Japanese beetles, Please help...PLEASE

I cannot believe I am still seeing Japanese beetles in my garden. I purchased Sevin, put Sevin all over the place, after reading and following the instructions, and the Japanese beetles are still alive and well. Arrrgh!
Also, for good measure, I placed Milky Spore on my property.
No one is living in the house next door as the owner is ill and lives with his sister. I mentioned this because I am wondering if I should also dust his lot with Sevin. This could become costly but a gardeners gotta do what a gardeners gotta do.
I have the property owner's permission to 'do what you must."
What I "must" do is rid my soil of these beetles. I have planted 40 roses this year, along with various annuals and other perenniails .
Any and all suggestions welcome and appreciated.

Thank you,
Misty.

I don't have any personal experience, although I did see a few of them in our yard last year (they were on a basswood tree that was dying for reasons we haven't quite identified). I searched and found this thread: http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/620672/

I hope other folks can post suggestions. Japanese beetles are nasty garden pests.

Misty, I understand your frustration. Their nasty little critters. Please tell me you used precautions using the Sevin. That too is nasty stuff and can cause health problems for you. I garden organically so I don't use the stuff.

Milky Spore takes time to activate and grow. But you can do some things to help ward the pests off, for one thing you can plant some "trap crops"...........four o'clocks is one most often suggested for beetles and it certainly works to keep them off my roses. You can also plant some "junk" grapes as another lure. You can also get the pheromone traps and put them on the outside edges of your property. It will help draw the beetles away from you plants and would be a lovely gift for your neighbors......grin You might also check around your yard and surrounding area for the following weeds and eliminate them:
Beetles are fond of certain weeds and non economic plants such as bracken, elder, multiflora rose, Indian mallow, sassafras, poison ivy, smartweed, wild fox grape and wild summer grape. Elimination of these plants whenever practical destroys these continuous sources of infestation.

Thank you for the suggestion and for the link.

I've heard that ducks eat them.
http://home.earthlink.net/~runnerducks/id14.html

I like the idea of ducks eating them IF I had a duck. Well, there's one in the freez...Oh, never mind.
(And, no there really isn't one in the free...)
I would love to have a creek and several ducks. How'd you know that?

This message was edited Mar 19, 2008 8:50 PM

i think i was googling duck food as i have a few wild ducks that have adopted my pond.
I was curious what they ate. there is a pond on either side of me that most of them inhabit. but i do not have any jb's for what it's worth.lol

get the mexican brand soap called Ariel. Do a light mix, and spray it on your plants, should deter those bugs

I like the traps. I caught 5 quart sized jars of them last year. That's a TON of beetles!

Last year was a bad year for them.

Misty,

I have 4 O'clock seeds i could send you. D-mail me if you are interested. The one I have is "Broken Colors" and it grows quite big and wide. The blooms are wonderful!

Beetle traps work OK--if you keep them away from your garde. Too many people stick the traps right by their Roses, or something else the Beetles love to chomp on. If you do that--you are only attracting more Beetles tot he very plants you are trying to protect.
Read the directions on the traps--I believe it tells you to put them about 30' away and "downwind" (?)

Gita

Here's a picture of the "Broken Colors" 4's.

Yes, 30 feet or so AWAY from the area you want to protect. Traps work very well in addition to using grub-X and milky spore.

I use a Bayer product on my roses that works pretty well, All-In-One Rose & Flower Care. It's an insecticide, fungicide and fertilizer in one that you apply to the ground (in liquid form) once per month. Or if you don't need disease control you could try the 2-in-1 Systemic Rose & Flower Care granules. Both are systemic so you don't have to worry about missing a spot or it washing off if it rains. Also, it doesn't kill indiscriminately like Sevin does. If a poor ladybug finds its way into Sevin it is toast! That's why I try to use it only if I have to and usually just on edibles. Only insects that take a bite are affected by the All-In-One. (And you don't have to worry about spraying chemicals and getting them all over you.) You do have to be careful if you're near a creek or pond though because you don't want this stuff to pollute it.

I do like Bayer's products and I am going to buy one of the products you recommended, plantfreak78. I will also plant some four o'clock seeds and hopefully that will eliminate the problem or curtail it.
I did the Milky spore but I understand it takes years before becoming very effective. This weekend as I was gardening, I found some dead fat grubs. That made me so happy, I almost cried.
Thanks everyone for your suggestions. I was at my wits end.

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