Hi All. After 70 years in Alaska, now in Virginia, I have met the Japanese Beetle. ARGHHHH. Now I know what you all face. I only have a few dahlias (or had) and they ate the blooms before they hardly opened. We are putting up a deer fence (8') but that won't stop the JB's. I bought something called SEVIN that is supposed to kill on contact. Hah. Not that I noticed. As soon as the fence is up in a day or so, I will think about ordering some dahlias. The deer seem to prefer eating my lilies (sent a large box of bulbs down before I left Alaska) down to sticks. They survived and hopefully will be gorgeous next year. I planted a cover crop of buckwheat to try to break up the concrete ground here and to introduce more organic. Will follow with oats and field peas to die over winter. A whole new world.
