Rosemary Beetle Enters Charts
If you have a beetle that is devouring your herb garden, it may well be the Rosemary Beetle.
According to the Royal Horticultural Society, the Rosemary Beetle was the fourth most asked about garden pest in 2005.
The beetle, which is spreading rapidly across the south east of England only arrived in this country in the mid-1990s, but it is already causing Britain’s herb gardeners problems.
A fondness of rosemary and lavender, the Rosemary Beetle is also partial to thyme and sage. Both the adults and the larvae eat the foliage of plants between August and June, while the adults cease feeding during the summer months.
Outside of the London area, the Rosemary Beetle has established itself in Norfolk and parts of Suffolk. It is thought that warmer temperatures caused by climate change are to blame for the insect’s northward spread.
If you only have a small garden plot, hand-picking of the beetles and their larvae can control their presence. On larger garden plots, there is no easy option especially if your herbs are to be used for culinary purposes as there are no insecticides available that can be used on rosemary and other herbs that aren’t harmful to humans.
Gardeners can identify Rosemary Beetles by the metallic green and purple stripes on their wings and thorax. If you think you may have Rosemary Beetles in your garden and require further information on pest control options, don’t hesitate to contact an Attack Pest Control technician who will be happy to offer you advice.
The complete top ten garden pests by the RHS are:
- Slugs and Snails
- Lily Beetle
- Vine Weevil
- Rosemary Beetle
- Grey Squirrel
- Leatherjackets
- Chafer Grubs
- Soft Scale
- Cushion Scale
- Glasshouse Mealybugs