Wednesday 14 March 2012

Desperate beetles

It's a beautiful day here today - sunny and warm - so I went and sat in the garden with my crochet...

garden crochet

...it was so hot I put on sunscreen and a hat.

The washing was blowing in the warm breeze and all was right with the world.  Until...
...the arrival of this...

Picture c/o Gardener's World
...Meligethes aeneus

Commonly called the pollen beetle or rape beetle as it is a pest of the oilseed rape crop...and people crocheting in the sun.

I thought it might prefer the yellow sheet I hung on the line, but no - it preferred me!

Since I have nor seen any oilseed rape in the fields around here, I can only think the beetle is on a desperate hunt for it...

In the end I had to come indoors as the air is full of the pesky things!

2 comments:

Carol said...

Usually they do prefer to go for yellow. I used to have a yellow (summerweight) mac - big mistake! It ended up looking almost polka dot patterned.
Carol xx

Claire said...

How nice to be outside crocheting.....shame about the beetles.
I read a tip somewhere about insects attracted to yellow. Place a yellow piece of cardboard/paper out in the garden and smear it with vaseline. They fly to it and stick in the vaseline.
This might help make crocheting outside a little more enjoyable......

Beautiful Autumn weather here at the moment.......

Claire :]