They don't seem terribly bad here in Decatur; I'm still finding them on most open blooms, and I have some lacy foliage, but it's certainly not as bad as years past. Then again we had drought conditions that sprang up around August last year and we've been in a mild to moderate drought ever since. I'm more exasperated trying to keep up with watering than I am killing JBs; that's a first. They did emerge early this year, along with everything else that's out of whack on our normal seasonal timeline. I have found a new favorite tool for bug hunting, though; vise-grip pliers. Dishwashing gloves were too slippery & when I'd squish the JBs they'd shoot out of my fingertips like a marble. The heavy, leather gardening gloves were better for squishing, but too cumbersome to pick JBs out of blooms without shattering the bloom. The pliers are perfect.

Don't know if it's true or not (if 4 o'clocks are poisonous to JBs), but having 4 o'clocks in your garden does not do anything to reduce the population. I actually grew them one year and the JBs didn't even eat them.

Yes Cass I do realize that the weather is very different over there! Cold winters and more windy than here. And it is way more hot May-September than here (90F is a sweltering heatwave here and about as hot as it ever gets). I really need to choose hardy roses (No teas and chinas will survive those winters!!) And HTs will struggle, but are possible in sheltered areas and with winter protection. On the other hand there is so much more sunlight than here (latitude of Davenport, IA is the same as Rome or Cote D Azur in Southern Europe (only the winters are cold inland climate!). I have always wondered why roses get so much bigger in FX Chicago (I see 5-6 feet tall bushy HTs and Floribundas. (Temps are often 12F higher in urban areas, so zone 5 is not just zone 5) But it must be the higher amount of sunlight. If I look at a map and compare latitude to here We get the same amount of sunlight they get 750 miles north of Chicago. (In the Manitoba province of Canada). (We are however blessed with the mild climate because of the Gulfstream and the surrounding sea, but high pressure sends Russian extremely cold temps our way and the temps often drops below -15F. One thing I always take advantage of is the micro climate when choosing roses. Roses near house walls will suffer less frost damage than roses further away from the house. A patio like that on the picture makes it possible to grow roses that are hardy to zone higher than recommended, because of the heat reflection. So I know I have to choose roses for zone 4-5 (and 6 in protected sheltered areas. Devon, It sure would be nice to move to California. But real estate prices there are out of our league! I spotted a beautiful "Prairie Flower" "A Hawkeye Belle...in Iowa ... that is the attraction there.... No I did not "Create" the informal gardens in the pictures. They are just pictures of the style I like and I keep in my collection of gardens that inspire me and the clients I work for. The blue structure in the background of the first picture is a patio deck. It takes time for a garden to mature and most of the gardens I have done lately will take a few years before I will go take pictures of them, since it is important to have pictures of my work. I already have a lot of work maintaining some of the gardens I have done.

I don't think the giant japanese beetles are actually Japanese Beetles. I think, like a lot of insects, all Japanese Beetles are more or less the same size. THere are many, many species of beetles, and most are more or less harmless. One nice thing about the large, night-flying beetles is that they are an important food for large, noctunal predators like Whip-poor-wills and Screech Owls (screech owls eat lots of insects in the summer)