Prairie View

Thursday, August 05, 2010

Murderous Triumph

I've been harvesting peaches and apples from our trees at the Trail West place the past several weeks, and every time I've done so, I've been repulsed by those giant Green June Bugs that chew away at the fruit, buzz noisily, and dive-bomb me for good measure. Today I got revenge.

I noticed that they were leaving the apples and peaches alone today. When I went to check on the pears, I found out why. On one fruit, packed tightly all over the surface was a chomping, squirming mass of those big bugs--probably at least a dozen on one fruit. I stared at them for a bit in total disgust. Then I had an idea. I went to the minivan and found a plastic bag in the farmer's market supplies box. I also grabbed a big scissors and headed back to the pear tree. Spreading the bag wide, I slipped it up over the bug-laden pear, and quickly closed up the bag around the twig the fruit hung from. Then I snipped the twig and dropped the fruit and bugs into the bag. They set up a mad vibrating protest, and I shuddered at the thought of how horrible it would be if they chewed their way out of the bag. So I found a freezer-weight zipper-topped bag and stuffed the first bag into the second and zipped it up.

I repeated this process two more times with other swarms of Green June Bugs. I had to use the ladder to reach one cluster.

On the way home I wondered what I was going to do with my catch when I got home. I couldn't just throw them into a trash bin because of that nagging feeling that they might nibble their way through the bag to freedom. Others are already making a big nuisance of themselves on our tomatoes, and we certainly do not need the population increased by dozens of imported pests.

I remembered a big, canister-sized, foil-coated, plastic-lidded cardboard container we had just thrown out, and I retrieved it from the trash bin. Then Hiromi opened each bag just far enough to squirt in a shot of insecticide he had on hand. We closed everything back up and stuffed them all in the canister. Later Hiromi checked on the results, and they were all dead.

Ha.

I am SO ready for the next trip to check on the fruit at the Trail West place. But first I'll have to replenish the plastic bag supply. And I plan to take the canister and the insecticide along so as to dispatch with little risk and great efficiency any Green June Bugs I find. Wish me luck.

2 Comments:

  • Are your Green June Bugs anything like our Japanese Beetles we have here in IN? Although I believe I may have seen fewer so far this year. It's been hotter than sometimes.

    By Blogger Mary A. Miller, at 8/06/2010  

  • Mary, they are in the same family--scarab beetles, but the Green June Bugs are 2-4 times larger than Japanese Beetles-longer and wider than the big reddish brown June Bugs we see every year.

    By Blogger Mrs. I, at 8/06/2010  

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