Because a female Japanese Beetle can lay 40 eggs in her lifetime, if you let her and her twenty female egg mates from last year live, next year they can produce 800 JBs. Maybe some skunks will get some of them. Moles might wipe out ten or twenty, but every female that lives ...do the math. I may be the only person who has a good history with beetle traps. But when you say spraying is your only option, you are overlooking letting the trap catch them so that all you have to do is drown them. The beetles will find your roses regardless. And the pheromones they give off while one or two are on a rose will attract more beetles. That's why the beetle traps have two different lures. one pheromone and one flower. My part of the world has had horrific beetle infestations. We started putting up traps ten years ago. We had stopped the horrible multiplier effect that having a JB Target Plant flower garden can cause. We had gone from putting up ten traps to only putting up four. Then came three years of drought that finished the beetles off by encapsulating their larvae in hard clay. This year? I've decapitated three beetles. That's all I've seen and our first beetle date was June 6 or 7 for eight years. I will put a couple of bags out after tomorrow's rain, just in case any vagrants are around.

Is Algae-fix not on your list of 'safe' algae killers? It is actually safe for fish, but it's my understanding that all of these products have to be used with caution (and low doses) in the heat as the affect oxygen levels in the water...? I'm a pond newbie, but I have done incredibly well with Algae-Fix. It says it's safe for fountains and ponds, fish and 'wildlife.' No one has died yet, and my pond is an incredibly vibrant eco-system...koi, goldfish, hybrids, toads, toadpoles, skimmer bugs, dragonflies, birds drinking pond water all day (including the hummers, which hover at the edge of the waterfall and drink from it). So no problems so far. I also gave my parents a bottle and they use it on their three fountains. They also love it. Maybe this isn't what you had in mind? Sorry to jump right in on the thread. I usually hang in the rose forum, but I was looking for javelina advice and saw this discussion. Algae was a HUGE problem my first two springs, but since discovering the Algae-Fix I haven't had any algae at all, of any kind. Heather

Since we're on the topic of squash, I'm going to (pardon me please) do a mini hijack. I'm growing pie pumpkins and Table Queen acorn squash. I've NEVER had one grow! I get tons of gorgeous, dish sized blooms, then nothing. SO, I'm assuming it's a pollination issue?? I've decided to hand pollinate in case that's the problem but I see that squash have worms..ugh. Well, figs have wasps, lol. So, if I actually coax a squash out, should I put it in a nylon stocking? I buy them all the time for tying plants, so I have several. I'd planned on trellising anything that vines in my southern raised bed because it'll stop getting enough sun by Dec. I use the stockings as slings for any fruits that need them. I love squash, but I'm the only one that eats them, so I'm only planting a few but would hate to lose the one's I do get. I'm in Central Fl, just north of Orlando...any suggestions as I undertake my first winter squash venture?

Kelley, I just noticed that your tree is branching out just like my Eureka. Did you pinch it to encourage the branching? If not, the FE is doing a great job! I have a bottle of Foliage Pro sitting on my shelf for about a year now and I wonder if it'll go bad if not used within a certain amount of time. I really like the results of the fish emulsion and organic granular fertilizer I have been using. I guess I better use the Foliage Pro too just to get it off the shelf. I just got a new mandarin tree last week. I think I will use Foliage Pro on it exclusively to see how the growth compares with the NZL because they both are entry level trees. Too bad the growing season is almost over so I would not get a true comparison. :(