Any secret weapons for the dreaded Japanese Beetles?

Please do share with me! Should I just buy about 100 bag-a-bugs and line them up around my roses? I am fighting a losing battle!

:) Thanks

I was told that Four O'Clock flower scent is a Japanese beetle deterrent. I started some from seed this year and they haven't flowered yet. Meanwhile, the JB are chewing the legs off my roses...

Four o'clocks work but only if you have a few Japanese beetles. If you get them like we do here, they just eat the four o'clocks, which the do prefer and are supposed to be poisonous to them, while the others eat your roses. If you do have just a few, plant the four o'clocks next to the roses.

I use the lure traps. I know, I know, there are lots of people that are convinced that only draws them to your yard. I've been using them for years and they work. How do you tell they're bringing them in when you have a jillion of them without the traps? I know they help a lot. I also if they're really bad give everything a spraying of Sevin. I don't like using chemicals but it works long enough to keep them from eating everything down to bare dirt and a single spraying works along with the lures.

If you use the lures, don't put them around your roses, put them off away from the plants they're eating. You don't need a bunch, just one or two.

Milky spore works but it takes a few years and really only works if your neighbors use it too. It's also really expensive if you have a large yard. It's probably the ideal solution in the long run though.

I agree with hart. I use the bag-a-bugs. Have 2 traps that I hang away from plants and have disposed of 2 to 3 bags per trap per season. My theory is the more I can toss in the trash the better, and since I am the only real flower gardener in the neighborhood I have the best restaurant in the area for them.

The old 'jar full of soapy water' treatment works best for me. I don't want to use pheremone traps 'cuz I don't want to be encouraging even more of the nasty beasties into my yard. I don't want to use chemicals because of my son. If you don't mind chemicals, treating your roses with a systemic pesticide is an option.

There are biological controls for the JB grubs, like milky spore and parasitic nematodes (Steinernema glaseri and Heterorhabditis bacteriophora) that can be applied to the lawn, but adult beetles can fly in from up to a mile away, so unless everyone in the neighborhood is using them, you may still have a problem. I've never tried any of them. Of course, my 'lawn' is a joke-- weeds, bare spots, crabgrass, but not much actual turf. :-) I wish my neighbor would treat his 5 acres of manicured lawn, though.

Tiphia wasps and assasin bugs are JBs natural predators, so enouraging them in your yard may help. There are several host plants to attract the wasps, but peonies and forsythia are the only ones I can think of off the top of my head. I'm not sure how to encourage assasin bugs, but they seem to be pretty plentiful in my yard.

The stupid beetles mostly attack my most prized plant possession-- the Harry Lauder's Walking Stick that was the first birthday gift my husband bought me back when we were dating. So, I go out and drown the buggers 2x a day from June 'til whenever. I don't think it's a battle I'll ever actually win. In my yard, it's mostly just an attempt to minimize the damage.

I have been using milky spore and and four o'clocks. Planting extra four o'clocks with the expectation that they could be devoured is the guidance that I've been given. Also, it's my understanding that it's the plant which is poisonous to them, as opposed to the scent being a detterrant.

The pheremone bags simply draw more JPs to the yard, so I stay away from them like the plague.

Back to work I go ... Good luck!

One more time - I suppose if you have a really miniscule, postage stamp yard the lures might draw the beetles but I've been using them for years here and I see a lot less beetles, not more.

In fact, I've seen a lot of people claim that they draw the beetles, but I've never seen a single person say they tried them and ended up with zillions more beetles. I don't know how on earth you'd decide that anyway. I know there are zillions here without the lures, not many with them.

from someone who once planted some 4 o clock seeds ( about 17 yrs ago) i am still pulling them out of every garden, planter and crevice 17 yrs later. if you have them and theydon't work onthe beetles get rid of them as quick as you can.
the 4 o clocks coming back where i don't want them are as bad as the beetles!

Sorry to offend, but I was simply responding to the original question by Spunkster ...

Well, clearly hart and I are fans of the trap. I don't put my traps up at the first sign of a beetle. I wait till I see there is a real problem. Like stepping out side and they are all over the plants and flying into the side of the house. Some years are worst then others.
Sometimes I'll just pick them off my plants and feed them to my pond fish.

Wrightie, nothing like a healthy discussion, and I think this question comes up every year and the discussion is about the same. Those for and against the traps and those who feel 4 o'clocks are the answer.
I also grow 4 o'clocks and I want the JB to leave them alone too. Now if I saw a bunch of dead JBs at the base of my 4 o'clocks I'd plant a plot of them in the back yard just for the beetles. lol

I'm not offended, Wrightie. Sorry if I gave the impression that I was. Like I said earlier, every time anyone mentions the traps several people jump in with dire warnings. I don't know if those with the warnings have ever actually tried the traps or are just repeating the same old, "Traps will lure beetles to your yard!!"

Even if you used them and suspected they were drawing the beetles, since they usually show up in small numbers and then before you know it, you're up to your eyeballs in beetles, it's more likely the beetles would have been there in droves anyway.

It does usually take a while for the traps to get rid of enough of them to make a difference. That's why I suggested a spraying with Sevin as a backup if the beetles are really bad.

I know here in the valley the past several years they have been awful. They got onto my grapevines one year before I found the traps and within days had skeletonized virtually every leaf. They went after all the new growth on the zelkova and ate all the new leaves on that tree. I felt like Paul Muni in the Good Earth fighting the locusts.

I love my four o'clocks too. I apparently collected too many seeds year before last because mine haven't come back the past two years.

you guys can come here and have some of my 4 oclock seedlings...in my aone the jb's love my oak leaf hydrangea and french willow shrubs. sevin is the only answer i have found, but i usually miss the window before they start chewing.

The study by the Univ. of KY is what first put me off of the JB traps.

Here is an article on management of adult JB's from the U of KY: http://www.ca.uky.edu/entomology/entfacts/ef409.asp

One of the spots where I always hang one of mine is the big pine tree at the back of the yard. That tree has a huge wild grapevine climbing it, inches from where the trap is. I've never seen any beetle damage to that grapevine when using the traps. If I don't use the traps, they'll skeletonize every leaf on it.

I see the traps as a way of being able to avoid having to spray chemicals over and over. If anyone is worried about them, don't use them, but I highly recommend them based on my own experience over several years and massive beetle invasions.

I can tell you the Sevin is also very effective but you'll have to respray if you don't use the traps. And, contrary to another comment in that article, I've never seen the first aphid or mite after using Sevin.

I think every university/government study should be preceded by the words: "From those wonderful folks who brought you kudzu." Or the invasive/destructive plant or animal brought in by well meaning scientists of your choice.

I'm glad that the traps work for you, Hart. I choose to stay away from them.

Hmm, I think what I meant to say was that Four O'Clocks lure JB's away from your desirables. They are attractive and when eaten, kill the beetles, thus detering them from the prized plants, like roses!! I did not plant my Four O'clocks around the roses but in another bed, hoping the blasted bugs would get sucked over to the other bed and stay away from my roses!!! No flowers on the Four O'Clocks yet, but soon.......

I tried the traps before and they caught a lot for the season, but God help my roses, they were still tattered. This year, we put in a thick layer of wood chip mulch and that seems to have thwarted them a bit. There hasn't been much noticeable damage. Next year, I will try Milky Spore. You have to start early in the year with those...........

i had a major hatching of jap beetles over the weekend. mixed a 3 gallon sprayer with sevin concentrate and a lot of dish soap. hit all the beetles favorite areas with it yesterday and did another 3 gallon with the same mix this morning.
saw no beetles this morning, yesterday before the spraying they were thick. i think the soap helps the sevin cling better, like a wetting agent but cheaper and handy. plus we know they hate the taste of the soap.

Stinking things decimated one of my hardy poplars(guess I should be happy they are not in my roses) Got a bucket of soapy water and drowned all the ones I found, only about 10 but that was more than I'd like to see.

Here's the *best* thing to do when you see the first JB in your garden. This works every time, without fail. I've been doing it for years and I've never had a problem. I learned this from my DD, who learned it from his DD.

Get these ingredients:
1 Bottle of Beer
1/3 Fifth of Whiskey
1/2 Bottle of Murphy's Oil Soap
2 Cups Turpentine
2 Tablespoons Orange Juice

Put together in a jar or what-have-you and mix well. The measurements don't have to be exact, just eye it up. Now go outside, look for those JB's. Curse the daylights out of them. Then drink the concoction you just mixed up. I guarantee the JB's will be the *last* thing you'll be worried about. 100% money back guarantee. This is also guaranteed to make you forget all your other troubles too. (BTW, if you really do try this I am *not* responsible for what happens to you!!!)


In all seriousness though, I gave up fighting JBs a long, long time ago...when I decided to go organic...or as close to organic as I could. Now I just do my best to bring in the birds and etc that'll eat the JB's. Other than that I try not to worry too much. A couple years ago I saw someone post that they had a dog who would eat their JB's. I wanted to take my dogs to their house so mine could maybe learn that trick. Wouldn't that be awesome? Now, that dog should get extra milk bones!!

Good luck in the good fight gals!

Someone told me JB's leave our area during July. Anyone heard this?

An atomic bomb is the only thing I think would really work!!

i have kept damage to a minimum this year on tender shrubs that the j beetles love with a mixture of sevin and dishsoap. did tit at first sign or infestaton. a week later only a few beetles reappeared, so hit them again with the mixture. very little damage compared to prior years.

Thank you for sharing that info niobe, that's something I definitely will try. I have noticed in the past few days there doesn't seem to be as many JB's. I go to pick them off & I might get one per shrub. Of course they might be eating something new & I've overlooked it.

I haven't seen any JB's this year yet.

I just found those stinkin' jbs are attacking my flowering cherry but ALL the way at the top, how do I get at them???

Liquid Sevin in the spray bottle that attaches to your hose.

This is interesting. Talked to someone about guineas today and he said since he got his flock of guineas two years ago, he hasn't had a single Japanese beetle. They eat the bugs but they also eat the grubs in the ground. I knew they helped with keeping down ticks and fleas but didn't know they worked on JBs too.

Wrightie, it's weird how the beetles will show up. I just saw the first ones here a week ago but I know people who just live a few miles from me who have had them for weeks. Last year, I had them weeks before a friend who lives just across the mountain.

we had guineas and it kept beetles at bay, even for a year or two aterwards. no ticks either. we do not have the birds anymore (you have to keep replacing as the attirition from animals is high, and we were tiredof the carnage and the scratching in the plants.)
but you will have no unpleasant insects with these birds around and they also kill and eat snakes.

ummmmm, sounds like an idea.

Niobe, if you keep your keets in whatever coop you want them to sleep in until they learn that is their roost, they'll come home at night to roost instead of being out all night. That will cut down on the carnage.

hate to ask, but what carnage? whose carnage?

Read four posts up, Davis. Niobe's post two above mine.

you mean the snakes?

the guinea sleeps high in trees and doesn't want to come inside. we rarely fed them after they were released, they like bugs, ticks and snakes. tho we were not expert bird keepers, we have had ducks, chickens and even peacocks. ducks and chickens want o come in at night . g hens and p cocks do not. the idea was the free roaming..yes the carnage was will all types of birds, both free roaming and penned.the predators
were fox, dog, coyote, hawk, owl.
the bug free thing was great, as was the sight of free roaming and interesting flocks on the property. but picking up dead bodies and pieces of dead bodies was not fun.
and the hens get into flower border and scratch and they also look at their image in shiny cars and peck the cars.

Oh my! Now I get it, thanks niobe.

What I was saying is that if you keep them in the coop for several weeks or a couple of months before letting them free range so that they learn the coop is where they roost at night, after that you can free range them during the day and they'll return to the coop to roost at night instead of sleeping in trees. That won't help with neighborhood dogs but it will with most of the other predators.

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/878592/

The people in this post are saying they let them out during the day and put them back in the coop at night until they learned. I don't know how on earth they managed to catch them. LOL I think it's easier to just keep them in the coop.

Chickens will do the same thing if you keep them in the coop for a good while before free ranging them. I won't free range my chickens any more because of neighborhood dogs. I lost my entire first flock to a neighbor's dog. I think guineas are better able to get away from predators during the day, though.

I put plastic deer fencing or bird netting over the top of the coop fence. That keeps any of the flying predators out. I just staple it to the posts. In over a year, I've had to restaple it once to tighten it back up after wet snow pulled it loose, but I've never had to replace it. Lowes has large rolls of it for around $12.

There's a lot of other information on how to predator proof your fence and coop available on the internet.

I just finished reading a novel where the heroine ran a flower farm in Hawaii and someone was trying to shut her down and released a whole jar of jbs to wreck all thir plants...now I know this was just a fictional novel but the entomologist that was called in to offer ideas(he was correct on Neem, milky spore, bucket of soapy water) mentioned to plant geraniums among your plants, preferably white ones, when the jbs eat it they are poisoned.
I wonder if it really works????? Anyone heard of this?

No, I've never heard that, only about four o'clocks.

I found these online. The 1929 info in the second link is interesting. Looks like either the geraniol wasn't found to be effective or no one ever studied it.


"Use interplantings of four o'clocks (Mirabilis), larkspur, white geraniums, red (and dwarf) buckeyes whose flowers attract and poison the beetles. The leaves of the castor bean plant also poison them. These plants are poisonous to people to so be careful using them around children or pets!"

http://turf.lib.msu.edu/1920s/1929/290471A.pdf

I should repeat again, none of these plants will help against more than just a very few Japanese beetles.

This message was edited Jul 22, 2008 4:49 PM

Interesting....
I only have a few jbs I'm not infested with them so maybe it would work.....