Should I leave it or get rid?

[mothhawk]

I have about 40 feet of lavender hedge.

It's covered with loads of rosemary beetles.

They are really pretty things.

I'm told they are going to destroy my lavender over the winter.

Should I pick them off and drop them in a bucket of salty water a la slugs, or leave them and hope they find a balance with the lavender?

[Bigmallly]

This may help you make your mind up:

https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?PID=555

[muddled]

GET RID!

The damage is sudden and devastating! I swear they can strip your hedge back to twigs in a week come autumn!

If you go for the non chemical route, Lay a white bedsheet at the foot of a section of hedge and give the hedge a good shake. Loads will drop/jump down, scoop up the sheet and dispose of them. This won't get rid of all of them but will significantly set them back.
Left to their own devices they breed in biblical proportions and when you least expect it start to feed voraciously.

Two more things..... although they are shiny and colourful, they always drop onto their backs and lay perfectly still which makes them impossible to spot (hence the white bed sheet)
If you or a neighbour has a pond, carp and large goldfish absolutely love them!

[mothhawk]

Thanks big Mal and Muddled.


I picked off 65 yesterday, and 71 today

And you're right about the way they drop, Muddled, just like lily beetles, another scourge in my garden!

[Zelenina]

Interesting! I haven't seen it on my lavendar or rosemary, so I did a bit of checking on its origins and distribution to see if I might expect it in Slovakia.

It's Latin name is Chrysolina americana, which sounds like an American species. But Wikipedia says, "Despite the species name americana, this leaf beetle is native and common to eastern Europe and the Mediterranean sub-region." That got me a bit worried, but other sites say southern Europe and the middle east, which makes more sense. looks like Wikipedia got it wrong. Our winters are probably too cold for it to survive. First seen in the UK in 1994 and has been spreading out since. It can't fly so is mainly moved around on plants.

Then I came across a blog post which I thought might amuse all you gardeners. Because this fella is an entomologist, and he says "When we moved into this house and planted up the garden with insect-friendly plants, we put in loads of Lavender and Rosemary, hoping one day to attract the Rosemary Leaf-beetle Chrysolina americana."

He was successful, and took a lovely photo of it, in close-up, which you can see here Rosemary Rainbows: Chrysolina americana – Mark Telfer's Website.

[Martin H]

Hmm. That Telfer chappie says, "Plants are just there to feed insects.".

I like insects, but I wouldn't go quite that far!

[Zelenina]

Hmm. That Telfer chappie says, "Plants are just there to feed insects.".

I like insects, but I wouldn't go quite that far!

That's the difference between a gardener and an entomologist, Martin. If you were both it would be a dilemma. I studied biology once upon a time, and I often have conflicts between my gardener self and my biologist self. Sometimes one wins and sometimes the other.

[Gillykat]

That's exactly how I feel too The slugs drive me nuts eating my precious seedlings that I have cossetted from birth (germination?) but softie me cannot bear to kill things myself so I collect them in a plastic tub as I go and dump them in a field on the way home Liberate the slugs

[Martin H]

The trouble is, the minibeasts just don't know how to share!

If only they would only attack a percentage of the plants and leave the others untouched, we'd get on a lot better. But no. Selfish little so-and-sos!