Critters who ate our garden this year...2014

Japanese beetles....

I know everyone was talking about them...but I didn't really pay attention.

Then one day, I noticed my concord grape leaves looked like lace...

Sigh.

Eventually I did look them up on Wikipedia.

I wanted to make sure they were what I thought they were.

The write up is interesting...although depressing.

They are attracted to just about every plant.

You can use a soap/water mixture...which I will be trying out next spring!

I will try to post my results of a few different types of mixtures too.

This past year, I just reached out, picked it up and squished it.

Black Horsefly...

These things weren't eating my garden...but they were REALLY horrifying!
They are a relative of the horsefly...which is already big and scary.
These suckers are TWICE the size of a regular horsefly!!!
They are jet black all over and probably the worst looking thing I've seen
since moving to the country.