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| Japanese Beetle |
I was out of town on business from Sunday to Wednesday and when I got home, I found some of the vines had been attacked by an army of Japanese beetles. The damage was severe on a few vines that have emerged from the grow tubes; I am unable to determine if the vines still confined within the tubes have been attacked.
The literature says the presence of Japanese beetles draws more to the same plant, which explains the focused attack on a few plants. The exposed leaves of the Cabernet vine shown were completely skeletonized. There were also a substantial number of beetles still on the plant.
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Damaged Cab leaves.
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I went through the vineyard and shook beetles off the vines, and quickly mixed up
Green Light Fruit Tree Spray that contains pyrethrins that seem to have staved off the attack. I am going through the reference material to determine what the long-term solution might be, as the pyrethrins are useful for no more than a few days.
There were no beetles anywhere to be found this morning, but I will be on the lookout while I look for a better solution.
Whatever you do, don't use the beetle traps. They use pheromones to bait the beetles into a capture bag. We used them in Michigan and while it trapped a lot, it also called them to our property from miles away.
ReplyDeleteI read about the JB traps and how they work when researching a treatment. I thought they would do just as you said. Baiting is only good for ducks, bears and deer (except the ducks part, which is a federal crime).
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