Beetles on the brain

... not this kind ...

... not this kind either ...

... THIS kind ...

Sometime between Saturday afternoon and Sunday evening they emerged from the depths, and have invaded my yard!  My blackberry bushes are under serious attack - and our garden is a mere 20 feet away!  The birds ate all the berries - and the beetles are working on all the leaves.  Just look what they did to my basil (on the deck) in less than a day! (In the background you can see the blackberry bushes to the left of the storage shed, and the garden just to the right.)

I've read that the best thing to do to get rid of them is to drown them in soapy water.  Well, that's gonna be a start, but there's no way we can get all of them!  So, we've purchased these....

There are 3 unused acres behind our house.  Aaron's planning to put them up out there, and hope that it'll draw them away from our property.  It'll draw them from other neighbors too, no doubt.  But hopefully it'll be far enough away from anyone that it won't matter.  From what I read, Aaron's gonna have to empty the traps in the early morning and/or late evening, when they're less active - and then dump them immediately into soapy water.  We're soooooo hoping it works.  I can't even begin to explain how disgusted I am by them.

Since moving into this wilderness I've battled stink bugs and asian beetles (which look like ladybugs) INSIDE the house - for well over a month I was vacuuming up about 200 each day!  There are hundreds of wasps and various other types of bees.  Earwigs just showed up around where the sliding door goes from the family room to the deck.  We have flies and mosquitos, millions of ants (outside) - slugs, worms, gnats, spiders, millipedes ... you name it, we've got it (except bed bugs and lice, praise God!) ... and now JAPANESE BEETLES! ... and SUDDENLY all the birds are gone from our yard.  Do they scare birds away?  I'm beyond disgusted - I feel like I'm under attack!  I HATE BUGS AND I'M SCARED OF BUGS! (I think it stems from when I was 7, in New Mexico, and woke up with red ants in my bed.)

I want to move.  I want to pack up the whole house and just MOVE.  I no longer find ANY enjoyment being outside.  Every time the breeze moves my hair even just a little, my skin begins to crawl and I think it's a bug on me.  I'm convinced that God didn't create bugs until Adam and Eve sinned - and they're part of mankind's punishment.  I HATE THEM - and at the moment they're winning the battle on Dogwood.  ... At least Aaron's home for the next two weeks (until his next business trip) - so HE will be the one fighting on behalf of the Feitners.  Let's hope and pray he gets the upper hand REALLY soon!