Question
I need to know if there is a homemade remedy that i can mix up and put on my roses that will kill the beetles and not harm my roses? I have a beautiful yellow rose bush that has roses blooming one after the other all summer .They were really doing good until about a week ago when i notisted the leaves would turn brown on a few stems. At that time i didn't see any bug and didn't know what to make of it.But yesterday when i looked i found bettles by the handful on them .They were eating the rose and even right down through the new rose buds.HELP.I don't want to put anything harmful or to strong on them but i want those beetles gone. I don't remember what the name of tne rose is.My husband got it for me a few years ago. Do you know a homemade remedy i can use to kill the beetles and not harm my rose bush? Thank you very much for all your help.
                                Brenda  

Answer
Are you talking about Japanese Beetles, Brenda? See this photo closeup at Univ. of Kentucky Entomology Dept (www.uky.edu/Ag/Entomology/entfacts/trees/ef409.htm).

There are several simple ways to counterattack a siege of these metallic copper-back pests.

I recently read one person's account of using his Shop Vac to suck them off leaves and flowers in the dark, when they like to come out of their hiding places and launch a dinner offensive in Rose Gardens everywhere.  

He would just hold the nozzle up to the blossom and clean them off.  

This is a bit extreme.  But, Hey, you do what you gotta do.

Personally, when I find I am dealing with them, I go out in the dark with a flashlight and a wastebasket filled with water and a little soap and when I find them, I hang hold the wastebasket under a flower and shake them into the water.  

They drop right off and are stuck in the water.  In the morning I dump the water in the street and start over that evening.  Some people use coffee cans.  

Do this a few nights in a row, a few times a night, and in a week you will be impressed with your skill at quickly reducing the populations for immediate relief, which you need because your Roses are in full bloom.  If only everything in life was this simple.

This is exactly the time of year when they emerge from the soil and make dinner reservations at fine restaurants everywhere.  Part of their normal life cycle.  Lucky you.

Organic gardening's side benefit is that birds and natural predators can work with you to reduce population numbers.  Starlings will eat these in the day, mainly as a breakfast treat.  

There are numerous insect predators you should order which will attack the larvae.  Go to Gardens Alive (www.gardensalive.com) and type in "Japanese Beetles" in the search box for their list of choices.  I would do everything.  You'll cut down on work next year.  

For additional long-term protection, build your cache of Milky Spore Disease.  You can purchase that at Home Depot.  Sprinkle it on your lawn, water it in and wait.  The spores develop slowly in your soil and make it toxic to Japanese Beetle larvae.  They are completely harmless to all other forms of life.  

But they do take years to reach weapons-level potential.  Which is why you take other measures in the meantime.

Expect salespeople everywhere to try to talk you out of them and sell you bug spray.  These are the ultimate Organic weapon and they will decimate all Japanese Beetles in your garden FOREVER.  

Let me know if you have any questions. Thanks for writing.