At my wits end and about to give up... Japanese Beatles

I bought a Spectricide Japanese beatle trap since I had seen a few Japanese beatles... that was 3 days ago in that time I've had to empty the trap 4x daily I have (no lie) a 10 gal. garbage pail over flowing with dead beatles.... the pheromes seem to be attracting them from the whole suberb to my yard! I don't know if I should take down the trap, it seems to be making everything worse! I really can stomache the mass carnage anymore, I have to empty the bags/trap instead of replacing the bottom bag because otherwise I'd go through at least 4 bags a day... my husband thinks I should give up and take them down. What do you think?

I quit using the bags after attracting all the JB in the neighborhood!! I just hand pick several times a day.. My neighbor uses sevin - i haven't tried that. I am seriously thinking about applying milky spore...

We didn't use the bags this year after attracting the neighborhood beetles last year. I'm staying out of the yard as much as possible so the birds will do their work in the trees and garden (and they are stuffing themselves!) and let the chickens roam to get anything on the ground.

There was a thread on this where someone used a shop vac with a little water and dish soap in the bottom and vaccumed the suckers off the favorite plants. I might try that tomorrow... my beans are getting killed.

This morning I took it down; I haven't seen a Japanese Beatle all day! I've been checking my plants and not a one.... I will never use another trap for ANYTHING that has a pheromone attractant! This product was a disaster!

Crimson,
Hand pick them off and drown them in soapy water. The traps are worse than anything I can think of. They attract the very bug you are trying to get rid of and when the bags get full they attract flies galore. I found most of my roses infested with them and I've spent the last week gleefully picking off the beetles and drowning their a**'s. The company that makes these traps should know that they do not work, and yet they advocate them anyway. They should be taken off the market.

Anne

Purpleice, you're right that the trap makers should stop advocating their product, but they do work in the sense that they attract the beatles. The problem is that the darn things stop off at the garden deli before they make their way to the trap. I have more Japanese beetles than usual this year, and I don't even bother with the water any more. I don gloves and crush them with my fingers--crunchy revenge for the damage they do.

I have heard that the systemic imidicloprid has some affect on Japanese beetles - for anyone that also has aphid or hopper p[roblems, this might be useful for your more favored plants. I don't think it can be used on veggies, but on a favorite ornamental it can be. It also isn't harmful for things that don't suck on your plants. It doesn't seem to work for other beetles, but for some reason it has some affect on the Japs. It also doesn't affect caterpillars. Depending on the size of the plant/shrub, it might take a little while to get up into the plant, but it could be worth a try.