The following statement was made in this thread on April 29, 2009: "It has been demonstrated by natural root grafting at UC Davis, but then only on rootstock plants just a few inches from each other, in the nursery row, and then only on mutiflora." In 2007 Golino et.al. at U.C. Davis published a paper on this subject. The abstract is at: http://www.actahort.org/books/751/751_26.htm In the full paper, the following is stated (page 29-30): "Field Spread in Scion Cultivars To test further for the occurrence of virus spread trials were conducted on over 300 plants each of three scion cultivars, Double Delight, Iceberg, and Queen Elizabeth. Rooted cuttings were planted approximately 30 cm apart in rows in the field, grown for one year and alternate plants were graft-inoculated as described above with one of three virus accessions: 1) ROS98.36, 2) ROS98.27, and 3) ROS70.7, which were 1) a source of PNRSV that caused bright yellow chlorosis in the spring; 2) a source of ApMV, and 3) a source of a naturally-occurring mixed infection of ApMV and PNRSV, respectively. Plants were pruned yearly using shears that were cleaned between each plant by dipping in 10% bleach solution. Bushes were observed for symptoms periodically and ELISA tested for PNRSV and ApMV in the spring for two years. All non-inoculated plants that tested positive were re-sampled and tested to confirm the result." In the conclusion section (page 221) the following was stated: "In scion varieties, transmission rates two years postinoculation ranged from 0 to 25% depending on virus and cultivar. Queen Elizabeth had the lowest percent infection of all the varieties at an average 5% for all three viruses; Iceberg had the highest for a scion cultivar at 13% average for the viruses (Table 4). These differences correlate with the cultivars relative root vigor. It is possible that a larger, more vigorous root system would increase the chance of forming a root graft with an adjacent plant. R. multiflora has a more vigorous root system than all three scion cultivars tested and within the scions, Iceberg is more vigorous than Queen Elizabeth and Double Delight." -------------------------------- I do not understand why someone would make the April 29 statement. Especially since on April 30, 2009 the same writer states: "If one actually looks up Golino's paper in Acta Horticulturae......." ----------------------------------- Please also note that not all types of mechanical transmission were ruled out in the 2007 paper since the observed rate of spread was higher in the unpruned bushes than in the pruned bushes. In another PNRSV infected plant, hops, this is attributed, in part, to the branches of neighboring plants rubbing against each other. Golino et.al. acknowledge this as they state (page 220-221): "The possibility remains that spread occurred by mechanical transmission due to contact between the leaves of the closely spaced plants and experiments are underway to test that putative mechanism of spread."

Not beetles, but the nymphs of one of the 'truebugs' like stinkbugs, leaf-footed bugs, etc. I am not sure which one this is, since some of them look very much alike at this stage. I am leaning towards the leaf-footed bug, which is a plant pest. They stab into the foliage or fruit with their needle-like mouthparts and suck the juices out. Since these don't have wings yet, you could observe their behavior for a couple of minutes to see if that's what these are doing. If they are one of the assassin bugs (another possiblity), they'll go after aphids, and other soft bodied insects. Even each other. Here is a link that might be useful:

My suggestions: remove the drapes. Just keep the blinds. Texture & paint the ceiling a couple shades lighter than the walls, no beadboard (too country) Move the clock to above the storage door next to the FP. That wall is very unbalanced with a lot of stuff in that corner, but virtually bare opposite. Replace the rug with a solid color. I must say that I do love the warm colors of your room! I'll take your beams...we want to put some in our family room, but our ceiling is pine and that's a lot of wood. Cover the bench in a solid color. Move the candlesticks under the tapestry rug out to the FP hearth. Remove all decor from FP, take down scroll thing above TV. Replace ladder with the tall plant on the right of the sofa. Put ladder at left side of FP. Also 2nd painting that door the wall color. Remove duck and any other county style decor. On second look, you have a lot of seating in this room, can you remove that bench and rocking chair in front of the FP? I'd add more lighting to the room, maybe even some pendants hanging on either side of the carpet on the wall and find a place for the candlestick lights somewhere else. Or if that's not an option, put in some bulkier, heavier lamps on that end of the room.

I let mine hang around for a while, but i wanted to collect seed this year... and these guys suck sap (i assume) since the seed heads wither. I just did the soapy bucket below and knock the stem... and they fall off for the most part. The small ones need some extra persuasion.