annpat -- I don't mind multiple applications of boiling water or vinegar. I was saying I didn't want to try six different things in a row if the first five aren't going to work---that's why I asked in this forum if anyone had good luck with the water, the vinegar, or anything else out there. I do hate poisons and rarely, if ever, use any. And only then with the smallest amount possible and never with wind. I'm 99% organic, more than most people. As it so happens, I hacked and pulled all those weeds (way more than the photo shows), no poisons involved. I will try vinegar on top, for good measure, to slow their comeback. However, not everyone is physically able to pull a lot of weeds out of cracks like I did, although I do have back problems. Some people are elderly, disabled, etc. And not everyone can pay someone to do it, either. Sometimes, extra help is needed. That's why I was asking around in this ORGANIC forum for an organic alternative--the purpose of its existence, I believe.

sounded like a witch hunt scare mongering issue when i first readit and it still sounds that way, someones out to discredit organic farms in favour of other. anyhow it seemd to get results lots of chicken littles running around proclaiming the sky is falling. i dunno to me there is lots of animal manures used in gardens sometimes in farms and i can't even imagine getting anything from plants grown thus as the manures come from herbivours, and there are many e-coli's but not the one that can be catastrophic. though i'm no scientist i do not believe or see how a plant can gulp up material containing any virus or bacteria then pass it on to people. my knowledge of how food is broken down so those very fine hair roots of the plant can absorb it, just doesn't fit. now of course conamination can occur when polluted water is over head irrigated onto plants, so extra care is needed in washing or cooking those plants before eating. and in processing plants the same if there is contamination it can cause issues, but then again with any of the fresh stuff it generally says wash before eating. len Here is a link that might be useful: lens garden page

Japanese Beetles' rely heavy on scent, and you can use that as a weapon against them. Here's how: Kill the first Japanese beetles you see in your garden. It's important that you catch them early, so keep a close watch. They regularly appear during the second week of June in my area. You may be a few weeks ahead or behind that schedule. When you see a few beetles, get to work: Fill a bucket about half full of water. Add a quarter of a cup of dish soap. (The amount of soap isn't that critical as long as it's present.) Snag beetles with you gloved hands and place them in the bucket. If touching them doesn't appeal to you, you can knock them into the bucket by giving the branch they're on a quick shake. This could take some practice. Leave the beetles in the bucket. They'll die and begin decomposing. The smell will deter other beetles, and the presence of soap will discourage or kill mosquitoes. (The bucket will only smell nasty to beetles.) Set the bucket in an area where you've had bad infestations before, or select a spot that gets good airflow. In doing this, you're letting new beetles know that the area is off limits. Think of it as the beetle equivalent of razor wire. Leave the bucket in place for at least a two to three weeks, adding to it every couple of days. You'll see beetle activity slowly diminish over that time. If you start this procedure too late in spring, it won't work nearly as well -- if at all. _____________ The soapy water works. My method is a little different. I half-way fill a plastic bowl (soft spread margarine or whipped topping) with water and a few drops of dish soap. I also fill a spray bottle with the same solution. Shaking the branches over the bowl often causes the Japanese beetles to escape, so I spray them first with the spray bottle. With soap in their eyes and on their wings they don't immediately fly away, giving you time to knock them into the soapy water solution in the bowl or to pick them off before they fly away. Using several bowls allows you to spread them out increasing the effectiveness of the dead bug scent as a deterrent. http://forums.gardenweb.com/discussions/1710432/organic-solutions-for-japanese-beetle-control hope this helps...I just did this, I hand picked them, added them to boiling hot water and dishwaching liquid, instant death, now hoping the scent will deter others. don't want to use any poison even milk or tobacco spray kills any soft-bodied insect and I love my ladybugs and their larvae :-) Fortunately I have many wild insect-eating birds. this is how Japanese beetle larvae looks like

My getting horse manure mid-summer this year was worth it: Only 1 rose-slug out of the entire garden (50+ roses), that's on the hill where I could not apply horse manure. Previous year of NO horse manure I had at least a dozen rose slugs. High-phosphorus ATTRACT pests. Yves Seedling got DOUBLE-DOSE of Dr.Earth NPK 4-10-7 ... I was absent-minded so I applied that twice. That's the only rose which was attacked by thrips ... I killed 5 thrips on that rose, after seeing one deformed bloom. Yesterday I saw one grasshopper on that rose, so I chopped that pest into half with a scissor. I was cutting blooms for the vase, so I inspected all my roses: none of them have grasshopper, except for Yves-seedling. Yves Seedling is in its 3rd year, no thrips whatsoever in previous years .. it's a dark-red rose. Re-post the info. Here's an Abstract from Cornell University, entitled "Effects of manure and chemical fertilizers on insect pest populations on collards." http://www.researchgate.net/publication/223371840_Effects_of_manure_and_chemical_fertilizers_on_insect_pest_populations_on_collards Department of Entomology, Comstock Hall, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY " This proposition was examined using collards grown in five treatments: two with fresh manure at two levels (12 and 220 ha−1); one with ‘sheet composted’ manure at 220 ha−1; a chemical fertilizer treatment (785 kg ha−1 of 13:13:13 NPK); and a control treatment with no added nutrients. Population densities of two flea beetles and two lepidopteran pests were monitored weekly. During population peaks, flea beetle densities were significantly higher on plants receiving chemical fertilizers than on plants receiving similar amounts of macronutrients from manure. Flea beetle, imported cabbage worm and diamondback moth densities were significantly higher on untreated plants than on plants receiving any added nutrients. Flea beetle densities were also significantly higher on plants grown with ‘sheet composted’ manure than on those grown with fresh manure. " *** From StrawChicago: As to rose-midge, the only time I had that was when I did my oat-meal experiment in 2013 fall: mixing oatmeal with fluffy potting soil, and topped Golden Celebration with that in the fall. That created a perfect moist & fluffy environment for rose midge to hatch. I saw midge flying around that rose, plus deformed blooms, so I read Cornell University research which stated that too dry, or too wet would stop midge. So I put my soaking-wet-clay on top, and FLOODED that area many times per day. That took care of rose-midge for good. No other roses affected, and no midge in my 2 decades of growing roses. This year I topped my roses with DRY & alkaline RED-LAVA-ROCK and pea-gravel. Here's a good article on Rose-midge control: http://www.pghrosesociety.org/rosemidge.html "The only reported effective non-chemical control for rose midge would be daily removal of affected new growth tips and destroying the debris. This prevents of larva from dropping to the ground and pupating into new insects. Do not compost the remove plant material for this will allow the life cycle to continue in and around your garden. This requires diligent daily inspection of the new growth to detect the infestation and remove the plant part before the larva (sometimes referred to as maggots) fall to the ground. There is some anecdotal reports that removal of any mulch and loose soil around the plants in late fall will remove the embedded larva which burrows about 1-2" below the surface. Again this material must be removed from the garden or anywhere within 150 feet to prevent return of the insect. The only scientific study published in the horticultural literature on in subject of rose midge control appeared in 2006 authored by Dr. Janice Elmhirst ... The two biologicals tested are commercially available, one being AVID (with the active ingredient abamectin derived from the soil microorganism Streptomyces avermitilis and the other DOKTOR DOOM®, a ready to use permethrin formulation. The predators were a nematode (Steinernema feltiae) and a predatory mite in the form of an unidentified Hypoaspis species. The chemical control was Matador (lambdacyhalothrin), which is similar to the active ingredient in the Bayer chemical products mentioned earlier. The results of this study were interesting in that the predatory insect approach actually had a higher level of midge damage than the untreated controls. The best result came from the Doktor Doom product with less than 2% damaged rose growth. The next best was the chemical control with approximately 4% damaged tips. The Avid did better than the control but not by a significant amount." http://www.pghrosesociety.org/rosemidge.html