On Apr 25, 11:30*am, "brooklyn1" wrote:
"Joe" wrote in message

...

A guy was telling me to use a mixture of Seven concentrate and Dawn liquid
dish soap with water in my sprayer. He said this would take care of the
problem if I sprayed every couple of days, and to start spraying on
Mother's Day. *Do any of you know anything about using this mixture, and
does it work? *If I go ahead and try it I want to make sure that my fruit
trees flowers are done being pollinated. I would be very interested in your
opinions. Thanks for your help.

I don't see the point in mixing soap with Sevin. *And be careful with
household cleaners, many dishwashing liquids are detergents, not soaps.
The preemergent soap will do nothing to control Japanee beetles, the beetles
are in the ground, as grubs. *And Sevin works well in killing the beetles
but there's no point in applying it before the beetles arrive. *Don't get
all panicky when you first see the beetles eating holes in leaves, Sevin
works rapidly and those damaged leaves won't hurt the plant, it'll just look
unsightly for a week or two until new leaves grow. *Japanse beetles love my
lindens and sycamores so I spray those with Sevin... a second application a
few days later does the job... the beetles emerge to feed and mate and are
entirely gone in ten days even if you do nothing. *If you read the label
carefully and follow the directions exactly as stated then there is no
problem with using Sevin, do not mix the concentrate stronger than stated....
mix it a little weaker and it will still work just fine. *I've tried the
Japanese beetle traps but those are just an exercise in futility... they
will lure only a tiny percentage of the beetle population... the local golf
courses near here use them because they'd rather remain open for business
and they don't want to deal with being sued, they have much too much area to
spray, and they know that in ten days the beetles will be gone anyway... the
traps when stratigically placed, and plenty are used, they will lure the
beetles from the tees and picnic areas... but they kill only a very small
percentage... so what if they kill thousands when there are millions and
millions.

don't be tempted to "double the strength to kill twice the number" if
you resort to using Sevin. a DROP of Dawn detergent works fine in the
diluted solution. makes it stick. don't use a lot, because it will
burn your plants. I, myself use the highly satisfying method of hand
hover, drop into jar of soapy water and drown, I walk to where
they're munching away, with a wide mouth quart mason or ball canning
jar (wide mouth mayonaise works well, just wash it out first) half
filled with soapy water. When you walk to them, walk quietly, hold
the jar underneath them (they tend to cluster pluck in great wads of
fornication sometimes....their sole purpose is to eat and reproduce as
quickly as possible) and place the jar underneath them, hover your
hand over them and they think they can fool you.......they drop down
and try to fly sideways. This captures about 80% of them and I have
the satisfaction of seeing them in the soapy water as I move from area
to area gathering more. when your jar is full, you will have to off
them, make more soapy water and do it again. I also discovered that in
spite of the fact that four o'clocks (mirabelis) are toxic to them,
they'll eat the leaves anyway, and it upsets their digestion and kills
them. So I gathered them anyway off the 4 o'clock plants as well and
offed them too. highly satisfactory!

if you don't have the patience or time to do this Zen like eradication
(it's much less harmful to the surrounding environment, and I don't
like using the now over used term GREEN...........it's not putting
harmful chemicals into the ground to wash down to add to the already
toxic solutions that are now drastically affecting our critters. I
still haven't found out if we have a bird or small munching animal
that loves to eat the beetles or the grub larval. which by the way,
you CAN spread Bt on your lawn to eliminate the larval grub of the
Jap. beetle. one of the things that brings the hordes of decending
skunk to nightly forages is an abundant amount of beetle grubs. they
feast on grubs and worms.

living in the inner town where I do, I've not encountered a skunk as
of yet, and don't see the usual possom's either, but suspect the local
gardeners here are the ones who like to spray without concerns to the
ground waters. I can't change the world, I can only maintain my
little piece of magic.

my opinions are strictly my own, but my methods are self proven by me
over the course of quite a long time.......

madgardener up in the green bowl, gardening in containers in upper
northeastern Tennessee, zone 7a, Sunset zone 36