Japanese beetles

Just and FYI for you MN guys. Had my first sighting of the year of jap beetles last night. I watch for these pretty close each year because they hammer my birch and apple trees pretty bad. Last night they showed up and I hit them with Sevin. Keep an eye out if you have apple, pear, plum or any fruit tree and also birch trees. The will defoliate them in a short amount of time. They hadn’t hit the apples too hard yet, but were hitting the birch and plum trees pretty hard.

I lost an apple and a cherry to those *&$#@#& two years ago. That was 2 out of 3 fruit trees. 15 years down the drain.

I heard we’re supposed to call them invasive beetles now.

They’ve been all over my grape vines for 2 weeks now.

Because of the massive rains, this year is a total write off for the grapes. Rampant black rot and there’s no way to control it when it’s raining every day in June.

So I won’t be spraying them this year. I’ll put just enough powder on to save the vines from serious damage, but other than that I’m not going to get into chemical warfare this year to try to stop them.

I have noticed that there are several species of birds that are all over my grape vines eating these little buggers, I assume. If they are, they’re going to be so fat they can’t fly.

Grouse

Grouse, if you want grapes come to my house and you can take every single one of those damn vines with you. They are my latest plant to take over and are tough to control.

As for the beetles, I never rest with them. If you let them feed and breed you will have 10 times as many next year. At least at my house they get no rest and will be a constant mission to eliminate or at least control them. I work way to hard on my fruit trees to let them get destroyed by this latest invasive threat.

Unfortunately, the grapes I have are fussy wine varietals. Marquette, St. Pepin, and Sabravoius, not the can’t-kill-it native varieties of Catawba and Concorde that you’re probably having issues with Sticker.

I’ve got enough vines, but the wet weather the past 2 years has just killed me. These varieties are very susceptible to windborne molds and when the clusters are wet, they “catch” these spores at much greater rates. I would have had to spray multiple times per day back in June to have any open of controlling this and I’m just not willing to dump that much fungicide in my own back yard.

Grouse

Gotcha, that’s a horse of a different color then.

Got them in my garden, all over seven different types of Maple Trees in my yard, and on my crab apple tree. The only tree not being eaten is the Ash, which probably has the “other” invasive beetle anyhow. The neighbors apple trees, birch trees and Maples trees are also going down too. They’ve been all over my neighborhood in Rosemount for over 2 weeks now. Too many to do any spraying. Worthless cause now. Also had Sawflies on the pines the last two years. Spray took care of those buggers though.
…..Tempted to cut down all the trees, plant row crops, and purchase crop insurance. At least I’d have more time to fish – along with guaranteed payback;)