DUNG BEETLES??

[cmf1]

About an 8th of an inch long, about a 16th wide, and don't appear to fly.
Crabgrass and common bermuda pasture.
Look a little like a cockroach hatchling with more of a beetle type rounded head.
Thousands of them.
Reason I was thinking dung beetle is that the patties, (more like splatties right now) Don't survive more than an hour or two before they are waffled and laced with dirt crumbles on top.
Never seen a chinch bug though and I understand they like the crabgrass pretty well.
Raining now but I will try to post a pic if I've got enough lens to capture something that small.
???

 

[Jogeephus]

Dirt crumbles sure sounds like dung beetles to me. Any bird shot holes in them?

 

[Chuckie]

Yep! I believe you have a case of the Dung Beetles!!! The tunneling around the edges of the pattie as they take it underground, and leaving the crumbles of dirt are the sure signs that they are there! I never see them unless I go digging for them. Well, the kind that we have, they just don't come out and wave!!!

It takes our Dung Beetles a few days to take a pile completely under. Here, we have some little beetles that come to the patties, and hang out with Dung Beetles, and they make the little air holes in the patties that look like bubbles on the top of a pancake when it is beginning to cook on a hot griddle.

It is starting to get dry here now, and the activity will slow down. Then after the rain comes then they will kick back in. Between the Dung Beetles taking the goodies to the Earthworms, they will be a great benefit to the pasture.
Chuckie

 

[cmf1]

Yep,
I've always had a bunch of the bugs like the one in Chuckies avatar, and seem to be getting more regularly.
But I've never noticed these new tiny bugs before and was wondering if they are maybe a different variety of DBs or something less desirable.
If it stops raining I'll try a pic.