Japanese beetle vent, join in.

[razz]

I was so excited with the donation of canna tubers. I planted my large pots using the cannas for the thriller, all kinds of potato vines and ivy and vinca for the spiller and a variety of geraniums, grey grasses, dusty millers etc for the fillers. The pots looked lovely and have been growing beautifully. And then..... the Japanese beetles arrived.
My cannas are so sad looking with dried up lacy effect, they are into my corkscrew hazel standard - so maddening and nothing that will control these beetles except to hand pick off the plants. GRRRR gosh darn anyway.
What are they eating at your house?

[iris lily]

They are nasty annoying creatures when they swarm en masse.

That said, we've not had an infestation for some years. They used to jump on my crepe myrtles before anything else in my flower garden. The lythrum was also popular with them. Now I have neither plant here at home and wonder what the nasty things would like to chomp on first. So they like cannas, huh? Well, they would find some here. The cannas are the only non-iris/lily plant I'm happy with this year (oh wait. I got some lovely dahlias.) But in this hot dry desert the cannas are the stars.

[peggy]

They do love cannas! I don't even try to grow them any more, although i love the striped leaved ones.

The beetles have munched my roses, and Virginia creeper. They love the french prune plums but seem to not be as interested in the Santa Rosa plums. But that might change next year. I even found them on one basil plant, although I always thought bugs don't like strong herb plants. The other basil plants seem untouched. They nibbled a bit on the fuyu persimmon, but left the Japanese pears alone. This morning i discovered they have left, as quickly as they came. Not a beetle to be found. so, I'll trim the damage and maybe put BT around this august, but with 7 acres of lawn, that might not be feasible. The tomatoes and zinnias and blackberries are virtually untouched, as are the clematis. I try to make a mental note of which plants they don't touch, but that may change next year.
Japanese beetles are the devil!