Beetles Found in Mulch

Rove Beetles

• This family of beetles tends to be long and skinny, with dark coloration and short wing covers. The most widely known species is the Devil's coach horse beetle, though thousands of other species exist. Rove beetles like to keep under cover and, consequently, thrive in mulch. Completely harmless, rove beetles can actually be beneficial to your plants, eating harmful species, such as maggots, while cleaning away the decaying corpses of dead organisms of all varieties.

Ground Beetles

• Ground beetles are nearly as diverse a family as the rove beetles, containing tiger beetles, bombardier beetles and the brilliant green caterpillar hunter. Like rove beetles, they make their home on the forest floor in the wild and are perfectly adapted for a mulch habitat. All ground beetles are carnivorous and will eat almost any type of lawn or garden pest, including moths, aphids, maggots, cabbage loopers and the eggs of Colorado potato beetles.

Cucumber Beetles

• Often resembling a green-colored ladybug, the striped or spotted cucumber beetles are another family that can often be found in mulch. These, however, are far from beneficial. Cucumber beetles will attack both crops and flowers, destroying the stems, leaves, buds and petals of many types of plants. Another threat is the diseases that they carry. Cucumber beetles are known to transmit the cucumber mosaic virus and bacterial wilt to the plants they frequent, causing even greater trouble.

Asparagus Beetles

• The asparagus beetle is made up of just two species, common and spotted, but these two can be a devastating threat to your asparagus crop. During the summer, the beetles are usually on the move, but they find mulch a protective cover in which to hide during the winter months. But if your mulch also is home to ground beetles, you're in luck --- the larvae of the asparagus beetle is one of the ground beetle's favorite delicacies.