Howto get rid of Japanese beetles

[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