Pest Patrol

Japenese Bettles have been eating away at the only fresh veggies we are getting from our garden at the moment, our beans! It is amazing that something so small...

...can make such a mess!

The kids and I whiped up a batch of Japanese Beetle bait to trap and kill the bettles with out spraying them with all that yucky stuff! Here is the recipe:

Ingredients:

1 cup water

1/4 cup sugar

1 mashed banana

2 1/2 tsp. or 1 pkg yeast



Dissolve sugar and yeast in the water. Mix the well maxhed banana into the sugar water. Put all ingredients in a gallon milk jug. Place the jug (with the top off) in an area where Japanese Beetles gather. The fermentation and odor of the bait attracts the beetles which get in the jug but not out.



Here is James and Emmy giving it a good whirl!

One web site I was reading said to place the jug off the gorund a few inches, here's our jug, let's hope this works...

*****UPDATE*****

The bait in the jug was not working well and so we tried a bucket of soapy water and just knocked them into it. This seemed to work well if you go out once or twice and day to drown any little pests that may have arrived.

Our Garden and it's "First Fruits"

Actually the first fruits went to my Nana who made Rhubarb Pie's (that were amazing)! When I picked the next batch I made this Rhubarb Cobbler and was naughty because the next morning I had it for breakfast with vanilla yogurt on top! Dessert for breakfast, yummy!!

Here is where I found the recipe:

Our rhubarb patch:

Here are a couple pics of our garden, which includes tomatoes, beans, peas, summer squash, zucchini, cucumbers, bell peppers, pumpkins, and sunflowers!

And lets not forget our massive wild blackberry patch that sprouted up in our yard about three years ago. It is getting huge and we have to pull the runners out of the lawn here and there to keep it from taking over! It is loaded with blossoms so hopefully we will have a good harvest!!