The cockchafers hatch. And that means: hobby gardeners beware. The beetles can cause double damage in the garden.
In spring there is usually a menacing buzzing sound and thick, dark beetles suddenly float through the air. The cockchafers hatch. Depending on the weather, the beetles can become a real pest and destroy the entire garden. And by the time they have hatched, in many cases it is already too late for the plants.
When are the cockchafers coming?
The cockchafers hatch from mid-April. And then things get going – the beetles mate and fill their stomachs. If they get too comfortable in your garden, they can eat entire trees. After the work is done, only the eggs are laid in the ground, that's it. The males die shortly after mating, the females after they have stored the eggs well. The end of the cockchafer period usually comes after about six weeks.
In June, or July at the latest, the spook is often over again. While most trees will have recovered from the heavy eating by then and will grow new leaves, you still don't necessarily want to let the beetles run freely in your own garden. Because it is precisely the eggs that can end up becoming a real problem for every hobby gardener. LUDWIGSHAFEN24 reveals how the beetles can still destroy the garden even after they die.
Is 2024 a cockchafer year?
If the eggs end up in your garden, there is an invisible danger lurking here. The cockchafer larvae, the so-called grubs, hatch from this. And they then develop in the soil for up to four years and eat their fill. That's why we often talk about cockchafer years, in which all the larvae suddenly hatch at once and destroy everything in their path, whereas in the previous years there was peace.
But it is not so easy to say whether 2024 will be a year for the May beetle. As NABU writes, there are different types of May beetles. And depending on the species and region, the cockchafers hatch in different years. For example, these regions and federal states have had strong May beetle seasons in the last 3 years and could be spared in 2024:
region |
Last cockchafer invasion |
|---|---|
Bavaria |
2021 |
South Hesse |
2022 |
North Baden |
2022 |
Southeast Rhineland-Palatinate |
2023 |
Cockchafers and grubs in the garden - that's why they are so dangerous
But if you remember that there were a particularly large number of cockchafers in your garden four years ago, you could now have a problem. It is precisely the larvae that cause the most damage to the garden. The grubs eat everything that comes in front of the biters, preferably plant roots.
This means that the beautiful hydrangeas above ground may already be dying, even though they have actually received all the love and the best fertilizer. So when the beetles start buzzing around the garden, it may already be too late. Or it's just the right time to make sure the problem doesn't arise in a few years.
Drive away grubs and cockchafers – with these plants
So it's high time to keep a few cockchafers out of the garden. Luckily, cockchafers aren't particularly complicated. They react to what also effectively drives other insects and pests out of the garden. There are also a few plants that the beetles don't like at all.
You can drive away cockchafers with geraniums, delphiniums and garlic. For good reason. The roots of these plants are poisonous to the grubs. While geraniums and delphiniums produce pretty flowers, with garlic you at least end up with a tasty vegetable. (paw)