No harlequin beetles in sight on kale photographed on Aug. 28, 2014
A couple of weeks ago, I warned that a harlequin beetle invasion was imminent. Their favored food, kale, was doomed, I said. And I had photos to prove it. Yet in a recent inspection of the indefatigable kale crop at the Garden RUN Community Garden, nary a harlequin beetle could be found. Katie Brownell, who manages Wyck Farm, was bracing for the expected invasion of beetles that had devastated her cole crops last August. She, too, was surprised that they never came. The bitter-cold spells this past winter must have done them in, she said. Or maybe they just didn’t like the mild summer weather that most of us here in Philadelphia loved. Whatever the case. we Philly gardeners are glad they stayed away.
UPDATE – Sept. 24 Oops. They’re back, after all. But not as many as last year. They’re swarming the kale in some plots, but not others, in contrast with last year, when everything withered before their onslaught. And they haven’t yet discovered the kale seedlings I just planted amidst lettuce and spinach. I’m hoping a row cover will give them a growth spurt in the warning warmth and will keep that late-arriving harlequin beetles at bay until cold weather knocks them out.
Harlequin bugs on Sept. 24, 2014
Kale, lettuce and spinach, going under wraps, Sept 24, 2014