If you think you've familiarised yourself with all the garden pests you might come across, you're probably wrong. It seems the number of nuisance critters we come across in our backyards is never-ending. One that you might have spotted from spring through summer is the alder leaf beetle.
This little shiny blue-black bug is often found on alder trees, coining its name. Just like getting rid of kudzu bugs and getting rid gypsy moth caterpillars, it's key to get on top of an alder leaf beetle problem to protect the foliage in your garden. 'Alder leaf beetles feed in a manner called skeletonizing, which means they leave the large leaf veins and eat the parts of the leaf that are soft and spongy,' notes entomologist Dr Tracy Ellis.
