By Michael Boriero
A few weeks ago, Lucilia Santos noticed several beetles on a bush in the garden in front of her second home in Knowlton, but she did not think anything of it, and left without removing them.
When she returned from Montreal, where she lives during the week, last weekend, Santos was shocked to discover hundreds of beetles covering the bush. They were also spread out across other bushes and plants in her garden. She turned to Facebook for help.
“It seems that it is something that can appear every year and there is no real way to get rid of them, and they are kind of like grasshoppers, they kind of get concentrated into, for example, a rose bud, to the point where you don’t even see the bud anymore, just the bugs,” said Santos.
Santos is new to the area, so she does not have anyone to turn to for gardening tips. And she admitted she does not have what people often call a ‘green thumb’. The pictures she posted to the knowlton.com Facebook group was just a small sample of what was in her garden.
People immediately reacted with many of them sharing similar complaints, and some providing tips and tricks to getting rid of the pesky insects. The Facebook group was split between rose chafers and Japanese beetles, but either way, both insects destroy gardens.
