Senior Moments

Japanese Beetles are Public Enemy Number One for rose growers.  The beetles can devour a rose blossom faster than anything I’ve ever seen.  Unfortunately I’ve never lived in an area that did not have Japanese beetles.  It has been very warm here for the past few days and I have been checking for beetles each day.  Yesterday (Wednesday) afternoon I found several eating away.

The insect known as Japanese beetles were first found in the U. S. in New Jersey in 1916.  Until that time, they were known to occur only in Japan where it is not a major pest.

Adult beetles emerge from the ground and begin feeding on plants in June.  Activity is most intense over a 4 to 6 week period beginning in late June, after which the beetles gradually die off.  Individual beetles live about 30 to 45 days (unless I catch up with them first).  The beetles are most active on warm, sunny days,and prefer plants that are in direct sunlight.  It sounds as if they were designed to eat roses!

I do my best to get the beetles off our roses in the morning when they are relatively sluggish.  I usually pick them off and squeeze .  That seems to be as effective as any other method, but for some reason I can’t get Betsy to help me!

It looks like it will be an interesting few weeks.

By the way, I did not take the picture above — I found it on the web.