause. as for the rest of my plants. i am not only going to try and make sure my plants dry out but i am also going to try and replant all of my plants in soil that is inorganic so that the gnats have nothing to feed on, all of the soil i have now has a lot of wood in the mix. most of it is miracle grow and i think that the dirt was infected when i bought it. so i just need to spend a little more money and get a better quality soil. and just for the record all of the miracle grow soil that i have bought i have mixed in grit so that it is better draining but i don't think that is going to be enough. hopefully i can get rid of these damn bugs!!!

looks like a katydid ;-) ... some sort of locust ?? ... not sure what the correct name is but we used to be fascinated with them as kids, finding their skeletons attached to trees every summer ...

I do not know what the bugs are. Plantlets look ok. I wouldn't complicate rooting so much - I don't see advantage of using paper towels; as you found , it could e annoying trying to get the roots detangled (I never heard of this method). I like it as simple as possible. Most of the time, I just lay leaves on surface of pretty gritty mix and they root and grow in it. I transplant them easily when they are big and start interfering with each other. These were transplanted recently since pot was getting too full:Bunch of leaves started in same pot & gritty mix - 2nd photo as they are now; soon to be given individual pots: