In article ,
(DA) wrote:

Hi everyone,

Heard it on the radio today that neem is a great organic pesticide that
can be used against Japanese beetle. I have never heard of neem before and
had to run a small search on the Net. First thing that caught my attention
in the Wikipedia article about neem is that it is only effective against
the pests that actually digest it via the sprayed plant tissue and it
suggests that some bugs (ladybugs for ex), among other insects are pretty
much immune. My greatest interest is in whether or not Japanese beetle
would be affected - we've been hit really hard by them in the past. So,
does anyone in this respectable group have a real life experience using
neem as a pesticide? Could you please post your observations, especially
if they include the japanese beetle?

Where do people buy neem and in what form for garden use, anyways?

Thanks!

D~


Not useful for Japanese beetles. Here's my article on neem, including the
facts on the phony claim to kill Japanese beetles:
http://www.paghat.com/neemworship.html

Essentially, if you drenched an area with neem on a very regular basis
that made the garden even more unpleasant for humans than for beetles,
you'd kill a small percentage of larvae, none of the breeding adults, and
you MIGHT slightly lower the overall fertility rate. You'd lose more
beneficial insects than harmful, including those that would've kept many
other potential problems in check, so that other garden illnesses will
arise.

Plus you'd get the same effect using any horiticultural oil, there's
nothing special about neem to kill any insect other than by drowning them,
unless an actual pesticide has been added to the oil, which is what some
commercial formulations do (adding pyrethrin or azadirachtin, which kill
lots of beneficial insects, a few harmful ones, not much effect on
Japanese beetles per se).

The only serious organic treatment is bacillus. It has to be used very
narrowly as instructed and it takes three years to work, but once agarden
is thoroughly innoculated, there'll never be japanese beetles there again,
never another need to fight them. So it's worth going the slow but certain
route.

-paghat the ratgirl
--
visit my temperate gardening website:
http://www.paghat.com.html
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