Less Beetles!

Dear June Bugs,
We are glad you are not here.

Almost the end of the month, and we have seen far less of those June bugs chomping on our plants this year. We're not sure if it helped, but last year we did establish a few wild geranium plants. My sister told us last year about this plant, native to Missouri, which is toxic to the Japanese beetles. She found it while reading in a gardening book.

In Eat More Dirt, Ellen Sandbeck states that when the beetles eat it, it's the last bite they take. She says, "Japanese Beetles can not resist eating Geranium maculatum (a wild perennial geranium with tiny pink flowers), though it invariably proves to be their last meal. Other geraniums are also attractive to Japanese beetles, but they only knock the beetles out of 8 hours at a time, not permanently. If you have Japanese beetle trouble, these pretty little wildflowers should look doubly attractive."

We really haven't seen them eat it much, but it does have pretty little flowers. The leaves of the plant are nice too; although they change color to orange and get a bit brown by the end of the summer. Becoming familiar with the leaves, I thought I recognized it growing in bed plantings at the Cradle of Forestry Museum, even when it was not flowering.

I got the plants from one of the sources listed at the Missouri Botanical Garden. Japanese beetles are not present in Missouri, which is a good sign! Whether it's due to the plant, or to other efforts, we are glad there seem to be far less of them here this year. Or did they just shift to someone else's place?