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Chafer Beetles
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Posted by collinw 7b (My Page) on Fri, May 4, 07 at 1:00
| Any other Alabama gardeners having trouble with chafer beetles? It seems like they have been particularly bad this year. |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: Chafer Beetles
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| I haven't noticed any chafer beetles, but I have noticed lots of Clay colored beetles. I have several persimmon trees also completely stripped. I treated my new trees and blueberry bushes with Sevin dust, so far it has seemed to help. |
RE: Chafer Beetles
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| What do you mean by Clay colored beetles? Do they look like miniature June bugs? |
RE: Chafer Beetles
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| Here's some pics at this link: |
Here is a link that might be useful: Clay colored leaf beetle
RE: Chafer Beetles
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Similiar to a chafer beetle, but a chafer isn't as metallic and doesn't have that darker brown stripe down the back. The caption for that article says that there are 12000 species of the family Chrysomelidae beetle in North America.
That is both amazing and depressing. |
RE: Chafer Beetles
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| The are lots of beetles out there that are called 'May' or 'June' Beetles. Luckily, they don't stick around for very long. If I may suggest something (only a suggestion): Sevin is one of the chemicals that is most deadly to honey bees and other pollinators. It is always cited in the 'highly toxic' catergory. Perhaps there is something else that you can find to use. Considering bees are having such a difficult time, and all. |
RE: Chafer Beetles
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Rhizo,
No worries here! I don't use commercial pesticides, fungicides, etc. From my experience, they often cause more problems than they solve. I do handpick the little monsters and drown them in a jar of water, much to my satisfaction! |
RE: Chafer Beetles
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| Rhizo, that thought did cross my mind on the blueberry. I didn't dust them until after they had finished blooming and the bees had moved on, so maybe the bees didn't come in contact with it. The only persimmons I dusted were very small seedlings that wouldn't stand a chance of surviving if they were eaten. The larger ones have to survive on their own. |
RE: Chafer Beetles
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| I've been doing lots of reading about Neem oil. Has anyone used it? It works a lot differently than the typical 'pesticide'. For chewing and sucking pests, it is an 'anti-feedant'. This means that the little pests will BE on the plants but not thrilled about using them as food. It is highly recommended for chewing beetles, INCLUDING THE DREADED JAPANESE BEETLE. Also for a wide variety of other critters. It is, too, used IN bee hives as a way to control mites and other parasites. Bees will forage on flowers that have been sprayed with neem, so it does not deter them. Neem is absorbed into the plant, but I don't know to what degree. (It also acts as a fungicide.) I think Neem might be worthy of really looking in to and experimenting with. |
RE: Chafer Beetles
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| I used Neem for something non-gardening (toothpaste), and it lived up to it's hype. Judging from the relatively few grubs I have found digging all over the property here, I don't think my infestation will be too bad here. And there are few plants/trees around that are prime feeding material. Given that Neem is considered a deterrent only, my place might be suitable for trying it out. Neem is expensive, but so are beneficial nematodes that will do nothing to keep beetles from flying over the property line to munch on my plants. |
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