Japanese Beetles

8 Jul '06 8:11 am

Hello Everyone,

I love looking at all of your beautiful gardens and reading your comments. Unfortunately, I am new to this computer (Mac), website and gardening. I recently moved to a beautiful, over 200 year old house in Maine, USA. The gardens here are overgrown and full of invasive species. This spring I removed lots of mugwort everywhere! And now I have noticed horse-nettle popping up quite a bit. Now things are looking pretty good, except for my new problem. Japanese beetles all over the wild roses and some unknows. Here is a pic. of them feasting on an unknown plant and wild rose bush bud. I do not like to use inorganic pesticides. I have sprayed neem on them. That doesn't seem to work. Maybe traps are a better idea, I have heard of using Bacillus popillae. Have any of you tried either of these methods? Please let me know how it worked for you. Or if you have a better idea. Thanks