All gardeners know that with the pleasure of looking after a thriving garden there are always distractions and the presence of pests that do their utmost to wreak havoc in a garden. For years we coped with powdery mildew on phlox and roses, and I used to concoct a spray of water, baking soda, vinegar and I forget what else, to use on aphids and mildew, with moderate success.

(For those who detest earwigs, here's a great combination; 1-1/2 tbsp.baking soda 1 tbsp.insecticidal soap, 1 tbsp.cooking oil, 17 cups of water and finally 1 tbsp.vinegar. Spray tops and undersides of foliage. If used on a weekly basis it can help prevent and control disease and insect predation. And good luck.)

Lilies were particularly sought out by beautiful orange-red lily beetles whose eggs and larvae made a mess of the lovely flowers. There was something else that went at the azalea blooms if they weren't caught on time. That spray got a lot of use. And my husband took to plucking off the beetles, lovely as they were, to crush them under his boot. This, from a man who, when he sees an insect in the house will gently lift it and place it outside rather than kill it.

Years ago when we were taking our usual stroll in the woods not far from our house, we came across a sight of something quite different in our experience. In a hollow of a crook in a large tree there was a mass of beetles, heaving about, clambering all over one another. They were large and round, coloured an iridescent, gleaming green. And we wondered what they were.

The following year we discovered they had invaded our backyard. Not the front gardens; they appeared to confine themselves to the back. Where they swarmed over our ornamental corkscrew Hazel tree, climbing roses and shrub roses, feasting on the flower buds, blooms and foliage to create an unattractive lacy network of desiccated foliage. We sprayed them to little avail. So my husband took to picking them off.

 They eventually flew off, after a month or so of devastating the garden. But you shrug and tell yourself this is, after all, one of nature's creations. The biological world is replete with a cornucopia of lifeforms that thrive on destroying other lifeforms, and we, as humans, are no different.

A week ago we saw the arrival of a single Japanese beetle, for that's what those beautiful beetles are. Now they've begun to hatch out in serious numbers. They hold conferences cupped in a climbing hydrangea leaf, while others below feast hungrily on the foliage.

They have taste-tested our large Calla lily cluster. And aside from those, they settle as well on the Monarda blossoms to satiate themselves at the cost of intact flowers and foliage.

The wreckage they leave behind attests to their voracious, destructive appetite. Yet another garden pest. Yet another of nature's challenges; while offering existence to a multitude of lifeforms, some will expire so that others may live.