Among the many joys and pains of gardening are garden visitors--some welcome and some unwanted. Every gardener has had to deal with pests of various sizes and species, just as every flower gardener has, if not marveled at, appreciated the wide variety of critters gardens attract--good or bad.
Among our most unwelcome guests, are these little pests:
This bug is one of thousands that infest our grapes and other vines, such as morning glories, and even with chemicals it is impossible to eradicate them all together.
The japanese beetle was introducd to the US sometime slightly before 1912--possibly in a shipment of iris bulbs from Japan. Originally an invasive species in the Northeast, these bugs have spread as far as Minnesota and the Dakota, mostly in the northern part of the United States.
Many sites offer suggestions to at least minimize the impact of these pests on your garden plants--in our case the grapes we have growing on our fence. The most immediate remedy involves chemical sprays or powders--something, until recently, I was very resistant to using, as we try to manage our gardens as organically as possible.
However, there are biological ways to combat these buggers--the most effective is by introducing a bacteria to your soil called Milky Spore. I purchased milky spore last year, but have not yet applied it as it requires some serious precautionary measures (such as a respirator) during application, and the dog would not be able to use the backyard until it was washed into the soil.
However, when I saw clumps of these beetles feeding on my grape leaves, such as the image below, I broke down and purchased some chemical treatments for the plants.
Unfortunately, the spray I applied only worked for about week before they were back. The new ones are probably newly emerged beetles from last year's larvae.
While they are interesting looking bugs, they do eat plant leaves and the larvae eat the roots of our grass, and I cannot find any positive references to these pests anywhere. This August I think I will ask a friend of mine to don his respirator and apply the Milky Spore I have been sitting on--we'll see if this helps next year.
Unlike the Japanese Beetle, I have been enjoying watching the bees and butterflies buzzing and fluttering around our flowers. While bees are pretty mundane, one quest we have seen in increasing numbers are Red Admiral Butterflies.
These multi-colored butterflies are all over our cone flowers. Interestingly, we have a butterfly house in the garden with our cone flowers, though I have never witnessed any butterflies going into our coming out of the little white box we put out there.
Another crazy little guest I saw the last two days has been a real treat, and unfortunately I could not get a picture of it myself as it never sits still enough, however, Kat Lomas, snapped an excellent image of one and posted it to bugguide.net and agreed to let me use this picture.
I first saw this bug last year in our garden and another was there again yesterday--and again today. According to Wikipedia, these moths tend to return to same flowerbeds every day around the same time--so tomorrow I will have to be outside with the camera around 11am, to see if I can't get you a picture from our garden.
Until next time, I hope you enjoy the pictures and information.
Chris
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