Japanese beetles for sale? Really?

Heres another guest post from veterinary surgeon and master gardener James Roush/Garden Musings

This morning, on a trip out of town, I innocently stopped at a large regional nursery about 60 mileseast of Manhattan, Kansas. This nursery sells each spring, among other plants, the largest variety of potted roses in a 100-mile radius. I could nothelp but stop to view the few remaining potted roses on sale, hoping particularly to find a St. Swithun marked down to a price that evena curmudgeonly rosarian would accept. And there, I saw them. Japanese beetles! Fornicating in The Wedgwood Rose! As I looked around, I saw they were on all the roses! And the perennial hibiscus. And the daylilies. ( I took the pictures shown here with my iPhone.)

To understand the full depth of my horror and excuse the stream of curses I uttered, you should be aware thatJapanese beetlesare not yet indigenous just 60 miles west, where I live, and I was unaware that they had been seen in anything but temporary outbreaks west of Kansas City. East coast rosariansshould imagine, for a moment, an idyllic garden where they had never seen a Japanese beetle, but had heard they were massing at the seashore. That is the fear that Ive been livingwith for 5 or 6 years now, viewing the online pictures of destruction at other gardens and waiting for the beetle-induced Armageddon that was surely heading my way.

When I questioned a worker at the store, the response was, Yes, they did know that they had living, breeding Japanese beetles on the premises.Theyve been here for two or three years. And Yes they had notified the authorities and were being monitored. Why then, I wondered, were their embeetledroses and other plants still for sale? How was it that they felt it was okay toparticipate in spreading these things around? I understand a conscientiousgardenersticking to their organic principles and refusing to spray, but surely a commercialnurserywouldnt hesitate to nuke every inch of plantand soil. One thing for sure, I wasnt buying any roses there.

Friends, this whole issue puts me deeplyinto a moral dilemma.I have a vocal libertarian streak, distrusting authority of all kinds, but I wished instantly andfervently on the spotthat there was a government agencythat would step into this void, tell this nursery they have to put up signs warning unknowing customers, andcurtail sales to western customers. Or better yet, depopulate and burn the nursery to the ground, as they have done in the pastto farms with tuberculosis and brucellosis in their dairy herds.

I know that eventually beetles will reach Manhattan, Kansas on their own. But I had a small hope that the Flint Hills would be a50 mile-wide barrier to westward expansion; a no-beetle-land of poor food sources for their migration andextensive annual prairiefires to wipe out early scouts. Little did I know that a nursery onthe infestedside of the zone would blatantly offer to sell me a potted plantwitheither beetle larvae in the soil or actual beetle couples who would be happy to disperse into my beetle-free Eden of 200 rose plants. Ive bought plants from this nursery every year, my latest being a peony last August during a sale, and its far too late to grub it out now.Until now Ive tried, myself, to be a no-spray gardener, mostly faithful to the organic cause,but the sight of this nursery had me contemplating which insecticide I should use first.

I drove speedily home, calling friends and local nursery owners on the way like a gardening Paul Revere, spreadingthe word that the beetles were coming. Local nursery owners were unaware and surprised at the disclosure. I came straight home and ran intomy rose garden, inspecting every bloom forthe insects, finally collapsing in relief as I determined that Im still free from infection. And then I took a longhot shower in disinfectant soap and burned my clothes. You can never be too careful.

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