Saturday, July 29, 2023

beware the beetles...

 Japanese Beetles that is.  A friend of mine has three lovely rose bushes in front of his house.  At least they used to be lovely.  This year they are being devoured by nasty looking and very hungry beetles.  He has tried spraying but really doesn't want to kill the bees so is reluctant to use it, and, honestly, it didn't work very well.  Now he has a beetle trap set up near the roses which is supposed to attract the little boy bugs with a little girl bug pheromone (or maybe it's the other way around).  It certainly seems to be working.  There are lots and lots of beetles in the trap. Sadly, there are even more of them on the roses.  In desperation my friend turned to the internet for advice.  There is a neighborhood site that seemed the logical place to start.  It was no surprise to discover that many of his neighbors are also dealing with the pesky beetles and some commented that the traps actually attracted even more beetles.  We were not surprised to learn that they are bad this year, but were surprised that they don't just attack roses but all kinds of flowering plants.  That seemed to squelch my idea.  I had suggested that he pull up the roses and plant some other kind of flowering perennial.  But what plant seemed resilient enough?  I might just have a solution though.  While looking at pictures of flowers on line I came upon peonies.  My mother-in-law had peonies growing all along one side of her back yard and they seemed indestructible.  They came up year after year, had beautiful bright pink blooms (but they do come in other colors) and didn't seem to be bothered by bugs.  Although if you do cut some to bring in the house you may find an occasional ant coming along for the ride.  A few ants vs bazillion beetles?  Seems like a good trade to me.

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