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[EarthNSky <erthnsky AT bellsouth.net>]

Rebecca in the Great Northwest wrote:
> anybody here got a good method for dealing with asparagus beetles?
>
> Our first cutting is usually bug-free, but later cuttings are rife 
> with beetles.  The bugs hide in the tips and under the scales, so a 
> good soak in salt water doesn't always flush them out--

Shiver me timbers...
I had no idea that asparagus beetles existed.  I must have an ample
population of parasitic wasps or something.
I read two or three pages just to make sure I hadn't seen any...and in
doing that, read that they overwinter on old plants.  I usually cut down
the ferny foliage in the fall and it is composted elsewhere.  I also add
a layer of waste hay every year....good, urine soaked horse-poopy hay.
I have noticed that chickens love to scratch through this hay mulch
layer, so perhaps they are also eating larva?  I also read that in small
gardens, you can shake the foliage and shake off the larval stages and
that they are unlikely to re-climb the plant, instead they die on the
ground(especially if there are chickens around..lol)
I don't know how much asparagus you have, but I think your best bet
would be diligent hand picking of beetles.  Harvest the new shoots
heavily to delay and disrupt the life cycle of the beetle.  When you
finally stop cutting, shake those ferns and pick off any adults or larva
you see.  At the end of summer, I'd cut the ferns back to the ground and
compost them elsewhere.  Make sure, too, that your compost pile is not
close to the bed...the beetles might be overwintering nearby in dead
plant material.
Long term, encourage birds and toads in your garden.  Put out feeders
and birdbaths for birds, create little ponds for amphibian breeding and
toad huts.
I found a lot of good information on this page:
http://ipm.ncsu.edu/ag295/html/asparagus_beetles.htm
You mentioned that early cuttings are okay, so my guess is that the
beetles are delayed in hatching or you have the orange and black spotted
type beetle predominantly.  I really think harvesting it hard early and
denying the emerging beetles a food source might really break the cycle.
 Be sure and cut the shoots under the soil surface.

Bev

--
"Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will
not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius
will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the
world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone
are omnipotent. The slogan 'press on' has solved and always will solve
the problems of the human race"

~ Calvin Coolidge