Our raspberries are continuing to produce fruit, and the blueberry crop was good: 3 1/2 gallons, with an estimated 1 quart lost to the local birds. I have been fighting japanese beetles with the cup of soapy water. Most of our blueberry shrubs show some damage from these insects, but only 5% of the leaves are affected. We lost a few raspberry canes to insect borers, but these were pruned off right away and went on the compost pile.

"No one seems to have an answer to dealing with them yet." Bug Stop by Spectracide. WalMart sells it. You spray around all your windows (or at least the ones that the LBÂs congregate on). It leaves a residue that last for months. I am still on the bottle I bought over two years ago. It takes care of LBÂs, Western Cedar Seed Bugs, cluster flies, hornets (ever have a bunch get in your house in late fall?), crickets, ants, you name it. Yes, it leaves a residue, but it is not tacky, dries clear and does not stain (at least not wood or painted wood). I rank it up there with Liquid Prell as one of the great inventions of the 20th century. narcnh Here is a link that might be useful: Epinions on Bug Stop

I believe this could work... My cukes were destroyed by wilt and I have noticed an abnormal amount of striped Cuke beetles this year. I would go out each morning and pick them off the vines/blossoms, often killing 50-60/day. I happened to find a couple pumpkin seedlings growing at our local compost/yard waste site, pulled them up and planted them at home. Ever since they started blooming, they are an easy target for the cuke beetles and much easier for me to find, trap and pick out of those huge blossoms. And, I seem to be finding fewer and fewer. I'm not sure why they are so bad this year but hopefully, my killing them off by the hundreds will make next year better, although I WILL be planting pumpkins again. They also like the big zucchini blossoms too but the stink/squash bugs are slowly killing them off. I have seen squash/stink bugs nymphs on my corn (as well as sunflowers and beans) so I suspect they would go for millet, which seems to resemble a corn plant somewhat. One interesting thing though: I have 2 pear trees: a European and Asian... the stink bugs (BMSB) only bother the Asian pear tree...

Good to hear they are better this year. It must suck to pay so much for a fruit and have half of them be bad. Hopefully there will still be some left when I head up there. I moved my trip up to mid july in hopes of having a little better selection of stuff to try.