First Japanese Beetle on my Roses! Alert! Alert!

[The Useful Gardener]

Well, when the Chinese Chestnuts bloomed, I knew from 15 years of
garden journal notes that the Japanese Beetles wouldn't be far behind.
Usually about 72 hours and, sure enough, here they are again, right on
schedule. First greedy little gal landed on the roses yesterday. With
luck the heavy, soaking rains will have drown some of the changing
grubs before they could reach the surface of the soil - this has
happened in past wet seasons. Nevertheless, get ready - I'll be
dusting food grade diatomacious earth (NOT the pool stuff!!!) on
various plants that the beetles seem to love (like my new beans) and
spraying the new growth in the orchard with Surround, an inert kaoliln
clay product that seems to discourage the beetles with no other
effects. Everything will look a bit wierd for a couple of weeks but
will NOT be eaten, if I can help it.

I'll have to dig out the photos for the blog of the Automatic Chicken
Feeder/Japanese Beetle Trap that I invented myownself to amuse me and
the chickens. Actually worked great.

Sybil

[GrubBoy]

Sybil,

A couple of questions on your application of the diatomacious earth;
1) do you make a slurry with water?
2) do you apply to both sides of the plant's leaves or just the top
"landing" surface?

Thanks for your continuous advice, tips, and experiences...as a novice
gardener, your insight is invaluable!

Dean

[The Useful Gardener]

Hi, Dean!

Thanks for the kind words! Like most gardeners, I'm just happy to
share my hard-knocks experiences (as they continue to happen) in hopes
I can keep someone else from having to "reinvent the wheel". I'm not
particularly wise. Someone told me most of what I know, so it's just
the usual gardening paying-it-forward (or backward, I forget) that
gardeners are famous for. Everyone who gardens develops their own
tricks and insights - just remember to keep some kind of garden
notebook so you can jot down the problems, solutions and brilliant
strokes of genius as they occur! Seriously. If you've got Japanese
Beetles, for instance, and you dust your tender plants with DE and the
beetles leave them alone... and it happens the next year as well...
you are now on the path to a regular regimen that will have your
garden skating through beetle season in fine form and you'll be the
local genius on beetle defense. Or maybe you discover that it works
great on eggplant but the beetles devoured the roses anyway. Or like
me, 98% of the seasons, you'll have the garden perfectly dusted when a
sudden evening rainstorm washes it all off and by the time you get
home from work the next day the blasted beetles have eaten half your
garden. Real life. Gets you every time.

In the meantime, the DE you can just apply as a dust. There was once
this really cool little doohickey, like a cross between a little
bellows and a wine bag, that was for spraying the DE, kind of
whooshing it out the nozzle. Probably still around in the back rooms
of Virginia Beach Feed & Seed, if I know Harry. I just take handfuls
of it from the bag and sort of sift-toss it over the plants, fluffing
around to get it all over the plant. Not good for broccoli heads,
raspberries, blackberries (the berries themselves) or anything you can
rinse it off of. Good on all leaves, as far as I know.

Remember to get Food Grade not the pool store stuff (which has other
chemicals you do NOT want on your plants). I know that St. Bride's
Feed & Seed on Indian Creek Road VB has it in small bags and good,
large bags that should last through most of the summer. They ordered
it after I, and several other, gardeners requested it. (It's also
useful for dusting your chickens, FYI, and you can even dust your
dogs' legs to ward off fleas and ticks.) It doesn't look pretty - but
then, neither does a half eaten garden plant!

[GrubBoy]

Sybil,

Thanks for the additional comments. I wish I had learned of DE
earlier; my broccoli leaves are getting munched on continuously by
what looks like cabbageworms - matched a pic on the internet with the
pesky little critters. Kept finding this little, 1/16th of an inch or
bigger worms on the underside of my leaves after some holes fell out
of the leaves one day; didn’t know what they were, but could tell that
they certainly weren’t beneficial. :-) It’s easy to eradicate them
with your fingers, but you’ve got to check ALL your leaves everyday.
We took a weekend trip and returned to not only find several of those
tiny little pale yellow squirmmies on the undersides, but some big FAT
green ones on the top just a chomp, chomp, chompin' away. Man, can
they strip a leaf!

Upon research, I recognized the little yellowish eggs on the
undersides of the leaves and started removing them each day as I did
my rounds for the green meanies - I even enlisted the help of my
teenage daughter to conduct critter patrols when I wasn't around.
(Young eyes - a shame to waste them.) It only takes about a week for
hatching to occur, so removing all the eggs that I could find slowed
down the population explosion, but didn't eliminate them all
together. Hopefully the DE will provide me some periods of low
activity from here on out as I dust up a storm around my broccoli and
beans.

Are there any plants that do NOT like DE?

I’ve also been looking at Bacillus thuringiensis (B.t.), such as Dipel
Dust/Spray, a substance that interacts with a host of bad bugs without
any adverse effect on our beneficial insects or the plants
themselves. It’s a naturally occuring soil bacterium, that when
ingested with the leaves, makes the unwanted sick – they stop eating
almost immediately and eventually die. Looks like it’s easy to apply
like the DE, is economical (just takes a small amount for
application), and it’s very effective on just about any of our
scourge. Has anyone got any experience with the product?

Cheers,
Dean

[The Useful Gardener]

Bt (Bacillus thurengensis) is great stuff. It is harmless to humans
and pets but attacks the digestive systems of caterpillars as they are
eating the treated plant. It is considered an organic product.

Anyone seeing hornworms on the tomatoes yet? That always brings out
the Bt at my house!

[GrubBoy]

No hornworms yet, but did enjoy a couple of my 'Celebrity' mators this
weekend diced up in a great big bowl of salad!

[GrubBoy]

Hornworm damage has finally appeared. Started looking for the culprit
last evening with no luck; hopefully my daughter will be able to
capture the pest(s) this morning before I loose anymore bloosoms or
fruit. So far, I've only had to toss two young Celebrities, but see
several naked stems. They sure are quick!