It's war! Me versus Japanese beetles
This bowl is full of dead, or dying, Japanese beetles, plucked off the driveway. Gloves and two bowls of Japanese beetles, dunked in warm, soapy water. It's a good thing I appreciate a challenge: Japanese beetles provide one like none other this time of year. Many gardeners are currently fighting the beetles and I am among them. The local beetles love to eat the leaves of the giant Linden trees that line our driveway. After they fill themselves with leaves they drop to the concrete, where I am often waiting to pop them into a bowl filled with hot, soapy water. If I don't catch them they threaten the beautiful flowers in the annual garden, steps away. The American Linden trees are gorgeous, normally, and they were purchased before the beetles arrived in Eastern Iowa several years ago. The bugs are a menace, mainly as they have no real predators in the Uni...