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I noticed today that one of my struggling garden plants is absolutely covered in bugs. I have no idea if those two things are related (we had a massive drought), but I wanted to find out what these little dudes are, and whether they're friend or foe. Any thoughts?
Edited to add: located in western Europe.
Check into your regional species of ladybird beetle/ladybug - these look similar to Chilicorus but aren't the kind around us.
We're not huge fans of the friend/foe dynamic, though it has its uses conceptually. We think a better question would be "what role do they play", as it opens up far more avenues of discovery and management. It might be a species that can do damage in our gardens, but it might also be a food source for a specific other species that you'd like to see more of.
Oh interesting, would these be the larvae then? A quick Google tells me that we have over 60 different types of native ladybugs here, so I'm gonna have to do some searching. Thanks.
And yes, I realise bugs all have their role to play and aren't inherently good or bad. But I was looking for "is it likely that these clustering bugs are killing my plant", i.e. are they a foe in this situation.
That would be my guess. They look similar to our local ladybug nymphs but with a few distinctions.
The intent of the friend/for comment was to encourage deeper conversations, but I can see how it could come across as judgmental. If that's how it came across to you I apologize for not being clear with my language and for causing you to feel called out.
No worries, I think I sounded harsher than I intended too.
As far as I know, ladybugs shouldn't have a direct harmful effect on plants. But what about their nymphs (is that the word? In my language it's Larva), could they cause a plant to suffer?
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But no, to my knowledge the nymphs/larva are highly aggressive predators of plant pests. If they truly are in fact ladybug larvae it's likely that they're a response to the pests that were attacking your already stressed plants. It may be worth keeping a lookout for aphids and mites to see if you can spot a pattern there.