Common Garden Pests: Japanese Beetle

One of the tough things about gardening is finding disease and unwanted pests destroying your plants. We found this grape plant on the clearance rack at Lowes a few years ago and decided to give it a try. This is our first harvest year. Look at those beautiful grapes! And whatta ya know...pests. Japanese Beetles will attack the leaves, flower and fruit of almost any plant, though they tend to like tall foliage the best.

Last year we had an issue with moles so we used Milky Spore to try and eradicate their source of food...grubs. And what do grubs grow into? You guessed it...beetles. Soooo, back to the drawing board. A fellow gardener recommended a product made by Bayer to kill the beetle larvae. I didn't feel like the Milky Spore made much of a difference last year and since the moles are back I think it's worth trying something new. As far as the beetles, I think my best option is Neem Oil and simply handpicking these ones off. Yuck.