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Picture of the day - August 5, 2008
Japanese Beetles dining on a rose blossom
Photo by
Cheria Rouse.
Cheria
took a walk around the yard the other day, and as she strolled past
one of the rose bushes she noticed that some Japanese Beetles were
"working" on it. Over the course of the past few years those pesky
bugs that all gardeners love to hate have become increasingly rare,
and when she saw this pair sipping nectar from the rose blossom she
decided to snap a picture of them.
I remember how we used to fight the Japanese Beetles when I was
growing up. They just loved to eat the plants in our garden, and dad
spent Lord knows how much money over the years on Seven Dust, lime,
and all sorts of other stuff in an ongoing attempt to eradicate them from
our property. Since he was never completely successful, the Beetles
always got more than their fair share of the bounty.
But in recent years something strange has transpired. Japanese
Beetles, their larger "cousins" the June Bugs and several other
once-common insects have seen their numbers dwindle to a only token
amount - and no one seems to know why. Most people would probably
consider this to be good news, but there is a problem...
It isn't just the "pest" insects that are disappearing.
The world's honeybees are thinning out as well. And as we all know, if someday
there are no more honeybees around to pollinate the food crops
shared by
the world's animals and us humans, we could quite possibly end up
facing a worldwide famine of biblical proportions.
That's why it's so important that we find out why all of those
insects are dying off, and try to determine what we can do to
reverse it. Sure, Japanese Beetles can be a pain in the neck, but
there are much bigger problems on the horizon if they and their
"cousins" keep dwindling away.
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picture.
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