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Japanese Beetles - Printable Version

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Japanese Beetles - Elaine - 06-26-2005

I have a very bad problem with these beetles. They have eaten most of my plants. Insect sprays don't seem to work. PLEASE HELP

Elaine [color:purple] [/color]


Re: Japanese Beetles - merlin - 07-01-2005

Elaine, about two or three years ago we had a tremendous problem with Japanese beetles, mainly attacking our rose bushes. We got one of those hanging traps with a "lure" you put in there which you can get in most garden centers and many garden mail-order catalogs and hung it about 20 feet downwind of our rose garden. We caught hundreds, maybe more, of them (it was actually kind of creepy!), and they really seemed to prefer the trap to our plants! We had the satisfaction of severely reducing the population, and also not having to use toxic chemicals, which in this case, by the time the beetles would ingest enough to kill themselves, they would have ruined your plants anyway.

Some people don't like the traps, claiming you will attract hoards of beetles from farther away that would never otherwise make it to your yard, but it really did the trick for us. Haven't had an outbreak since, though I suppose that could change any time depending on favorable conditions for them.

Good luck!


Re: Japanese Beetles - KimmSr - 07-01-2005

Unfortunately those Japanese Beetle traps lure more beetles into your yard than they trap. The pheromome is a female scent that lures male beetles in and they then release a scent that lures more females in. The best place for those beetles traps is a mile or so away from your garden.
Japanese beetles are attracted to plants under stress, over fertilized, under watered, over watered, something that causes them to be stressed. If your soil is well amended with organic matter and well balanced with nutrients so the plants are growing strong and healthy they won't attract the beetles. Since they are in the garden the best way to control them is to take a bucket half filled with soapy water and knock them into it, leaving them in there long enough to drown. Neem oil sprays are reputed to do a good job today in controlling the adult beetles, but you really need to spray the beetle for it to work very good.


Re: Japanese Beetles - mompea - 08-04-2005

Since the beetles are just the mature beast of the lawn grub's larval stage I've had more luck treating the lawn with those beneficial nematodes.

Since I have an acre of lawn I am overwhelmed with Japanese beetles (only been in this house 2 years-still working on the lawn problem) but I just fill a coffee can with soapy water and while the buggers are too busy copulating to pay attention to anything else I just put the coffee can under the leaf they're on and knock them into the soapy water. Whether they're dazed from their act or the after glow they just plop into the water and don't even bother to try and fly away. I keep a can-with the lid on, they are gross to me too- in a few spots around their favorite plants. They seem to like my weeping mulberry tree , oak leaf hydrangea, climbing hydrangea and my mallow plants.

Jackie
SE Michigan, zone 6 thanks to Lake St Clair


Re: Japanese Beetles - greendude - 04-30-2006

Japanese Beetles are destructive lawn pests, especially east of the Mississippi River. Sprinkle Milky Spore Disease onto soil surface for long-lasting control of Japanese Beetles. For more immediate control, use Predator Nematodes.


Re: Japanese Beetles - pioneer - 06-07-2006

We have a dozen rose of sharon bushes and every year the Japanese beetles movin in. Last year our neighbors started using the beetle traps in their yards and that greatly reduced our beetle population. The rest of them we just knock in a coffee can with soapy water. I'm hoping our neighbors hang their traps again!!


Re: Japanese Beetles - Curious_Skibum - 06-25-2007

I read that they love to eat geraniums but it is a love hate realationship becasue then they die. I wasn''t a big geranium fan but I started planting geraniums and the beetles aren't nearly as bad. They used to cover our house so you could barely find the door. What can i say now I'm a new lover of geraniums!


Re: Japanese Beetles - KimmSr - 12-27-2007

I have heard this folk lore about Geraniums as well as Four O'clocks and have not seen that result. Japanese Beetles like my Four O'clocks a lot and I have not seen and dead ones on the ground near them. They just stay away from the geraniums, I Have yet to see one there.
Milky Spore Disease, Bacillus popilliae, if spread at the right time of year, and given sufficient time can help reduce populations. It needs to be spread around in late July or early August just before the newlay laid eggs of those beetles hatch because the larva are only affected by the MSD early in their life cycle. Spreading MSD around in the spring is not a total waste of time and energy because the disease spores will still be there when the next hatch occurs, but the grubs the will become adult beeltes in June will not be affected by the disease spores, and that is why some people that know not how MSD works will tell you it is inefffective.
Kind of the same happens with the other poisons, people put them down too late for those poisons to have any affect on the grubs. If those are spread in late May or early June the grubs have stopped ingesting food and are pupating, but those poisons will kill off the beneficial soil dwelling things, earthworms, nematodes that help control the grubs, etc. without harming the grubs at all.
These beetle populations will wax and wane for a number of unknown reasons so one persons triumph over them may not mean anything at all. Even during the season I have seen population levels grow and decline for no apparent reason, and about the beginning of August the population of beetles naturally declines since the sole purpose of the adult beetle is to lay the eggs that will become next years adults and that needs to be done by mid August.
Given the weather last year, however, I did see some beetles into October.