WASHINGTON — Vicki, on “the upper shore of Maryland,” is the first of you to report an infestation of Japanese beetles, although I’ve been picking the rascals off my raspberry plants for a few weeks now.
That’s an unwelcome change of pace — last year I can’t remember seeing a single one of the unwelcome guests. I blame last year’s wet weather (perfect for females to lay lots of eggs for the following season), climate change and Donald Trump.
Sock them with soap
These imported nuisances have perfected the “drop and roll” technique, as they roll off the plant just as you’re about to get them. So put a couple of inches of soapy water in a bucket and hold it below the leaves that they’re on. Then all you have to do is reach towards them or rustle up the leaves of the plant and the beetles will drop into the bucket of doom and be gone within a few minutes.
Or spray them away—with a safe new product!
Want to spray them away? Be very selective with your choice of product: Most beetle-busting pesticides are also toxic to bees, our already-threatened pollinators.
One big exception that’s beetle-deadly and bee-safe is a brand new strain of Bt that’s exclusive to Gardens Alive, the mail-order supplier of many natural products. This new Bt is called BTG, with a much-easier to remember brand name — “Beetle Jus.” Don’t say it three times!
Note: As with all strains of Bt, this one only affects the target insect and is safe for people, pets, birds and butterflies as well as bees. But that also means that the other, older strains of Bt, such as BTK (which affects only pest caterpillars) and BTI (mosquito larvae), won’t have any effect on the beetles.
Traps can do more harm than good
If the armored antagonists are after your roses, raspberries, grapevines or cherries, make sure there are no Japanese beetle traps near those plants. If you must use traps, place them at the outskirts of your property, far away from the plants the beetles love.
Traps placed right next to a target plant will attract four times as many beetles to that area, but only capture about half—doubling the number of rouges ravishing your roses!
Oh heck—just squish them!
If you favor a more personal approach, squish the beetles or brush them into a bucket of soapy water early in the morning, when they move slowly.
Also, prune out heavily eaten portions of plants, as that ravaged greenery now contains pheromones that will attract more beetles.
Beat next year’s beetles!
And to lessen next year’s problems, keep your lawn cut high and make sure it dries out completely between waterings. Female beetles only lay their eggs in scalped, overly wet lawns.
There’s still time to plant string beans!
Wendy from Rockville writes, “With all the unsettled weather, I’m behind in planting my green beans. Is it too late to plant pole beans? Should I stick with bush beans this time around? The pole bean seeds I have are labeled 65 days; the bush beans (two different varieties) are 50 and 58 days.”
I would definitely go with the bush beans, Wendy. With string beans, “Days to maturity” refers to the number of days it takes until you get your very first pods to pick after planting the seeds in warm soil. That would take us all the way into mid-September before you get anything to eat from your pole beans — and it may even take longer than 65 days, because the hours of daylight will be significantly shorter by then. Days to maturity are generally geared towards the lazy hazy days of summer.
With our perfectly warm soil, a planting of bush-style string beans rated for 50 days to maturity would have you picking and eating the first ones before the end of August. And I prefer the bush-style plants: They don’t require support and grow great in containers.
We’ll add that frequent picking early on will ensure that those plants keep producing plenty of good eating until frost. With string beans, peas, zucchini and cukes, the earlier you pick, the more fruits the plants will produce. All of those treats also taste best when they’re picked young and small.
Mid-season veggie garden do’s and don’ts
- Pick string beans promptly. They taste best when they’re small, and if you let some of them get too big, the plants will stop producing.
- Same with summer squash like zucchini, and even cucumbers and eggplant. The smaller they are the better they taste, and frequent picking means more production.
- If your potato plants have produced flowers, pull off the faded blooms. Then you can pull up the plants and enjoy those small, super-tasty ‘new’ potatoes at the end of this month, or just let them alone to grow big for harvest at the end of summer.
- Always let sweet peppers mature to their final color of red, yellow, orange or chocolate brown. ‘Green peppers’ are unripe.
- But you can harvest and enjoy hot peppers at any time. The taste changes with every different color stage.
- And if you have garlic in the ground, pull it up. It won’t be getting any better.
