Lace Bugs

I decided to pull out some sunflowers in my garden that were starting to look particularly bad. The leaves were turning yellow or developing yellow spots and just generally not looking very good. While I was cutting them down and bagging the plants I noticed some small bugs on the leaves that I hadn't seen before. At first I thought they were crumbs or some kind of plant debris but then I started noticed them bouncing up and down sort of like a needle on a sewing machine.

Spotted Cucumber Beetle

The spotted Cucumber Beetle is a common beetle found in the home garden. It has a black head and antennae with a yellow-green colored body. It has twelve dark spots on the top and three pairs of short legs. One common name is the southern corn rootworm because in the larvae stage it feeds on the roots of plants.