As my youthful garden plants continue to grow, so are the nastiest, meanest, ugliest, and vicious Japanese Beetles growing and spreading like wildfire on the flowering blooms and luscious leaves as they open up.
Ugh…aren’t the beetles mean looking?? They even bite humans!
I only have one blooming ornamental plant right now, and the damn beetles are attacking it with vengeance. They fight over the blossoms with the bees who are trying to pollinate on the blooms. The bees have learned to visit early in the morning because once the high noon sun hits, the beetles take over the turf.
Not only do they munch away at buds individually, they congregate to conquer bud space and they climb on each other in an orgy of sorts.
Ugh…
When they land in the bird bath and can’t get out, I am frankly sadistic as I enjoy watching them drown in water. Sorry pals…one less beetle on the survivor list is fine with me.
My marigolds are soon to open up, and then they’ll be attacked. Why don’t the beetles eat the quack grass or the weeds instead of the buds? What is wrong with them, can’t they see they’d be embraced as a pleasant garden visitor if only they served a worthy purpose?
My Tiger Lilies are almost ready to bloom. They are looking so healthy right now.
Last year the rabbits ate them before they could bloom, now this year, the blooms are surviving…only to succumb to the beetle bums??!!
I’m fearful that all the beautiful flower seeds I’ve planted, struggling as they are just to win their way through the weeds, will finally bloom and be eaten alive by the nasty bugs. I can’t even remember what wildflowers are to come up from this bunch, let alone protect from the impending beetle attack.
My Zinnias are growing with stalks strong enough to hold the leaves up. The battle with the quack grass is tough enough for the poor plants. I wonder if they will grow tall or will they get eaten alive?
Sigh…
The star of the show is stealing all the glory in this doomy picture of the beetle attack on every flower bed in my yard. It isn’t the stellar vision of bouquets I was dreaming of when I set out to have a flower garden this year.
Maybe it is time to set out some soapy water traps…then I might be the hero…
PS – If you have a great way to rid your garden of the Japanese Beetles, I’m all ears!
Post inspired by RDP Stellar
I don’t have any beetles yet…every year they do attack, although lately not as bad. I pick them off and drop them in a bucket of water or just drop them on the ground and step on them. Sounds cruel, but they are a bug. Right now my big problem in the garden is slugs. They come up from under the pots of flowers and have a feast at night.
Yikes…slugs eat flowers, too? Man…I don’t think I have many of those yet, but maybe I should look. I love your approach with the beetles! I’m out to use that technique today!! Thank you for sharing your thoughts, happy bug removal to you!
And happy bug removal to you too!
Those things are just the worst! They were eating my beans, roses and raspberries last year. I would go out with a sheers and search for them and cut them in half. How’s that for brutal. I refuse to use pesticides and other “tricks” never seem to be very useful in making an impact. Those and cucumber beetles are my biggest frustrations so far in gardening. So much that I will not be growing any squash or cucumbers for years now, and I haven’t seen any dreaded Japanese beetles yet this year, but if I do my, daily obsession with finding and ending them will be back. Hope you can save your beautiful flowers from those ruthless buggers!
Oh, my gosh, I love your passion for ridding the gardens of the beetles! LOL – Cutting them in half is a new technique I hadn’t heard before :-)! They are late arrivals in our area but are quickly making up for lost time. I’ll keep my fingers crossed for you that they stay away from your garden. Thank you for sharing your thoughts!
I have been traumatized by those Japanese Beetles! When my parents moved into their new house, I was in high school – and my job through the years has always been “weed the gardens” (I really hate weeding). Anyway, I got down on my hands and knees and went through bushes to get the weeds, only to see on the bottom of all the bushes leaves there were swarms of those beetles. They got into my hair and were buzzing – I must have had over 20 – 30 beetles stuck in my hair – traumatized! I don’t know how my dad got the beetles out of the bushes – I know I swore to never weed that garden again (and they never made me) but they had a lot of gardens so I still did a lot of weeding.
Oh, my, that’s a horror story! Yikes! I’m glad to hear they didn’t make you continue on with that area of weeding! Thank you for sharing your thoughts, I hope you have better gardening experiences in the future!
I just looked this up for you…let me know if you try it and if works! https://www.gardenguides.com/81155-rid-japanese-beetles-home-remedy-spray.html
Thank you, you’re so sweet! I’ll let you know if I try it and if it works!
I’m not much of a gardener, so I haven’t had to deal with pests. Mary’s cousin uses the Japanese beetle traps that lure them in, then they drop into a bag and die. You can get them at a garden center or hardware store.
Thank you, John. I’ve tried the traps and they do work, the curse of them, from experience, is that they attract more of the buggers to the yard. Maybe I should try chickens…but they have their own problems!
You’re lucky to get those Marigolds this far, I lost around 50 to slugs,
Another slug story…oh, my, I don’t have many of those around. They eat marigolds? Yikes!!