Japanese Beetle Battle

Is there anything out there that protects lilies from this thing? I am soooo tired of squishing the little devils, and of course Hubby is an avid lily collector.
I read online that planting geraniums deters them, then I read another study saying that planting geraniums increased them.....
I tried my garden spray to no avail.
Help.......

Carbaryl ( most popular brand name Sevin) is rather benign but deadly to Japanese Beetles.
Edited to add, just don't spray into the blossoms where bees work. It does not differentiate between bees and beetles.

This message was edited May 30, 2007 3:25 PM

Have your yard treated for grubs which Japanese Beetles feed on.

Actually the grubs are the larvae of the Japanese beetle. Milky Spore (brand name Doom) will work but it takes a while. and of course removing them from your yard won't protect if your neighbors are providing a breeding ground. The adults are quite mobile.

You, Farmerdill, are correct. It's moles that eat the grubs and the grubs, if not eaten, turn into beetles.

The only time we never had a problem with bugs was when we lived next door to a flock of guinea hens.......wonder if I could put them on leashes?

Four O Clocks..Mirabilis is supposed to be poison to them, but for them to work, you'll need to plant them far enough away from the good plants to draw the beetles away,

I'll echo the 4-O'clocks

once i started planting these... i've never had JB problems on my roses.

So...you are saying to plant 4-O'clocks, but not beside the lilies...far away from them?

the first year i had them, they were in a different part of the flower bed, with a bay window dividing it... 4-O'clocks in one half, roses in the back half... and it made the difference... i never put 2 and 2 together until i read it on Daves back in Feb.

the 4-O'clocks will BUSH out, so don't put them too close to anything you actually want to see.

but distance-wise... i'd say that first year they were about 20' apart... then the next year, some how i had the O'clocks growing IN my rose bed... but thats another story.

Last Saturday, my husband came in and got me and was horrified at what he discovered. Thousands of Japanese beetles on the Virginia Creeper, Wild Grape, Concord Grape, Asparagus. He usually doesn't get rattled, but these guys were everywhere. I got the seven out and loaded up the dust-miser and dusted everything that had them on it. If I accidentally dusted a bloom, we destroyed the bloom that was dusted. We really try to be good to the bees. It was amazing, within a few minutes the JB's were dropping like rain. I haven't seen anymore around lately, but I'm keeping watch. I don't like to use pesticides, but sometimes you have too. It's the only time I've had to break out the Seven all year. Hopefully, I won't have to do it again.

Diann

well, 4-O'clocks are Hubbys favourite plant...but I don't like them cause the branches always break....

I'm trying to get it in my head right...the 4-O'clocks are a deterrent to the Japanese beetles? Is that what you are trying to say? I have room to put them near all my lilies if that is the case....

That's true Diann -- one year [the year i purchased Seven] i had all these, never to be identified bugs devouring my Rose of Sharon -- which died 2 yrs later. Sometimes you just need a pesticide.

i personally have not seen JB's yet this year. YET.

I think the 4 O'Clocks are really tasty to the JB's, problem is that they are also poisonous to the JB's. Odie Well, bye bye JB's. :)

TCS, what did those bugs look like? I had horrible problems with the Northern Corn Rootworm beetle. They were actually more destructive to my flowers than the JB's were. Nasty little green quarter of an inch or less beetles.

ohhhhh.....I get it now!!! (light bulb goes on)

Next year I will plant 4-O'clocks along the back fence line...hopefully they will attract the JB's and be done with them....wish me luck....

if you do a search for 4-O'Clocks, you will find many threads that talk about this... but here is an old one that may help
http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/269462/

Now, ya got the right idea. I was going to do that this year, but I never remember to plant the 4 O'Clocks.... *sigh*

Diann -- yes that looks similar. it was a few years back, around August.... DH and I did all sorts of internet searches and never "hit the nail on the head" but the corn beetle was one we thought was darned close.

they were that shape and the greenish-yellow in color. prolly a relative.

Terese

Is this it?

http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/647558/

Nasty little critters. Seven takes them out too... :) But they like to get right down in the bloom.. So, it's not as easy to dust for them...

If anyone seeds seeds for next year.. i will have tons [DH loves collecting the seeds] I'm finally running low as i just mailed out 2 big handfuls today.

Next year i should have yellow too, as i just planted 2 plants this year.
but i'll have thousands of seeds come late summer/fall.

OK.. now hopefully this thread will stop getting new mssg for the next minute so i can get back outside and plant my huskers red.

Diann -- this is the site i went to after i googled it
http://www.ento.psu.edu/extension/factsheets/wNCnRootworm.htm

mine werent as green as yours.

[OK, gonna hit enter then run out the door without looking back for that red text... =====> ]

ps -- thanks though... does look like it though.

Thank you!!!!

Yeah, that's the same guy, I think the difference in color is in cameras and lighting. Now, go plant. :)