Please help identify friend or foe ???

Can someone help identify this insect, I have lots of paper wasp taking care of caterpillars but now these have shown up in huge numbers they are scanning the plants just like the wasp do but havent seen them around before and cant find them on the internet, so does anybody know if they are good guys or bad guys ??

My guy says maybe it's a Locust Borer neoclytus scutellaris Might give you a place to start looking for a better ID at least. Are they in your garden? Maybe there is a grove of locusts near by? It looks like they vary in appearance ...there are three dif. locust borers listed in our peterson guide and this one looks similar to your pictures. ... there may be more yellow markings in the pic I'm attaching.

Yes they are in my garden but they are flying around the plants the same way the wasp are kinda of like they are looking for a meal, but I live in the middle of a large neighborhood so im not sure if its locust borer are not they do look similar but the markings are different so im not sure

OK so after you lead me in the long horned beetle direction I think I have found, it it seems to be a zebra long horned beetle which live in dead pine tree stumps and dont appear to do anything in the garden accept eat pollen and nectar so I guess the are welcome for now. Thank you for the info to get me headed in the right direction.

cameron johnson wrote:Yes they are in my garden but they are flying around the plants the same way the wasp are kinda of like they are looking for a meal, but I live in the middle of a large neighborhood so im not sure if its locust borer are not they do look similar but the markings are different so im not sure

you might check out other wood borers....I don't think they will bother things in your garden but couldn't say for sure...the locust borer feeds on dead and dying wood and so do other borers, I believe. Several characteristics of the bug in your picture point at a borer of some sort...long antennae among them.
There's a good bug ID site on line http://www.bugguide.net/node/view/15740/

cameron johnson wrote:OK so after you lead me in the long horned beetle direction I think I have found, it it seems to be a zebra long horned beetle which live in dead pine tree stumps and dont appear to do anything in the garden accept eat pollen and nectar so I guess the are welcome for now. Thank you for the info to get me headed in the right direction.

great! here's a picture of the 'zebra long horned beetle' It's nice to have a visitor that is not a bad bug.

Yep thats about right the bug I posted was brighter in color before i put him in alcohol but unfortunately he did want to sit still for the camera, but thank you very much for helping me