Meet The Beetles

I hope everyone in the USA has a wonderful Independence Day tomorrow!

The employees at EJ’s company voted to work on the 4th so they could stay up late with family to watch fireworks, etc. It would be a short night indeed for them to stay up late and get to work at 6 a.m. the next morning. EJ usually works ten hour shifts Friday through Monday so he will have a break this week: work one day, get a day off, then work two days, then back to his normal schedule. It makes a nice short week. Saturday is supposed to be very hot so it will be nice for him to be able to not have to go in to the factory.

In my last post I described our battle with a toxic invasive plant called “leafy spurge.” (Read it here: Plants vs Beetles.) In my research into the best methods of getting rid of the evil plant, I found a company in Montana called Weedbusters Biocontrol that sells flea beetles which eats only leafy spurge. (They sell other noxious plant bugs but I’m only concerned with leafy spurge.) Even with the cost of sending the beetles by two-day air, they were the least expensive, least harmful to the environment, least effort, and best option for us so I ordered one release of a 1,000 beetles. It was a pleasure doing business with the company. Bob patiently answered my ignorant questions and our beetles arrived today in very good condition.

Our property was originally 10-acres but was split into two five-acre properties at some point in the past. We share our driveway with our other neighbor and often our packages get misdirected to him. Also, delivery people understandably refuse to try to make it up our long, winding, steep driveway in the winter because of deep snow and often icy conditions. (We get stuck in the driveway at least once a winter and have to dig out.) Because of this, we have a large box at the bottom of the driveway to put packages in. We ride or pull a sled down to retrieve packages in the winter if they are bulky. The box is supposed to be used only in the winter, but delivery people often leave packages in (and a few times ON) the box even in the summer. Bob from Weedbusters nicely sent me a tracking number so I would be notified when our beetles arrived. It was good that he did because although the deliveryman didn’t deliver the package to our neighbors, he did put it in the box on this hot day. However, I watched the delivery progress very carefully so we knew when the delivery was made and we were able to walk down to get the package minutes after it arrived.

As most of my readers know, throughout the shipping season our son JJ works one month as a deckhand on a Great Lakes bulk carrier and then gets two weeks off before going back on the ship. He never knows exactly where he will dis/embark: Detroit, Buffalo, Duluth, Chicago…it’s wherever the ship happens to be at the time he’s scheduled to get on/off. This time he was scheduled to get off in Gary, IN, but because of delays they let him off yesterday morning at the Soo Locks, which is much closer to home. Since he was driving close to our house, he stopped in for a visit and a nap before heading to his home, which is about 45-60 minutes away.

We are able to message/phone JJ while he’s on his ship and I told him about our leafy spurge problem and our solution. When JJ learned that we were getting 1,000 beetles to eat the plants, he fluctuated between exclaiming that it was “insane” and “cool.” He really wanted to be here to see the release, but after being away for a month, he was tired and just wanted to stay home. So instead I videoed the release for him. He thought it was awesome. Here’s the video we made for him:

Our local Conservation District offices didn’t know about beetles that eat toxic plants so after I learned about them, I contacted them to share the information and Weedbuster website with them. I was told leafy spurge is a problem in our area and I think the flea beetles are an awesome option.