Wanted: A killer for Japanese Beetle

There’s a potentially significant new vineyard pest that is starting to make its home in Nova Scotia vineyards called Japanese Beetle. We haven’t seen any at L’Acadie Vineyards but it’s at our backdoor and researchers like Dr. Deb Moreau at the Kentville Research Centre have been monitoring migration, defoliating feeding habits and predators for 10 years. She has given updates and told my classes on guest talks that 90% of insects die in typical Nova Scotia winters and warming could bring more pests – a double-edged sword for this year’s great growing season.   

Wanted: A killer

This year we started planting plots of dill and cilantro to attract predators for phylloxera that we have been monitoring in our Leon Millot block, a practice of Biocyclic Vegan and organic pest control. Coincidently, those herbs also attract a predator for Japanese Beetle called Winesome fly (good name for a wine hero) and we plan to expand these plots to include sweet alyssum next year. Added to that, our forest edges next to vineyard blocks hopefully will provide another biodiversity backstop against the new pest.

Read more, https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/japanese-beetles-crops-nova-scotia-1.7303549