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Location

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Somers, CT

They popped up yesterday and ate a bunch of leaves as well as my other garden. I have been spraying them with Sevin but it only lasts for a while. The systemic I am using does nothing. Any practial suggestions?

6/27/2005 9:41:30 AM

Menomonie, WI (mail@gr8pumpkin.net)

The systemic will kill them. The thing that most people dont understand is that with a systemic the bug must ingest(eat) the plant to get a good dose of insecticide. Sevin will kill them also. Triazicide does an excellent job also. The thing with Japanese beetles is to stop them in the grub stage with Grub-ex. Or use the organic Milky Spore Disease.

6/27/2005 10:14:13 AM

Hudsonville, Michigan (michiganpumpkins@sbcglobal.net)

You can also try to divert the ones you can't kill with a couple of those pheromone traps upwind of your patch...In my experience they prefer other vegetation and only bother my patch when there are great numbers of them.

Frank

6/27/2005 10:19:11 AM

Somers, CT

Thanks, I did not have much of an issue with them until this year. I used grubex but they are coming from the lawns around the neighborhood. I soaked with Triazicide mid-week and have been using Sevin daily for bugs. These things come out fast. I think next year I will try growing on Mars. How are pumkins in methane?

6/27/2005 11:39:04 AM

Ctpumpkin@optonline.net

Agreed systemics like Imidacloprid are slow to kill adult beetles. While eating the lethal dose, their feeding might be considered unacceptable. Unfortunately the same is true for the other contact stomach poisons mentioned. A synergized Pyrethrin like Kicker with it's pipornyl-butoxide (same as Wasp & Hornet killer) is fast enough to knock a beetle out of the sky. But it is a short lived contact & not recommended for this use. I have never had the nerve to try it on an AG to see how the leaves would tolerate it....now if someone had a back nine patch or a still homeless start for experimenting on....Who knows? They might be OK.

6/27/2005 8:50:51 PM

Garden State Pumpkins

I've never really had a problem with the adult beetle munching down on the plants..but the larval stage is always a problem..My white grub problem is yearly and I treat it often...which leads me to believe that they bed down it the high growth crabgrass around the edges of the patch and crawl through all winter..they usually chew up the roses first...

6/27/2005 9:30:18 PM