karen howell wrote: > I have noticed japanese beetles buried in the dirt. Are > they leaving the soil to feast on the plants?
Are you sure they're Japanese beetles? I've had problems in my central
Massachusetts gardens with a beetle of the same size and similar
appearance, but it's more a coppery-brown color than the jade/copper
of Japanese beetles.
I was once told they were "Asiatic brown beetles", though I've never
gone to the work of making a positive ID. They love quite a few things
in my gardens, but especially basil, marigolds, carrot tops, and mums.
They're nocturnal; unlike J. beetles, I never see them out & about doing
their dirty work in daylight. Go out shortly after dusk with a flashlight
though... They do seem to stay close by day to their preferred victim
plants, buried shallowly. Mulch only seems to make them happier -- easier
to bury themselves.
I don't know what a long-term control solution is (there seem to be enough
coming from surrounding yards that nematodes aren't a final solution).
Short-term, I drench soil around ravaged plants with a liquid pyrethrins
solution -- watch the little buggers come boiling up, to do their death-
dance! "Die, dastards, die!" --Steve