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["Donna &/or Kieran" <holycow@cookeville.com>]

This is sure a weird year.  Not that I am complaining, but it's June 20 and I have seen exactly 2 Jap beetles, only I think they were both the same one.  Typically the first strays appear in late May to chew the last of the roses.  I suppose I'll wake up tomorrow to find they all came up at once.  Maybe the cooler soils in May slowed them down.  Maybe the drought last year reduced the population.  Now that I think of it, the chickens have hardly been pitched a single Jap grub this year.  The June bug grubs have been at least as thick as ever, maybe worse.     

     Could it be the Milky Spore has finally kicked in?  It was off the market when we bought the place, so about 12 years ago I brought dirt from where we'd used it 11 years earlier in the TN Valley.  I dried and sieved the dirt and spread it.  I wouldn't expect such a dramatic drop off though.  (I figured that some was better than none.)  Weather is the usual cause of extreme fluctuations in Jap beetle population.    

    Anyone else missing their usual generous Japanese beetle crop?     Donna