I was pulling weeds in the vegetable garden this weekend, and came across this weed in the basil patch. I was about to pull it when I realized it was full of Japanese beetles, and there were no Japanese beetles on the basil.
This weed is a good japanese beetle control
This weed was functioning as a Japanese Beetle Attractant Plant, and a neat way to not use Japanese Beetle pesticides and traps. This is one of those simple organic Japanese Beetle controls one can use to deal with the beetles.
I have yet to identify the weed, as the weed identification sites I have visited have yet to yield an answer.
But think twice before pulling up a plant that is full of garden pests, its probably keeping those pests from your vegetable plants.
redpigz
Looks like the weed might be “smartweed”…we have var. “pennsylvania
smartweed” which looks similar but falls over as it grows larger.
Sweed Test
hey… your post is awful for my brain lol
JOHN WICKS
I don’t know the name of the weed, but I found also that Japanese Beetles loved to chow down on them. ‘Horseradish’ was another favorite; the only difference being that the horseradish didn’t seem to suffer from the voracious little beggars. (Then again, some consider it a weed )
Cassandra Dworchak
Hey there – this is the 5 th time I have googled something in the last few months and ended up with one of your articles of videos. Anyway, thanks for the tips. It is nice to see a real person using things on hand and his own ingenuity to get things done. I, too like to garden, DIY and cook so you’re site is a great find for me! Cheers from Michigan!!