Here's whats creeping around here a lot this month... in all 3 of its stages
I'll just say Ladybirds and confuse everyone...
It's strange that I've never noticed the 1st stage of the ladybug (bird) and the 2nd stage only once - I wondered what that strange bug was 
We have had so many ladybugs in the house that they have become a real pest and we had to resort to vacuuming them out of the windows. Ladybugs do bite - or at least pinch and they are no fun when they start crawling under the bed covers with you.
You'll only confuse me Terry - cause I always have to sort it out in my mind before I say it, depending what country I'm in at the time. Everyone else will just think you haven't a clue ;-)
Thoughts of them in the sheets is creepy MK! They must wintering over inside the warm walls of your house somewhere. They crawl into the folds of the closed patio umbrella on chilly spring nights here. And if a window is left open, they come in by the dozens at night for the warmth. But I can't even imagine so many that you have to vacuum them!! See how healthy your farm must be for them to thrive so well!
I've never had the beetle stage pinch me. But gosh, that dragon-looking 2nd stage larva really can hurt. I guess that's why they eat more bad bugs than the mature stage - growing faster and have stronger jaws maybe.
Dave and I found this on my Lamb's Ear a couple a weeks ago. 
They appear to be a red spider mite. But the really neat thing is they were completely gone the next morning. Later, I found some more on another patch of the same plant elsewhere in the garden and once again they were gone the next day. Am assuming the ladybirdbugs or other helpful critters had them for dinner. Haven't seen any more of them since.
Sandra - check out those red thingies above.
And here is a new one for you ...
When I brought in roses yesterday, there were some ‘bad lady bugs’ on them. I say that because they might be eating from the plant, rather than on bad bugs – or maybe they are fungus-eating beetles. Well, at least they appear to be beetles, about ¼” long, green with black spots and are actually slimmer (less round-ish) than red lady beetles. Lars has the most spectacular book on beetles. Flipping through the beautiful photogs, I didn’t find it, so can’t get anywhere in that book without a sci name. If it is in Garrett’s bug book, I didn’t spot it. Have any clues?
I would agree that the red thingies are spider mites. The webbing between the leaves is added evidence. It was probably a spring mating orgie, the better with which to infest your garden !!
I have seen the little green beetle you describe. I don't do roses, and have never seen enough of those beetles to be very concerned, but I have assumed them to be bad guys. They're not in the book I have either, but I'll try to find out.
That reminds me of a beetle scourge I experienced in the spring the last three years that I had never had before-- the 4-lined Plant Bug (excuse me, its a true bug, not a beetle). He's about the same size as your green one, yellow-green with 4 black stripes down his back, reddish head and underneath, red more dominant on the nymphs. They eat almost anything and multiplied like crazy. They devastated my early spring performing plants,hiding on the underside of the leaves, stippling them with almost regularly spaced small brown spots. They also loved chrysanthemuns, but at least those had time to recover before it was their turn to shine. When the weather turns hot they disappear. Have you guys experienced these things, and are they, as I suspect, a relatively new pest to our area? Spreading pests around is surely one of the unintended consequences of having a smorgusborg (sp.?) of plants and nursuries to buy from.
Very strange how I never saw the red mites again this year, after that episode. Let's hope its up to a good balance of good and bad bugs in the garden, keeping things in check.
I did try to get a pic of the green spotted thing on the roses that day, but they moved so fast that none of the pics came out well enough to see clearly. And forgot to mention they do fly.
Yes - the four lined monster! It certainly has been a new invader to these parts in last two years. I first read of it in a book about a NJ garden in the 80's and couldn't believe it when we started having them here. Their fav plant in my spring garden (altho there are many others with some pock marks) is the Zebrina French Hollyhock. The brown spots are almost solid on it when they have their way.
By the time those clock out in summer, the Sweet Potato bug moves in to make perfect little holes in the leaves of a few plants (all the way thru), living up to their namesake - favoring the orn sweet potato vines.
Worst fear this year - I found one (just one, knock wood) huge shiny green beetle in my garden. Then heard an employee had been seeing a lot of them in a local nursery. having Big fear of the Japanese beetle moving westward. Have heard they had so-far stayed east of the Miss. river. So, am hoping this is NOT the same as the devastating J one. :-0
You know, it does seem funny you didn't see the spider mites later in the season since they like the hot and dry. You must have a very healthy garden!
The Japanese beetle, according to my bad bug source, is ~ 1/2 inch long and looks just like a June beetle that is metalic blue/green with copper-colored wings and has tufts of white hair on the abdomen. With any luck, the large beetle you saw (one inch long or larger?) is actually a good guy. Do you recall if, shape-wise, it was pinched in behind the head (or behind the thorax, I can't remember which). Anyway it isn't totally rounded like a june beetle.
We sure don't want Japanese beetles. Did the nursery employee ever find out what she was seeing? She should. My book also says they prefer acid soils. Lets hope that keeps them away from here.
I sure don't have acid soil, so if it was a Japanese, it must have come from elsewhere and hopefully was the only one in these parts. I put it in a lidded jar with great intentions of looking it up in beetle book, then tucked the jar away - gawd knows where and promptly forgot about it. Will root around for it in grnhouse shed, in hopes of there being anything left to look at - and in hopes of not having tossed it already.
I ordered some potted plants from an East coast grower 2 or 3 years ago. They had to have the shipment sprayed with poison by local official to get license to send them across the Mis river - in aid of J beetle protection. Four out of six of the matured potted plants died and I thought I would never get the toxins rinsed from the two suvivors. The smell was ghastly, but at least we know NO bugs could have been imported via those poor plants!
Stalked the green spotted beetle bug today with digi. 
Now if we could just find his name for further research. 
I have your green beetle! It is the Black Spotted Cucumber Beetle (order Coleoptera, which is all beetles, and family Chrysomelidae--they didn't go to genus/species). He is represented in Garrett's Bug Book, but the one shown there is more yellow. There are several varieties, one even has yellow spots.
I don't really have much myself in the way of references, but I went to Redenta's for some fertilizer, it was a slow day there and several of us perused several of their books and decided that's what it is. One of the gals there said she also had quite a few of them on her roses. They are an agricultural pest, but also do ornamentals.They chew ragged holes in leaf and stem, larvae live in the soil and attack roots. Beneficial nematodes were a suggested treatment.
I also looked up the big beetle, it is called a Ground Beetle (exciting name), and it is a beneficial. Again they just gave a family name (Carabidae), stating that the shiny metalic green variety is a day hunter and the black one is a night stalker. It's shape is kind of pinched in behind the thorax, with a much larger abdomen, unlike the June and Japanese one which is smoothly curved from stem to stern--kind of like a volkswagon!
Yep, you got it Sandra. Was able to dig deeper with the proper name. Thank you! Must remember to get those backup bags of nemmies out of the fridge and give the garden its winter re-inoculation.
Was pondering why bennie nemmies would defend against the bad green spotted beetles and not the red spotted good ones. Click - the baduns lay eggs in soil and the gooduns don't. Further confirmed by the leaf-dwelling, bug-eating larva of the red-uns and the soil dwelling, root-eating larva of the green-uns. Hurray!
Got carried away while exploring beetle life cycles - was fascinated to learn why wormholes are considered a status symbol in antique furniture. It is because some tree-injected beetle eggs take decades to hatch inside trees to become the wood-eating larva that eventually bore their way out, even ages after the tree has become a chair or table! Which is why reproduction furniture tries to emulate the wormy holes - to elicit age. I always wondered why folks would be so proud to own bug-infested furniture ;-)
Several years ago I kept hearing a grinding noise in the headboard of our bed over a long period of time. Eventually I found a little pile of very fine dust on the floor. A beetle larva had eaten it's way out of the wood. The bed was at least 15 years old at the time.
LOL - the thought of that noise keeping you up wondering, "am I going nuts or is there really something chewing on something in here every night"
Several years ago, I kept hearing something outside my office when the window was open - turned out to be huge larva boring their way of stacked firewood below the window. Imagine how loud they were - to be heard from a 2nd story window. The holes and grubs were close to a 1/2" diameter. yuck. Worried they would find their way into the house structures, and not knowing what else to do, I poured an entire box of moth balls on the stack and covered it with thick plastic. Needless to say, the window wasn't opened again until the fumes and the wood disappeared. The thought of those ugly things still gives me creeps!
Hey James, you might be able to get a good price for your holey bedstead ;-)