Re: CULT: Beetles

From: HIPSource@aol.com

In a message dated 6/2/99 2:42:08 AM Eastern Daylight Time, 
jijones@ix.netcom.com writes:

<< A friend has reported her iris blooms being devoured by what she thinks are
 rose chafer beetles. Anybody ever experience this, and/or know what remidies
 are available?>>

John, at the risk of sounding like I'm reading to you from the primer, which 
is not my intent, I would suggest that the first step is the identification 
of the pest. Beetles are complicated and she needs to know what she is 
dealing with before she can eradicate it responsibly. Your county extension 
agent can help with this. 

He/she may suggest you take a short term chemical step and spray only the 
blooms with something like Orthene, which is evil but brutally effective, or 
take a long term approach and go for the grubs.Or both. While waiting for the 
bug ID and professional advice, Anner would hand pick the bugs from the 
blooms and drop them into a paper cup of soapy water. If your friend can bear 
to squash them, then she should leave the squashed ones around on the blooms 
to deter the others. My guess is she will have to mount a program to deal 
with this pest and that it might take a couple of years if she has it bad. I 
had an infestation of rose chafers here but we dealt with it entirely by hand 
picking and now they are a minimal nuisance.

Anner Whitehead
HIPSource@aol.com

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