We have lots of them here in Tahlequah, as well as Japanese Beetles. Don't have figs either. They have been clinging to my corn and even the tomatoes, but with little noticeable damage. I hand pick them (have to grab them by the sides because otherwise they prick your fingers) and crunch them just enough so they cannot fly. I keep a coffee can with me while in the garden to collect them, and then I drop them all in with my Indian Runner ducks. The ducks eat them as if they were potato chips. Also, these beetles hover around our lawn (where I'm sure they lay eggs) and our chickens have a blast chasing and catching them. Their larvae are white grubs and they make a mud capsule to mature into beetles. They are loud and a nuisance, but I can't say they've done much harm. George

I live about 60 miles southwest of New Orleans. Nothing we have planted is over three years in the ground. The best for me, so far has been my citrus. This year will not be good because of a late frost at bud time. Valencia, blood orange, tangerine, Ruby Red grapefruit and Louisiana Sweet produced heavily. The Owari and Brown Select Satsumas have not grown enough to produce well. Meyer and Lisbon lemons are doing well (planted next to the south side of the house). I spray when I see white flies. There has been a bit of leaf minor damage, but that will be less of a problem as the trees grow. I planted an American and a Fuyu persimon. The American is growing slowly, the Fuyu has died three times in the same spot. The next Fuyu I buy will go in another spot. No bugs were noticed, they just dried up (after looking lush and beautiful) and died. No spraying on them. The muscadines are growing beautifully and quickly. I may have a monster to tame with pruning. The Cowart is loaded with fruit I hope to get some before the animals get them all. The other varieties are Carlos (for wine), Summit, and Fry. One vine makes all the muscadine I can use, if the animals would leave them alone. I had 2 Fry and 2 Cowart at my last house. The only problems so far, with no spraying, is a few aphids. The peaches are a different story. The 2 Florida King, which ripened first, gave us enough fruit to eat and preserve. The other 3, LaPeche and La Festival, ripened later and were beset by bugs and squirrels. It also started raining every day, so I couldn't effectively spray. We lost all those peaches, except a couple we picked still too green to enjoy. Peaches look like they will be a lot of work, but we love them. We planted 3 apple trees (Anna, Dorsett Golden, and Ein Sheimer). Two died (I think because of root damage from hurricanes Katrina and Rita. One bent the trees to the ground from the North, the other bent the trees to the ground from the South.) and of course I didn't mark which was which. I was going to mark them later and then after the tags fell off, I was going to identify them from the fruit. I think I may try to replace them. I had 2 fruit on the remaining tree, but something wanted them more than me and was willing to eat them green. Not much bug problems yet, but then no fruit. The pears are growing well and I have some fruit on the Keiffer. The Pineapple and Orient are growing well, but no fruit yet. They are young trees. Had one banch with fireblight, which I removed. It has not returned, yet. Figs normally do well down here, but I'm having trouble getting them established. Most froze back to the ground or had major limb damage from the last frost we had. All the trees were sprouted and some had breba crops. Now we have a few fruit on the LSU Gold and the Ventura, but as they ripen the birds get them. My neighbor has 2 well established trees, but I looked at them yesterday and all the ripe ones were split from the rain. I don't think he is even picking any. I tried growing pawpaw, the seedling died and the grafted Mango variety died to the root. The root is coming back and is doing okay as I am now shading it. I thought planting them between my shed and my neighbors shed would be shade enough, but they got direct, middle of the day sun and were fried. I plan to try another grafted pawpaw in the future. I have a wild mulberry. It grows very fast and produces a ton of fruit. This year we had tent catepillars (after the fruit was gone). I sprayed the tree once for a scale infestation. I need to trim some branches, but overall a no care tree. I have 2 jujubes (Li and Lang). No pests, no problems. We have fruit this year for the first time. I sure hope I like them. I have never tasted them before. The biggest problem has been root suckers. I mow most of them and cut by hand the ones close to the trunk. I planted some wild cherry trees, but a rabbit ate the bark of and killed them. I will try again. I planted some banana trees a couple of months ago. So far, so good. I planted two Cherry of the Rio Grand and a Strawberry Guava. The goats ate them to the ground, but one of each is coming back. They are very small. I have two English walnuts. I thought they would never break dormancy, but finally did and started growing like gangbusters. Then something (Junebugs?) ate all the leaves off. I sprayed, but it has been raining every day so I don't know if I did any good. They are sprouting again. I have two pecan trees (Sumner and Elliot). They are finally starting to grow. I hope to try a few in about 5 or 6 more years. I have 3 loquats. They produced one year and then I pruned drastically to correct a shape issue. Just a few this year, but should be great next year. No bug problems, except a few leaves were chewed on the edges. I guess the bugs needed something after the walnut leaves were gone. I have (had) 5 plum trees (Methley, Santa Rosa, and Bruce). Several died and yes, I didn't mark the varieties. They seem to have problems with mosses and lichen growing on the trunk and need to be sprayed a couple of times a year. I've used copper and lime/sulphur. Both seem to work. No fruit to speak of yet. The couple we had were small. They may be getting too much shade from an oak tree. I have one seedless concord. It is very slow growing (at least compared to the muscadine) and has not produced any fruit yet.

Patrick/Prof. Dirt ~ Thx again. You're right about the "barehanded" thing. That was actually a mistake on my behalf. I do wear gloves. However I never used to be afraid to lift a gloved handful up to my nose for fear of seeing an ugly-white- monster-grub looking back at me. We live on a 2 acre woodlot so most of our compost comprises of shredded dry leaves & woodchips( run twice through chipper/shredder). I use the "hot pile" method to compost. I find I only have to use a small amount of nitrogen based ingredients (approx. 3(C):1(N) ratio). I hand dice/slice/chop all green, nitrogen rich ingredients well before. I mix everything(shredded leaves+veg.scraps) together prior to putting into the bin. Voila. Full bin heats up and ready to use in a 3-4 weeks. That's beneficial because our gardening season is short. I could eat my mix before I actually plop it into the bin. That is if you're fond of chewing dead leaves & wilted greens. LOL I don't use egg shells or that sort of thing in the bin. Vegetable based only(carrot tops/beet leaves/etc.) I contain everything in closed bins with mesh wire flooring that have never allowed rodents etc. to enter. Prior to adding the "larvae" I never had any surprises or meat protein to worry about when digging in ... But thanks again for calming my larvae/grub/maggot concerns/phobia once again. PS. I won't be adding anything like that to the "mix" again. Yuk!!

I also agree about not spraying anything for bugs - long ago I did, and that was a horrible mistake - none of our fruit trees (pomegranites, plums, & figs) had hardly any fruit that year, I am afraid because I killed most of the pollinators. However, we do not have Japanese beetles here, so I don't have that challenge. I hand pick the curlicue rose beetles when I see them, but frankly they like my Cecile Bruner which goes up over 30 feet, and I don't climb up to get them, and the rose seems to bloom well anyway. We have lots of lady bugs and soldier bugs which eat the aphids. Also, several times a Spring we get HUGE flocks of teeny tiny grey birds - I think they are called bush tits. They are about the size of a hummingbird, but are shaped like sparrows. You notice them because of their very high squeeky calls. Hundreds show up on one giant flock and immediately settle on all of the rose bushes. The first time I saw them I was alarmed until I went to see what they were doing - they were eating aphids! That absolutely settled my decision not every to spray any insecticides. They come back 2 or 3 times each Spring now, when the aphids are at their height. As everyone else says, if you are not lucky enough to get visited by bush tits, and you can't stand it, just blast the aphids off with water from a hose - it is very satisfying. Jackie