We had our first major beetle infestation last summer, and my wife and I
spent many enjoyable evenings picking them off the shrubs and dropping
them into a jar of soapy water.

We noticed that they had only 2 defense moves; one was to raise their
back legs when alarmed, and the other was to simply drop off the leaf
they were currently munching on. They would almost never fly away. This
made them darned easy to catch.

This year, more and more of them are actually flying off when
approached.

Are we accidentally selecting for this undesirable behavior?

On the other hand, we've found that imidacloprid is actually effective
in protecting our shrub roses and dwarf crab apple tree. Our untreated
sand cherries are being chewed to shreds.

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St. Paul, MN