Beautiful pests

There’s another pest about.

As well as the struggle with Japanese Knotweed in our gardens, I’ve recently seen some gardens over-run by another invader: the Rosemary Beetle

They may look beautiful, but your rosemary, lavender, sage and thyme are in danger if you ignore them.

They are not at their most dangerous now, but if you get rid of the adults now, you might stand a chance of avoid a complete loss of your lovely aromatic plants. Just watch out, they’re tricky and drop off to the ground if you don’t grab them quickly (they don’t bite).

Nothing a good squelch can’t fix!

And if it’s red and black it’s a lily beetle and you want to squish 'em than scrape the eggs from the underside of the leaves of the plant. The beetles drop upside down, ie black side up, on the ground if they even sense you are near, and are then impossible to see. So sneak up very, very, very quietly…

These are exactly the same. Evil, but pretty