Japanese beetles

[Dotch]

Made a visit to Reb's place Saturday and was impressed with his lawn and gardening prowess. Then as it was just about to rain a visitor from the east appeared: A Japanese beetle. Even worse, a couple of them were fornicating on his Early Girl tomato plant apparently after they'd had a good meal on the leaves. Another friend in the TC had a tree pretty well defoliated by them. Nasty things! Anyone having run-ins with these pests this year? 

Reb's pet Japanese beetle mugs for the camera

http://www.extension.umn.edu/garden/insects/find/japanese-beetles/

http://www.extension.umn.edu/agriculture/soybean/pest/japanese-beetle/

 

[Early Riser]

My evening ritual after work, and again after dinner is to go out to the garden and squish as many of these pests as possible.

I have found that pole beans are a good trap crop, taking most of the infestation away from other pants. I have three trellises of pole beans around the garden and they have, by far, the most beetles out of any of my other plants. 

I have three apple trees and they are also very fond of their leaves.  

They also seem to like asparagus ferns. After pole beans and asparagus, they like my red and yellow raspberries. I find a few here and there on potato vines and rhubarb. 

They do not seem to like my black raspberries, strawberries, cucumbers, scarlet runner beans, carrots, beets, onions, zucchini, sunflowers, kale, chard, lettuce, spinach, bush beans, basil or tomatoes. 

[delcecchi]

Three words....

Milky Spore Disease.

[Dotch]

Ya that might work, if one could get most people to do their lawns and establish the bacteria in the soil here. Since it controls only the grubs and the adults can fly long distances for food, hence the problem. I also see in the comments on the fact sheet in the link above that it was not effective controlling Japanese beetle grubs in Ohio St. trials. Resistance? Dunno.  

[RebelSS]

Huh...and here I thought Del was referring to what the NL probably has...... 

[smurfy]

On ‎8‎/‎2‎/‎2016 at 0:17 PM, RebelSS said:

Huh...and here I thought Del was referring to what the NL probably has...... 

is that what you call the relationship between you and the NL????????

[RebelSS]

There's that odd squeaking noise again, anyone hear it?   

[smurfy]

5 hours ago, RebelSS said:

There's that odd squeaking noise again, anyone hear it?   

that your bugs buzzin,or maybe just maybe that's the mating call of the NL!!!!!!!!!!!! 

[StephenRamon]

Last Friday, I saw a beetle at my home's carpet. It is very difficult for me to get rid with this beetle and I also saw some eggs were laying on the carpet, which was quite damaging. Then on a recommendation of my neighbor I had called up the Queens NY pest control services, who had used an insect spray and where the experts spray around the floorboards, furniture and on carpets and helped us by preventing the carpet beetles laying their eggs and removing all the food sources.

 

[PurpleFloyd]

I read somewhere that the chemicals used by Queens NY pest control caused male pattern baldness and birth defects in pet hamsters. 

[StephenRamon]

Yes, I agree with you, but there are some professionals in Queens NY who provides an eco-friendly spray, which is not harmful.

[RebelSS]

2 hours ago, PurpleFloyd said:

I read somewhere that the chemicals used by Queens NY pest control caused male pattern baldness and birth defects in pet hamsters. 

 

Non-matching carpet and drapes have been known to cause numerous issues, too, with or without beetles, especially in Los Angeles. Keep the hamsters safe by putting in a zip-loc bag during spraying.

[delcecchi]

What do you have against Japanese Beetles?   Diversity is good.   We need all nationalities of beetles.  Even VW beetles.   Asian Lady Beetles, everything.  All nationality and gender identity beetles. 

[RebelSS]

And pretty soon there'll be little chinese restaurants springing up everywhere...there goes the neighborhood. 

[PurpleFloyd]

7 hours ago, RebelSS said:

And pretty soon there'll be little chinese restaurants springing up everywhere...there goes the neighborhood. 

Not unless they ban the toothpick crossbow here too. Takes those beetles out clean. 

 

[RebelSS]

Maybe line up all the non-compliant VW's and gas 'em all out with diesel fumes. 

[JuanJohnson]

Thanks for sharing.

[leech~~]

1 hour ago, JuanJohnson said:

Thanks for sharing.

 

I agree.

[1968]

I hung 4 tanglefoot traps this year and quit counting at 200k bugs(counted out 1/4 cup to get a baseline). Lots of days with a gallon or more caught, sometimes 2. Lots of info stating it just makes matters worse, but I disagree. Despite inviting clouds of them plant damage was minimal compared to not trapping. My cherry tree hasn't been completely defoliated since trapping began last year. Still gets hit, but not bad. Haven't noticed any real lawn damage either.  Just for easy math, if half were females I prevented over 5 million eggs from being laid. I like not using poison and bycatch was only 2-3 bumblebees over the last 2 years.

If you decide to trap stay away from bag traps. They are a pain and greatly increase the number of dead stinky bugs in the trap, which acts as a repellant. https://www.amazon.com/Tanglefoot-Japanese-Beetle-Xpando-Trap/dp/B077XLPN3J/ref=sr_1_6?s=lawn-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1537568898&sr=1-6&keywords=japanese+beetle+trap&dpID=51WRxjClq%2BL&preST=_SX300_QL70_&dpSrc=srch

 

[EnriqueSmith]

Japanese beetles can do a serious damage to our plants. It is very important to get rid of these beetles as soon as possible.

Edited September 29, 2018 by EnriqueSmith

[delcecchi]

You guys might consider milky spore disease...or nematodes or other stuff.  

[1968]

On ‎9‎/‎29‎/‎2018 at 5:35 PM, delcecchi said:

You guys might consider milky spore disease...or nematodes or other stuff.  

That does nothing for all your neighbors beetles that are within range of your targeted plants, unless you can get EVERYONE to participate..

 

[delcecchi]

1 hour ago, 1968 said:

That does nothing for all your neighbors beetles that are within range of your targeted plants, unless you can get EVERYONE to participate..

 

perhaps you could enlist the people in your neighborhood to participate in a group effort. ?   Typically buying the spores or nematodes or whatever is cheaper if you buy a lot than if you just buy enough for your yard.  

[1968]

You've met people right? Getting everyone in just my 500m beetle radius to agree, pay, and actually do it would require a firmly enforced city ordinance that 3 rivers parks would also have to adhere too.  As it is, only about 5-10% of people care, as shown by trap numbers seen. Maybe the rest are fine with poisons. Fleetfarm always gets cleaned out of traps so that is somewhat promising. But they are PIA bag traps..

 

 

[nofishfisherman]

Maybe try psychological warfare.  Find and kill just a few of the invading beetles and then display their bodies impaled on toothpicks around the edge of your garden to stand as a warning to the others.  

 

You could also consider a propaganda campaign by scattering tiny leaflets around the garden with messages designed to convince the beetles that the real enemy is your next door neighbor. The only problem with this idea is finding someone that knows Japanese well enough to write the leaflet for you.  Plus you'll have to factor in printing costs. 

 

Neither of these options require buy in from your surrounding neighbors.