Beating Rosemary Beetles With Essential Oils

 For the last few years, if like me you grow Rosemary, Lavender, Thyme or sage in your garden you may have noticed that something has been nibbling away at all of your hard work. One day your plant can look lovely and green. The next it's a spindly, raw version of its former glory. 
 This little devil is the culprit I'm afraid. 

(Pic courtesy of RHS) 

Rosemary beetle Larvae 

These little pests may look pretty and innocent but they're not. This beetle is one of the most dreaded pests to discover in your garden. They are simply called Rosemary Beetles as they are more often then not found on Rosemary. However they also favour Lavender, Thyme and Sage. 
Just to make matters worse you can't use insecticides on them, well not if your growing your herbs for culinary use that is. Besides why would you even want to use a pesticide in the first place? 
So what are you to do? You decide on the herbs you want to grow to use for cooking and you find these mini beasts have already eaten most of your herb. Well there are a few alternatives. You can pick off the adult beetles and larvae and kill them. Which isn't pretty but has to be done. 

One solution I've found most beneficial is to use a herbal insecticide. The herbal solution below is a completely safe solution. Meaning you can still eat your herbs afterwards. It's safe for pets and children as it has no toxins and does not affect bees and butterflies. 

Herbal Citronella Insecticide: 

You will need: 

• Clean, preferably new water spray bottle. Anything which holds over 50ml will do. 
• Pure undiluted Citronella Essential Oil 
• Water 

First fill your bottle with water, tap or mineral water, it doesn't matter as long as it's cold. Then add the Citronella essential oil into the water using 1 drop per 10ml of water. So if your bottle holds 100ml use 10 drops, in a 50ml bottle use 5 drops etc. 

Then shake vigorously for a minute to evenly disperse the oil, then spray onto the affected plant. It is best to do this after the sun has gone down as the oil can react to direct sunlight and cause brown spots on the leaves. 

As well as rosemary beetles you can also use this herbal spray on any plants affected by Blackfly, Greenfly. It also acts as rather a nifty flea spray. It is 100% safe to spray onto pets sparingly to keep fleas at bay and in pets bedding. I've also found that frequently spraying the floors with this stops spiders coming in. 

If you have problems with mosquito's or flies coming in through your window tie some ribbon onto your window and spray the ribbon with the Citronella spray.  

Since discovering this remedy I've used it on many things and have found it to be a really handy spray to keep in the house. The spray does keep for quite a few weeks and once it has gone off, usually when the water is very cloudy you can simply remake it in the same bottle.