There are some organic products people use, but from what I've read, they repel and do not kill. If you do not kill them, they will burrow in your lawn, lay eggs, and multiply. One female can create 60 beetles per season. So you need to treat for grubs as well. Milky Spore may or may not work in my zone and is expensive. I'm going to try to get some Grub-X down but don't like killing earthworms. One product is Bye Bye Beetles, used by a rose grower in the southeast and recommended, an organic and repellant. See link. I may try it at some point, but didn't want to wait while it shipped and can't remember the cost. Saw my first one June 21 which was early, picked a few off and squished, started the soapy water thing. Then I cut back all my repeat blooming roses and am watching the rest of it. Haven't seen any since but that is not to say they will not find my echinacea, cherry trees, rose leaves, pussywillow or preference du jour. If too many come back, I will spray with Sevin. My primary reservation was bees, but if there are no flowers to attract bees, there's not much chance of harming them if I spray early am or late pm while they're out. My cat heaven knows what he gets his paws into roaming around, everyone treats their lawn, and I did for the first time this year in quite a few years, just got too awful, hated to do it, and nowhere near got it all, but much better. Some people cover their roses with nylon net and cut off the blooms which are the main attractant. Hated to sacrifice the blooms but won't use anything with imidacloprid because it kills bees, saw it myself, and has residual action. Also Sevin won't protect newly-opened buds. Pyrethrin knocks them dead (in time), think it's an organic, but doesn't last as long as Sevin. Then there are several home remedies involving concoctions I found recipes for on the web by googling, said to test on a small area first. Some of the ingredients are chili peppers, garlic, dishwashing liquid, lemon juice, vinegar, not all in the same recipe. A lot of rose people use Merit which you pour on the ground, must be done earlier and is a systemic, but if I'm not mistaken, it contains imidacloprid, bees again and other beneficial insects, does not discriminate. Good luck. My roses don't do a whole lot except two so let the perennials provide the color, didn't want to go through what I did last year again, in the hottest days, ruined that whole part of summer stewing about the dratted things. The only hopeful thing on the horizon is that some are reporting seeing some with eggs on their thoraxes? (white spots) and may or may not kill those. Those are laid by a parasitic wasp that destroys them when they hatch. But the gol darn things will mate first for sure as they do it sporadically before they die. I haven't seen any like that. There is also an ongoing experiment at the U of Michigan which involves innoculating adult beetles which will spread a killer virus from one to another, have been given to a few gardeners to test, but if it is safe, who knows how long before the rest of us get access to that? There are no known predators, some say ducks, maybe turkeys, chickens may or may not eat them but can't possibly get them all. No bird I know will eat them. Praying Mantises will, but it would take thousands to make a dent in bad outbreaks where they can number in the thousands and millions. That sums up what I've found so far. Hope it's helpful. Here is a link that might be useful: Peter Beales Organic Plant Health

You must be so excited to see scapes. I noticed a scape on ELMORE JAMES some time ago and then, after that, another on the same daylily. This one is registered as an EM, but I sure don't think of May 25 as being in the least bit EM. Interesting that, in this mature clump, both scapes are on the side nearest to the Belgian block edging to the large stone patio. Maybe the heat from the stones is enough to affect blooming. My only other scapes are on three new-to-me plants from the south -- MARISSA JONEA, ANGELS GATHER ROUND, and NO EXPIRATION DATE. I've left only one scape on MJ and on NED, and I'll probably cut off all but one bloom on each as well, assuming I have the willpower. AGR came to me in the first week of March and had been potted up since then and spent cool/cold times in the sunroom before going outside permanently. I'm hoping that treatment will give me excellent first-time blooms + rebloom. I also have one daylily that's done. I don't have an ID, nor do I recall where I got it. The color and form tell me it's a real oldie though not a species. Just an orangy yellow with pointy, somewhat starry blooms. Nothing special, but I like the fact that it blooms so early.

Thanks, everyone. The tall bearded iris have bloomed exceptionally well this year. And that one Siberian iris and the rose sort of grew together and look look blooming with each other. Debra, yes snapdragons last all summer here until frost. Of course if there is no rain I have to water them. And the mosdern Sibgerians are quite fancy and the tets usually have much bigger flowers than the dips. Cindy, the one lupine is the only one to bloom there but there are actually four lupine plants in there. The rest all died. So I just bought a flat of snapdragons and stuck them in there fo0r this year to give some color. I did plant Fruit Punch poppies in there in back of those snaps so they will bloom there next year. I have some Fruit Punch in another area and they are blooming now. I am seeing more and more scapes each day so I guess it will be an early season.

Rita, There are actually four big gray fish "hiding" in that pond!! You have to really look to see them in person, much less see them in a photograph. The smallest one is about ten inches long. Zeke is so big now that it still surprises me when I actually stop and look at him. I have many smaller frogs here, but, thankfully, no bull frogs. When I soak daylilies, if the pan is under the tree, there is usually a frog in the pan when I empty the water out. I never see them until they hop out and onto the ground. Every year in May we have tadpoles covering the sides of the pond. The noise the frogs make when they "sing" is quite loud. When the grandkids were younger, they would get into major trouble, since they thought they just had to catch some tadpoles and their mothers knew somebody would get wet doing it. But they would sneak out and do it anyway. Now there are two more grandchildren, little boys, one and three years old that will be sure to want to catch tadpoles of their own...and Noah, the 3 year old, won't mind wading into the pond to do it. In fact, he will probably try to swim in the pond. DH and I stopped and picked up a box turtle today that was trying to commit suicide on the main road. I released him in the yard, but DH assures me the turtle will not stay in the yard. That's too bad. It would be kind of nice to have a pretty box turtle (the shell not the rest of him is pretty) crawling around the yard. Expanding the pond is a lot of work, but it will be pretty when it is finally finished. If it ever cools off down here, the work will go faster. 97 is the predicted high today. At least it is less than a hundred. Rita, You have a lovely pond even if you can't make it bigger due to space considerations. The rocks and the fish make it so attractive and it is a nice spot to relax and enjoy the yard and all the work you have put into it. kay