Last year I had a bit of a problem with the dreaded Japanese beetle. It is one of the reasons that I didn't really want roses in my yard. I have some on the side of the yard but they haven't bloomed in a long time so I wasn't worried about them and there are some wild roses in the very back of the yard but I've never seen any beetles back there in all these years. I say that about roses because I tried planting roses in my yard where I use to live a couple of times and each time the rose plants were bombarded with these beetles when they bloomed. Bombarded to the point of removing them and never wanting to plant roses again.

Last year, however, the dreaded Japanese beetles showed up to partake of my giant Hibiscus plant leaves and I even spotted them on the Hosta plants. I have my suspicions on how they showed up to gorge themselves on my plants but I don't know for sure. It was a bad year for other plant destroying pests as well. I did try one product that did absolutely nothing to deter the beetles and aphids. My husband did buy a product made with a natural plant derivative that helped. I also bought a beetle trap but after reading up more on the trap I was afraid it would welcome more of these nasty buggers to the yard so it is still sitting under the kitchen sink where I left it!

This year I want to be ready so I'm looking at different products that may help. My concern is that I don't want to hurt the beneficial insects like the bees and such. I kinda' feel like the safest method may just be taking them out one by one by hand or shall I say gloved hand! Maybe I'll be lucky and they won't make an appearance this year at all.

To give you an idea of how destructive they can be, this is a Hibiscus leaf with only a few bites taken out of it by just one Japanese beetle.

I know...YIKES! 😱

Thank you @whatisnew for #insectpub!!