I have black beetles in my garden that look like water beetles,r they harmful 2 my garden or any plants?

Question

the black beetles r just plain black that look like water beetles.

Answer 1

There are over 28,000 types of beetles in North America, 290,000 in the world......it's the largest insect order. Black beetle is rather generic.

Does this beetle appear to be eating something? Is it associated with plant damage?

Not all insects are bad, there are many, many good guys helping us control the bad guys. Even if it is a bad beetle, the damage is does may not be so great that you have to break out the chemical controls and risk poisoning the good bugs as well as yourself, birds, pets, etc.

Observe this black fellow and see if it is a nuisance or just another neighbor.

Answer 2

No problem if you see them on top .... but it's the ones underneath the soil that feed on the roots of plants . . . and of course the plants die. If you see them on top of the soil that means there are literally thousands under the soil chewing off the roots of all your plants.

Well at least you won't have to pull weeds anymore.