Bugs Me

I don't know if it is racist or xenophobic to call Japanese beetles "Japanese" beetles, but since that's what they're called, I guess it's okay.

Have you had Japanese beetles in your yard and garden?  They are a wonder to behold.

Bigger than a lady bug, (by which I mean not to be sexist, but again, that's what they're called), Japanese beetles have a beautiful gold metallic sheen to their wings.  They emerge in early July in t he area where I live, and spend most of their time in the soil as grubs, eating the roots of people's lawns.

Once they emerge they are ravenous little buggers (by which I mean bugs).  They can virtually denude (by which I am not meaning to be titilating, by which I'm not meaning to do it again) a modest sized fruit tree, such as my bing cherry tree, grape leaves, raspberry leaves, etc.

Somehow they manage to eat the green part of the leaves but not the tiny veins, making beautiful little, dead, works of art.

I planted a large variety of marigolds in my flower garden, and the Japanese beetles loved them. They didn't eat them, but burrowed their little heads into the blossoms by the dozens.

There are ways to deal with these damaging little critters.  There are "natural" and not-so-natural treatments to spread on one's lawn which kill the grubs before they become beetles.  Because of the life-cycle of our little friends, however, it takes three years to eliminate them.  And, oh by the way, if you live in a neighborhood, your neighbors have to treat their lawns as well.

There are several very effective Japanese beetle traps on the market, which use hormones and food bait to attract them into bags, from which they cannot escape.  The debate rages, however, about whether they kill the beetles in your yard, or invite more beetles from far away into your yard.  I have picked a middle ground position.  I have traps, but keep them away from my garden and trees.

The other thing you can do is plant lots of geraniums.  It turns out that Japanese beetles are intoxicated by the scent of geraniums, and once they find one they can't think about anything else, to the extent that bugs think at all.

Next year you may drive by our place and be astonished by the forest of geraniums.  Just know that they're harboring thousands of drunk beetles, and that I don't even feel bad about contributing to the delinquency of a bug.

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