Howto get rid of Japanese beetles

[sixdogs]

We have been plagued by Japanese beetles ever since I had fruit tress. They made a mess of my lawn by killing the grass and fed off the fruit trees.

The fruit trees are now gone so I want those bugs gone. Chemicals work, but I have dogs on the lawn I don't want injured so on a lark I bought these Safer Japanese Beetle traps. They were around $6 each. Anyway, I put them up not expecting much and in a few hours the bag was nearly full of bugs. See photo. It weighed maybe 4 or 5 lbs! I put another bag on and moved to a different spot with similar results.

These traps are amazing. I also bought some Spectracide brand traps and they look about the same but with a smaller bag. They were $1 cheaper. Basically, both work but I like the Safer ones better because the bags are bigger. Finally, I think it's adios to these destructive beetles.

 

[oldnslo]

The traps work but they also invite all of the beetles in the neighborhood to your house. I hung them upwind in the farthest corner of my property to try to reduce the number around the house and in the flower beds. It seemed to help draw them away.

 

[sixdogs]

The traps work but they also invite all of the beetles in the neighborhood to your house. I hung them upwind in the farthest corner of my property to try to reduce the number around the house and in the flower beds. It seemed to help draw them away.

Good thinking. If I'm in farm country with no neighbors and farmed corn/soybeans edge to edge, would I need to do that or just hang in the tree? Any reduction for me is helpful.

 

[RalphVa]

If you have a large enough property, the traps work great placed way away from where you want to stop the beetles from being.

Other methods are: 1) if not too severe, knock them into a bucket with soapy water in it. 2) put down milky spore in greasy areas where you've had the beetles. May take a while to work. Kills the grubs in the ground. 3) use permethrin or pyrethroid to spray directly on them. This stuff is deadly to ALL insects; so, follow the label and be careful with it.

You can also use trap crops. Notice whatever they seem to go after first and put in more of this crop to trap them (so you can knock them into a soapy bucket or use permethrin on them). Around here, they seem to go after grape leaves or rose leaves first.

Ralph

 

[wngsprd]

Thanks for sharing. I plan on giving these a try. The beetles are the worst ever this year, and yep, grape and rose leaves are getting hit hard.

 

[wngsprd]

Been looking but can't find these or any other Japanese beetle traps in the stores.

 

[sixdogs]

Thanks for sharing. I plan on giving these a try. The beetles are the worst ever this year, and yep, grape and rose leaves are getting hit hard.

Get on the stick since these apparently only work for a few weeks during the breeding cycle. I have caught around 15 to 20 pounds of Japanese beetles already. I am shocked at the number. It must be 10,000 or 20,000 or who knows. Boy, do the dead ones smell bad.

Been looking but can't find these or any other Japanese beetle traps in the stores.

Same here. I figure the word is out and the bugs are bad.These traps really work. Get extra bags and buy on Amazon if you have to.

Also, I've evolved to like Spectracide dual bait traps the best. Their bag fit another brand for interchangeability and the dual bag is deadly. The Safer brand is a little bigger trap, which is nice but other bags don't fit and their bags don't fit others so out of their bags means no bugs.

 

[RalphVa]

I just bought a trap at Southern States.

They may be mostly gone to ground by now though.

Ralph

 

[TnAndy]

Milky spore is the only long term solution. Trap and spray in the meantime, but put the spore out once for the long term.

 

[sixdogs]

Milky spore is the only long term solution. Trap and spray in the meantime, but put the spore out once for the long term.

Can you tell me more?

 

[rekees4300]

For my grapes I use 1 tablespoon of Dawn Liquid dish soap per 1 gallon of water. Spray directly on beetles. Kills on contact.

 

[NorTracNY]

I was told that you're supposed to buy the traps for your neighbors. Yes, they work and trap the beetles, but they attract them in.

I have found that the BEST solution is chickens. I use to have the beetles all over everything years ago. I got some chickens and found they LOVE them. I honestly can't remember seeing a single beetle around my house and barn in a few years. I did see 2 of them last week though when I was picking blackcaps about 200 feet from my lawn.

 

[TnAndy]

USDA sent folks to Japan to find out why the beetles didn't go crazy there, and they discovered a bacteria that destroys the grubs in the ground stage, but since the beetle was introduced here, the bacteria (milky spore....so named because it turns the grubs a milky white when infected) didn't exist here....hence they went nuts with no natural control.

USDA rolled the stuff out....they got barrels of it in in the 70's here, and sold it at cost. It is supposed to be a one time treatment...the spore (which only affects these grubs) spreads in the soil as the grubs die. But if the beetles get in an area that was never treated, they are gonna spread like mad until the spore catches up with them.

The stuff isn't cheap, but it's the only long term control for them.

 

[sixdogs]

I'm the OP on this and wow, have I found the solution to Japanese beetles and grubs. I bought a granulated product with the chemical "acelepryn" in it. You spread in early-mid April and it eliminated my grubs/beetles. I used 150 lbs per acre (0-0-5) setting and it costs $35 a 50 lb bag. It's a low impact product and does not hurt bees or worms.

It's supposed to take two years for full effect because of the the cycle of grub to beetle, but I noticed and almost total result the first year. After two years, we only found a few beetles in the yard and this is despite being surrounded by zillions of acres of bug friendly soybeans.

Bees are fine, worms look the same and my wife's plants almost untouched. You can buy cheaper products but they appear more harmful and really didn't work for me.

 

[RalphVa]

Follow the label. Milky spore is just another form of BT, the organic killer of worms/grubs.

 

[Ford850]

We had the beetles really bad for years, but we noticed the numbers dropped dramatically the past year or two. Maybe they are settling into a more normal population.

 

[5030]

Sevin