You don't want these messing around in your garden!
(For those who don't recognize these - they're Japanese Beetles and they LOVE to eat bean leaves until nothing is left - THEN THEY EAT THE BEANS!)
Hey! Cut that out!
LOL! They look like they are enjoying your garden maybe a little TOO much.
Not anymore they're NOT! - They've gone to bad bug heaven!
At least they went out with a smile... ;)
LOL!
Hey Honeybee, last summer those fellas came to visit my bean plants too... how'd you get rid of them? I heard there's no real easy way to 'send them to bad bug heaven'. lol
lorvan - there are traps you can purchase that attract the males. In my opinion the traps just tell the beetles where the food is!
You can knock them off into a container of soapy water and they will drown - this works!
You can pierce them with your thumbnail as I do!
I have read that if you shake the vines they will fly away and not return. I've tried this, and yes they do fly away, but I don't know whether or not they return.
They hide out under the leaves. If you catch them early in the morning, you can just squish them. The easiest way is to carefully sneak up on them, and squish them through the leaf.
If you disturb them or they see you coming, they just fall to the ground.
As far as I know, birds do not eat them.
You can put down something called "Milky Spore" to kill them, but unless the entire neighborhood does this, it has little effect.
The best defense in my opinion is "diligence" - just keep killing, by hand, every one you see.
HoneyBee - Court used to pluck them off and toss them into the retaining pond to the bullfrogs. :D
Thanks, HoneyBee!
That's what I did last year - keep a bucket of soapy water next to my bean plants and just put them in there as I came across them. They are horrible little things... they ate a good chunk of my bean leaves last year and I'm hoping it won't be as bad this year. I'm not a huge fan of buying fancy contraptions for the garden (gardening's supposed to be simple, right?), so I'll keep with the same method.
I wonder if those 'sticky fly strips' would work to catch those Japanese beetles --?? -- They're used a lot in barns. They come in a little cylinder / tube and you just pull out and unwind the sticky tape. They're about 18-24" long. We live out in the country and sometimes the flies can be a real bother. I just hang up one of those strips for awhile... especially in our dog run area.
jannz2 - my concern with putting up sticky fly strips in the garden is that you might catch beneficial insects such as bees and lady bugs.
The japanese bug "traps" are very effective. There is a funnel shaped bag with an insert. The insert has a pheromone that actually attracts the beetles. The bag can be emptied (I can't remember if there's a killing compound in there too or if they just die because they can't get out) and used again - lasts all season, we have used some for more than one season.
I don't think fly strips would be effective.
No No ladies that's not the way you handle these umm h....y little devils. Plant lots of larkspure and 4'oclocks around your precious veggies and special flowers. Draws 'm like a magnite and WAM! their little hearts stop at the critical momement. Atleast they go with a smile on their faces.
AmandaEsq - I agree that Japanese beetle traps work effectively - I used them when I lived in Tennessee during the mid 1970's.
BUT - I really believe they attract beetles that otherwise would not be in the area.
As I understand it, the pheromone used mimics the female beetle - which entices male beetles to your garden. On the way to the trap, they stop off and have a feast!
If you want to use these traps, put them far, far away from your garden.
Yep - that's the idea I guess - to lure them away from your plants. My garden at the condo was pretty small, so I can't speak to whether we had more or less. If there were enough for me to buy the trap(s) though, it must have been bad, because I don't typically kill things. We sure did catch a lot of the buggers, and the bullfrogs in the retaining pond were fat and happy. :)
AmandaEsq - frogs eat Japanenes beetles? That's good to know - we have toads in the garden.
I think they'd have to be alive for the toad to be interested in eating it. The way it worked in the water, he'd toss 'em in, they'd splash around a bit and something would rise up from the deep and eat it. ;)