Posted: Tuesday 22 May 2012
by Richard Jones
The rosemary beetle is so deliciously beautiful, how could it possibly be considered a garden pest?
I’ve always been rather blasé about the rosemary leaf beetle, Chrysolina americana. It’s a splendid-looking beast with its metallic red and green striped dome of a body. The only other thing like it in Britain is the ultra-rare Chrysolina cerealis, known only from a few plants of stunted thyme clinging to the precipitous scree sides of Mount Snowdon. The rosemary beetle is so deliciously beautiful, how could it possibly be considered a garden pest?
I may have to eat my words now. Last weekend I found them nibbling my sage leaves. Sage is a staple in the Jones kitchen; I’ve taken to making my own faux pesto with it, or sticking in a few leaves whenever there is a chicken, sausage or pork recipe on the menu. It was whilst plucking a few leaves for the costolette di maiale con salvia (pork chops with sage) that I noticed the tell-tale black pellets of frass (caterpillar droppings) dotting the greenery. And, of course, there were the beetles, and the nibbled edges of the leaves suddenly became obvious.
I dare not mention my rosemary twig. The plant (it can’t possibly be called a bush) has become pot-bound, and has reached the stage where it is little more than a woody brush with a handful of stunted green twists that might, or might not, be leaves. Disgraceful, I know. Yet, here too, is a rosemary leaf beetle, trying to finish off my appalling anti-husbandry.
Rather hastily, I have re-potted said rosemary, in the hope that it recovers, and have translocated the lone beetle to the sage. I’m going to be a bit over-protective of the rosemary until it reaches a reasonable size. In the mean time I am happy to share my Salvia officinalis, but I must remember to knock off any beetles and their droppings before I cook.
