Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Rosemary beetles
Found this pretty lil' thing on my rosemary today. On googling it discover (of course) it's a pest and is responsible for the generally ragged look of the plant. So watch out any of you who are fond of rosemary, lavender, sage or thyme.
Advice is either pesticides or picking them off and squish them (am hoping the latter enough). Look out for larvae too (I couldn't see any but they have dark stripes and are a dirty white colour).
Advice is either pesticides or picking them off and squish them (am hoping the latter enough). Look out for larvae too (I couldn't see any but they have dark stripes and are a dirty white colour).
Tags for Forum Posts: beetle, pest, rosemary
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by pamish on
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On Gardeners Question Time a couple of weeks ago someone asked about these beetles and they were told, yes they are becoming more common, but there is no need to go for mass eradication. They said, unless the plant is getting wrecked, just leave them alone, they won't do that much harm. Leave them for the birds.
I panicked when I found one on my rosemary as I thought, stripey beetle = colorado beetle = mandatory destruction of all my plants. Colorado beetle is now appearing here (climate change), so far in the West Country, it's a notifiable species as it will destroy potatoes and other crops.
Colorado beetles have black and yellow stripes. These babes, in purple and green, are of course celebrating the Suffragettes whose colours they wear.
False Black Widow spiders are also appearing - not as deadly as their authentic namesakes, but they can give a nasty bite. They are moving across from Spain.
Wellies on instead of sandals.... -
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Permalink Reply by Sapphireblue on
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now your scaring me ...what do they look like...I don't want to wear wellies in my summer garden....
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Permalink Reply by Hugh on
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Here's another picture of the lovely little creature.
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Permalink Reply by Liz on
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They are gorgeous colours, aren't they?
I have these in my garden as I am fond of all its fave eats.
As long as your plants are mature, the squish 'em method is enough. We had dozens on the lavender last year and we just pulled them off the plants. The plants all seemed to survive the onslaught pretty well. -
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Thanks for advice will keep an eye out.
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Permalink Reply by james walsh on
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I really love looking at this beetle.
My favourite way of controlling any small insect infestation is to use an atomizer (the hand-pump spritzer) set to 'jet' with warm soapy water. This knocks them off the plant. They come back again but hey, you've got to let them live. Most organic nurseries use this method. It's more work but what's wrong with that ? Large infestations don't occur because of the above :-)
By the way, one of the only good things to come from the 7/7 london bombings is that all chemical fertilizers/pesticides have been removed from sale at garden centres/B&Q etc and replaced with non-chemical organics. I'm not sure why the government decided to keep this quiet, i'd have thought they would have been bragging about how 'green' they were being. -
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Permalink Reply by Alison P on
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O you're all making me feel bad now! They are absolutely gorgeous things I agree, like little jewels. But they have totally knackered my rosemary - eaten away at nearly all the new sprigs and most of the flowers. So its stomping for me from now on.
I'm normally quite squeamish about this kind of thing - I stopped growing lillies years ago because I hated having to kill lily beetles.
Snails of course are the exception ..
Totally agree with James' soapy water tip - that's what I use against greenfly and it seems to do the trick. -
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Permalink Reply by matt on
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The school had many rosemary plants pretty much wiped out last year in one area. The beetles arrived like a mini plague. The plants haven't really recovered.
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Please refer to my earlier post :-)
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