Japanese Beetles and Geraniums

[so lucky]

I couldn't figure out why my geraniums had dead J. B. bugs around the pot every day, and a few dead or nearly dead in the blooms. I asked the seller where I bought them if they had perhaps used systemic insecticide on them before selling. He said no, but that geraniums have a toxic effect on Japanese beetles. I googled it when I got home, and he wasn't lying! Web info says that J.B.s are attracted to geraniums, which they eat, and are put into a comotose state for 12 to 18 hours. Sometimes, if they get enough, they die. Those that don't die, or get eaten by a bird, "come to" after a few hours and fly away to do damage elsewhere.
Surely we inventive gardeners can make use of this information. It is not suggested to interplant your roses with geraniums for the same reason you don't want to put pheromone traps among your garden plants. But a separate planting of geraniums ….like pots of geraniums on concrete, can give you a chance to collect the bugs and feed them to the chickens, or kill them any way you want.

 

[digitS']

So, let's see ...

If Citronella Geraniums repel mosquitoes while, at the same time, attracting and stymieing Japanese beetles ... You know, our garden plants really deserve to be thought of as our partners in life.

If we are conscientious in assisting them in growing and propagation, isn't that teamwork?

Steve

 

[flowerbug]

wonder what the pollen does to bees...

 

[digitS']

And here I thought @flowerbug ..

. might be commenting on soil communities .

We have research that shows French marigolds as a cover crop suppresses nematodes. While weeding, I notice lots of leafhopper nymphs crawling around. (Wireworms? Flea Beetle larva?) Heck's Fire, we have a weed of the geranium family . I've always wished for cover cropping but I've been in conflict with the tractor guy ... and, limited by my own imagination.

Steve

 

[so lucky]

@digitS' are you saying there is a weed in the geranium family? Besides wild geranium...cranes bill something?

 

[so lucky]

Also, I don't know if all varieties of geraniums attract and poison JBs. These in particular are the red zonal geraniums.

 

[digitS']

I had no idea about any of this until you started this thread, So Lucky. That is, except the aversion of mosquitoes to that one cultivar.

Yeah, those cranesbills ... some are definitely weeds.

It just made me wonder .

Steve

 

[ducks4you]

It's just a roll of the dice. In 2019 I hardly Saw a J.B. this year they've been chewing up my yellow Knockout Rose. AND, I brought one in on my shirt when I was taking a break on the porch the other day.