Most of us recognize asparagus. That’s what it looks like when we get it at the grocery store.
But unless you grow asparagus, few of us recognize this feathery foliage as being asparagus also and we’ve got to let a certain number of those edible spears grow up and become tall stalks or we’ll have no foliage next year. No spears to eat.
And while I’m working among this asparagus I found that it has a problem. It’s a simple problem to solve. It’s called the asparagus beetle. Asparagus beetle, like so many garden pests, is easy to control. It’s difficult to recognize and if you don’t know what asparagus beetles look like you’re certainly not going to do much of a job to control.
Here is an asparagus beetle. The adult beetle lays eggs that hatch into larvae like this one. And in fact on this particular frond we can actually see the eggs that are going to hatch into the larvae.
Both the larvae and the adult feed on the asparagus plants and the thing we need to do is apply a good safe garden insecticide like Sevin. We dust it or spray it over the plant and the poor little guys all die. But hey! That saves our asparagus crop.
The Asparagus Beetle…
- Is easy to control
- Is difficult to recognize
- Lays eggs that hatch into larvae
- Can be eradicated with a good, safe garden insecticide like Sevin