Crop has been devastated by Jap Beatles. They have been chewing on the cones and all this year. Not going to be able to sell the ones that have been chewed on to the brewery because they don't look good and I don't want to put out a product that looks sub par. The ones we have harvested,even those that have been chewed on, smell great and are full of lupilin. I will still use them just can't sell them. Next years pest control will be back to the drawing board.
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Milky spore powder does work but you have to treat the WHOLE area. Those things can travel a good distance.
There are other chemicals that can be used to get rid of the grubs. That breaks the cycle. You could also bring in skunks to dig up and eat the grubs, but then you have skunks to deal with.
You can follow my wife's treatment plan. She has rose bushes at the corners of our yard. When the buggers come in from a neighbors, she catches them there and kills them off before they get to more sensitive plants. You can do the same. Plant a few rose bushes around the property and poison the hell out of them at the first sign of outbreak. Of course this destroys any "organic" rating you may be trying to achieve but that's the problem when dealing with non-natives.
Only like 20 lbs. the Japanese Beatles really hurt them. A lot of the first flowers died before they became cones after the Beatles decimated the leaves
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Neem oil did absolutely nothing last year
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Neem oil would have completely prevented that.
And:
1) neem oil is not a chemical, it's a natural, organic liquid that comes straight from a neem tree, which grows in India.
2) although neem oil stinks like hell and works systemically, it only affects flavor if you harvest within a week from the most recent treatment, i.e. it's not a long lasting agent.
I picked up 2 litres of neem oil from an agricultural supply store last time I visited India. I mixed small amounts of it into a 10 litre jug and treated my army of chili pepper plants with it once a week for many summers. Never affected the taste of my chilis in the least and the plants didn't get attacked by aphids ever again. Prior to using the neem oil, one year I suffered complete crop wipeout due to aphids.
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