Hi Dave,

The very best thing you can do is go around at least once a day, preferably in the evening, with a bowl of soapy water, and knock all of the beetles you can reach into the bowl of soapy water to drown.

The second very best thing you can do is NOT put up a Japanese beetle trap. Research apparently shows, and the experience of people I've talked to supports this, that the main effect of beetle traps is to attract even more beetles to your yard.

The business about four o'clocks is apparently a myth. (I tried it out myself, actually, out of curiosity, before I found out it was a myth; the beetles ignored my one four o'clock entirely.)

I am also going to try spraying the raspberries with Surround WP this year, just to see if it works. Surround is a very fine clay in suspension, which is supposed to work because the beetles don't like to eat through it. Plus, unlike neem and pyrethrins, it doesn't affect any of the other bugs. I'm doing this primarily because I'd rather spend my evenings doing garden things that are more fun than drowning beetles, not because drowning beetles doesn't work.

Also, if you have roses, cut the buds off before they bloom until Japanese beetle season is over.

Good luck! Japanese beetle season is yucky while it lasts, but luckily it doesn't last all that long.

Alfie

Ditto the excellent advice of Alfie, if you've already bought JB lure/traps just give them to your neighbor as a present. I'd recommend keeping a close eye on your new plum and cherry trees this year. JBs love both of those and will strip the leaves clean. Thanks for the tip on Rhubarb, I might plant some as a trap crop ;o). vgkg

I was going to say buy a Japenese beetle trap for all your neighbors but you beat me to it. My mom just brought me a strawberry rhubarb pie last night. Havent had one in years. Oh the memories.

Hi Dave...here in southern maine I'm buried in JB's as soon as the wx starts to get hot...and they stick around till cool wx comes around in the fall.
JB's will fly in to your property from quite long distances and have a field day if they find goodies they like. I use traps around the outer edges of my property and catch a great many that way. I also hand pick mornin' and evenin'. When things are really bad on my raspberries and grapes I mix up a batch of Sevin and apply it...works great...and leaves a residue which catches those that care to dine later. Ayup...I know...Sevin isn't organic...but it beats losin' my raspberries and grapes. Franklin

I trapped an estimated 280,000 jbs in 2003. Course they weren't as bad last year....milky spore and hand picking help too. However out here in the country there are many jbs that emerge from roadside grass and move into the first 15 feet of soybeans along the road......very predictable pattern. So, if you don't think beyond your lot, you are ....beetled!

OK, thanks all. Is it worth fooling with the nematodes or the neem oil?

I've pretty well decided that I'm going to build a wood cage with a couple layers of porch screen on it to set over the rhubarb. I need to shade it with something anyway, or it'll sunburn. Can't very well do that with the whole garden, tho'

I'm going to try getting some praying mantis egg cases again. I lost them to predators last year. I don't know if mantises will eat japanese beetles or not, but it can't hurt...

thanks for the advice,
dave.

These Japanese Beetle traps were designed an dmeant to be used to monitor the presence of the beetles. I can remember when the guys from Michigan State University first asked my mother if the garden had any JB's and we did not know what they were and they asked if they could put a monitoring station (the trap) in the yard and sure enough that year we had the first beetles ever and every year after that. Never, ever put a JB "trap", it exudes a female pheromone that attracts the males who then exude a pheromone that attracts the females, and on ad infinitim, and you get the buggers in your yard.
Japanese Beetles are attracted to plants under stress mainly, or plants with too lush green growth from an over abundance of nitrogen. Grow your plants strong and healthy and they won't be bothered by those pests.

Kimmsr,

I didn't have any jbs 15 yrs. ago. .....so they certainly were not introduced here by traps on my part. They were fighting them on a line between Washington D.C. and Baltimore in 1952. So they have spread westward against the wind since.

I think those buggers would eat some things like plum and wild cherry leaves regardless of fertilzation.
I feel that those traps can be a useful tool when skillfully used.

Grow your plants strong and healthy and they won't be bothered by those pests.

Kimmsr, can I move next door to you? Because this is certainly not true, alas, in my garden as currently located.

Hi Alfie...it is in fairyland...:-) Franklin

30 some years ago Japanese Beetles were common in this garden, but as I added organic matter to the soil and the plants started growing stronger and healthier the JBs moved someplace else, like next door and across the road. Two years ago the lot that was vacant was built on, a commercial venture that sells hunting stuff, and I have since had some JBs visit the plants that are stressed for a variety of reasons.
If you are having pest problems it is because, as Franklin, you do not have a good healthy soil yet, or something you are doing is causing your plants to be under stress.

To be sure, Henry Mitchell, whose garden was in DC, and whom I would also dearly have loved to have as a neighbor, also claimed that he didn't have any problems with JBs because his plants were healthy, plus the birds ate them (the JBs, not the plants). Based on my experience with my garden in rowhouse Baltimore, however -- where the soil was nowhere near as good as what I have now -- I suspect that the reason he didn't have any problems with JBs is because he was living in DC. I never saw any JBs until I moved out here to Lawnland.

Question for Kimmsr...As the JB's decreased in your garden over the years were you also decreasing the size of your mowed lawn area and turning it into gardens or hardscape?

I have posted this before but will do so again for those who might be interested. One sunny day I was sitting in the display area of my nursery talking with a customer when my eye caught a bit of motion in the lawn. Upon closer study I observed JB's popping up all over the lawn and then dropping back into holes. Shortly thereafter a stream of beetles(about 25) flew out of each hole and headed straight for the rose garden. Of course! Like so many hatching insects, the JB's first sent out a scout to check the territory for danger. When it reported back with an 'all clear' signal they ventured forth. Over the years I spent a great deal of time studying the behavior of hatching JB's. Some interesting things which I noted:
1. They prefer to lay eggs in a healthy, mown lawn situations.
2. The time of first flight always involves a scout who gives a signal that it is safe to fly.
3. The swarm only leaves its underground nest when the sun is very bright and riding high in the sky...usually between the hours of 11 a.m - 2 p.m. High noon is the most active period of the day. If a cloud crosses the sun the JB's will stop their maiden flights until the sun is shinning brightly again.

In a few instances when I spotted a scout popping up I quickly placed a flat rock over the hole. Removed them several weeks later at noon on a clear, sunny day and up came the scout and then the swarm shortly after.

For those at home during the day may I suggest that when you spot the first JB plan to have lunch on the lawn on sunny days for a few weeks. Observe. It is very interesting.

Japanese Beetles have been in Michigan since about the 1940's, that's about when the guys fron MSU came and put traps in the garden and Dad got some DDT to spray and little brother drank some, we think (he had his stomach pumped at the hospital), and Dad got rid of the DDT and we looked for other ways to control pests (little brothers did not count on that plan).
I expanded both the garden beds, total and size, and mowed area, but we also had at the time, horses, rabbits, chickens, although all were properly confined and not allowed to wonder all over. The manure was used to make compost and as the compost was added to the soil, along with other types of organic matter, the numbers of JB's diminished as the humus level of the soil went up.

Kimmsr, it's likely that in many areas of Mich., the jbs have not been able to build up their population because of killing cold. Healthy soil has nothing to do with whether jbs will infest. My soil has tons of organic matter, compost, manure, etc. in it, and if anything, the lush healthy growth of my plants would only attract more jbs.

Actually what really attracts jbs are other jbs. Upon leaving the ground, they will fly to the closest preferred plant (such as roses) which is populated with other jbs. Yes, Nandina, I have watched the jbs hatching from the lawn on many an occasion and got quite a workout stomping on them as they emerged. Repeated same dance in late summer when the beetles were returning to the lawn to lay eggs.

Back to the killing cold: The winter of 03-04 was the harshest here in 50+ years, so they say. The biggest factor was that we had absolutely no snow cover the entire month of Jan. Accompanied by night after night of lows down to -20F, and only reaching a high of 5F during the day. Didn't think anything of it, other than the loss of many plants and shrubs hardy to zone 5, even zone 4. According to the public works people who had to unfreeze many a main water line, the ground was frozen in some places down to 5'.

Come June last year, I was awaiting the usual assault of the jbs. I had done milky spore in the past, had a bag of Surround ready to try on my raspberries, had removed a number of favorite jb foods, such as cherry and hazelnut trees (all grown in healthy soil). I was ready for all-out war (again) and really dreading the jb season.

I kept waiting, and waiting, thinking they were late that year. Saw one or two, by this time it was well into July. Thought they would for sure come on full force any day now. Amazingly, they never did. All summer I counted only about 20-30 jbs, reduced from a population in the thousands in previous years.

Talked with local farmers, the coop. extension, and state horticulturists about this phenomena. They all agreed that the jb grub numbers were severely reduced due to the deep cold the previous winter.

You have no idea how happy I was last summer to not have to fight them. I can only hope that they were set back enough that their populations do not increase to previous levels anytime soon. But it was the cold that did it, not compost or manure.

That's both interesting and depressing. The mown area around my vegie garden is an acre, mostly open & sunny. I guess I could spray the whole lawn area with Bt -- about $60.

Re: health of my garden -- I've been building the soil for three years -- it's pretty darn good at this point. I end up cutting back a lot of things to keep paths wide enough to walk.

I don't think I have any weak plants. I don't seem to have any issues with diseases (knock on wood) so I think they're pretty strong.

thanks,
dave.

This year has been a BiG BooM for the Mole population in my neighborhood, hopefully they'll put a dent into the JB population as they chow down on the grubs.....and sadly earthworms too. vgkg

I have grown roses in 2 locations in northern Ohio since the 70s (I have about a 1000 roses - I do not spray my roses with either fungicide or insecticide). Initually, in both locations the Japanese Beetles were very, very bad. In the first location (normal city lot) I put down milky spore and in about 5 years they were no longer a pest of any concern (I do not show roses so a hole here or there in a few scattered blooms does not bother me). In the second location (suburban double lot) I put down both milky spore and benefical nematodes; and again, in about 5 years there are very, very few each summer. In both homes - from the house to the street there is grass. All of my rose beds are raised beds with grass paths between beds. I would say rather than the JBs are going to avoid healthy plants (which they probably do to some extent), that they will not be a major pest if you allow (and assist) your garden to reach an equilibrium with nature. For example, when you look closely at a bloom, do you see a spider nearby?

In that case, maybe the milky spore and beneficial nematodes help

Because I don't spray ANYTHING, except for horticultural oil on the hemlocks in the spring for woody adelgid, and Bt on the pines and spruce in the summer for bagworms. And I don't have ANY other major pest problems, as far as I know -- which I am extremely grateful for. And my neighbors don't spray anything. And while the field next door (soybeans-winter wheat-corn) gets fertilizer and Round-up, they're very good about not overspraying. And there are tons of bees and bats and wasps and flies and toads and hawks and butterflies and moths and pretty much any other wildlife I can think of, except deer (so far). And I have put literally tons of organic matter in the garden in the five years I've been here.

AND there are lots and lots of Japanese beetles. (Which have not, incidentally, at least as far as I've noticed, been any worse in soybean years than in winter wheat-corn years.)

I put milky spore into my parents-in-law's yard in Illinois a couple of years ago, they seem to be getting better. To get rid of them completely, though, we'd have to get all the neighbors in on it, and spray it out in the woods, and so on... (In short, impossible.) There are also a few kinds of nematodes that are supposed to work out there. There's a good selection at gardeningzone.com.

Here is a link that might be useful: gardeningzone.com

Alfie.....about the soybeans. The bean years should not be worse for you...the beetles have a good trap crop - the beans. However, they are building up in those years likely because they are left alone.

Nandina, I have a question for you. In your story you mentioned that a jb scout comes out to see if the coast is clear. If it is, out comes his friends. What is the scout checking for? What would make him scared enough to go back in his hole and stay there? Or isn't there any way to know what he's looking for? Because then we could create that and keep him underground for good. Second question, what do the holes look like in the lawn that the jbs come out of? I never knew any of this about them. So it's very interesting to me. Thanks.

anitamo,
I have no idea what the scout JB is looking for. But, it would be an interesting graduate study project. The hole that remains in the lawn after the beetles fly is about the size of a golf tee hole. You really wouldn't notice them unless someone showed one to you.

If you want another interesting insect to observe...find a webworm nest this spring or fall that is on a tree branch which is low enough for you to watch. Look carefully at the branch to which the web is attached. You will note one or more fine, silk threads running from the web to the tree trunk along which a scout caterpillar travels to check out the territory. If all is well it returns to the web and gives the all clear signal. Then the seething mass of webworms heads out to feed. Here is the interesting part. If you rub out/break those fine silk lines between nest and tree trunk along the branch, the scout has no path to follow and the caterpillars will remain in the web and die.

Interesting, thanks for all these juicy tidbits.

I dont agree with the peopple that say japanse beetles only eat unhealthy plants!Mine are very healthy and it doesnt bother thows bettles or slow them down for a minite.Iv found a recipe thats been said to work and as soon as I get the ingredants im going to put it to the test,here it is............1/2 cup dryed cayenne pepper
1/2 jalapeno peppers1 gal.of water boil this and simmer for half hour,if you dont put a lid on the pan while it boils everybody in the house will be cryin.let it cool then stain throw it to get any solids out,then put in a spray bottle,make sure to repeat after each rain.i'll be dancin around my yard if this works!!!

I don't have Japanese beetles but I have other types I have to deal with. I wonder if these will work with Japanese too? I use 2 tactics mentioned here and a couple of variations.
First good organic growing. I agree with Kissmr that a good healthy plant has much more resistance to all sorts of problems and that makes control a much smaller and easier prob. to deal with from the outset.
Next I also hunt and trap. I look over my whole 5 acres every day somewhat and every week with a "fine tooth comb" When I find criters I use a combination of the following:
1) Hand hunting and kill. Just smash the ones you find. I leave the poor dead souls there on the plant. I believe other bugs won't want to visit where there is a dead one.
2) Rodale use to suggest catching the bug, running a quantity of them in a blender, then spraying the blended bugs back on the plant as a repelent.
3) With some of the bugs they make good fish food so I catch them and carry them in a jar. It is fun to watch the fish in my pond come up for them as I toss in jars full of bugs. The kids really love to help catch the bugs when they can toss them to the fish.
4) When flying bugs are at full flight, I hang a light over my pond and when the bugs hit the light, they drop into the pond and again, the fish are happy and well fed. Yes we catch and eat these fish and they are a wonderful part of the mix on our 5 acre farm. I only do this when there are large numbers of the harmful bugs, since a few benificial insects will also find their way to the light and I don't want to hurt their numbers.
5) traps. Rather than using atractant like a hormone or something like that, I use food traps. I like one gallon paint buckets for these since they have handels to hang them up. I put food that the bugs like in these. For date beetles I put what they like in the bottom of the bucket (dates with a mellon rind on top with a little bit of water for that yummy sour taste. (eyyyyuckkk)) For Japanese, you could try roses. Then each day, I boil water, then quickly dump 1/2 a gallon of boiling water in the bucket and that kills the beetles that have gathered. In my case I toss the boiled mess in to the chickens or you could compost things like roses.
6) And the chickens. They love bugs. Let them scratch or again use something like roses, not scents, that attracts them to where the chickens can eat them.
Of couse, chickens are more of a country solution, but the traps really do work.

Here's an important fact about the bacterium Bacillus popillae-Dutky (Milky Spore) which will corrolate with Kimmsr's observations. This bacteria spore is a common one, in HEALTHY soils that will support a population of microorganisms. If the soil has been depleted, over worked, is ruined or sterile from chemical application, compaction, etc., then the population decreases. SO! If you do what you can to have a healthy, vital soil system, then you are going a long way to help manage the JB numbers in your yard!

Did someone cover the fact that they prefer SUNNY lawns, rather than those shaded by large trees?

Dead jbs often have eggs that hatch out live larva in a couple of days...so don't just bury them.

Hmmm..very interesting post. I haven't had much of a problem with JBs over the years. I don't have more than one or two roses. I don't know what other plants they like. I have small areas of lawn, one is about 40x20 and is sunny, the other is about 60x30 and is shaded in the afternoon by maples.

I did have one or two seasons where they were a small problem, but not enough that I couldn't hand pick. I do know we have skunks, possums, and once we had a mole that went around tearing up the yard, when I was vegetable gardening intensively which I can't do any more. Do any of these animals eat JBs? I thought the skunks eat the grubs. I thought the mole was eating up all my earth worms, which I had in abundance at that time.

I would like to know if JBs leave an orange colored shell when they emerge from the ground? Sort of the texture of the shell on a shrimp but orangey colored. We just got a large delivery of bark mulch and layed it out on a large area and a few weeks after laying it, I saw all these shells littering the mulch. So something must have been nesting in it. I have seen these in the yard before and guessed they might be from JBs. Never seen any bug discarding one and I haven't seen any bug infestation of any kind so I am perplexed. I am waiting to see some damage soon I guess.

Adam

Moles will eat the JB larvae; I don't know about the other two.
The shells you're seeing sound like cicada shells. Do you hear a long, loud, high-pitched insect noise in the summer? Here's what I got with a google image search. See if it matches.
K.

Here is a link that might be useful: cicada shells

Hi,

Thanks for that link. NO, I don't think what I have is cicada. I don't have the high pitched sound and I have lived in New England all my life, I don't think we get those.

I typed in insect shells and did a web search and a google image search and didn't come up with any thing. What did you type in for the images you found? The shells I have are similar...the right color and the right texture maybe, but not the same shape or size.

I typed "cicada shells".

I have a japenese beetle infestation in my places in North NJ and LI and never had this before-they are attacking the pelargoniums and the dahlias as well as the roses. 3 to a flower. I have rarely seen a japenese beetle in recent years in LI and never last year in NJ (1st year here was 2005)
I squish them when I find them but anything else you can recommend other than waiting for the "season" to expire? And when does this beetle season expire?

I lived outside Cleveland, Ohio from about 1955 to 1962. I can remember walking through a field full of Queen Anne's Lace and scraping jb's into a jar. We then went to the pond and used them to catch bluegills. I remember there being lots and lots of the jb's. And I remember the bluegills were yummy.
Here in the Blue Ridge Mts / Shenandoah Valley there are quite a few of the little boogers.
Will milky spore cause problems for any other insects or plants? In other words is there a reason not to use it?
Kiki

Man yesterday was the worse day yet for JBs here. My roses looked like JB Lollipops out there, totally covered up. It did make it easy to collect them in the pan of soapy water at dusk when they seem to refuse to fly off like they do when collecting at mid-day. It's hard to find a worse smell than a 3 day old pot of rotting JBs in the soapy water soup, puuwee! I almost feel sorry for the live ones I knock into that old soup.....almost, ha.

PLEASE let me know if that hot peper spray works!!
I have JB's, Orientals and Asiatic beetles in my yard. I just moved into this house in January and dug up lots of lawn to put in garden beds. I amended all the beds with 3 inches of organic matter. Upon digging up the lawn I did find some grubs, but was advised that I should see at least 10 per sq ft, before it's considered a problem. I was finding about 3 per sq ft. The previous owners did not do anything for the yard. The other neighbors told me they never mowed. There were more weeds than lawn! Considering this, I have a lot of beetles in my yard. They are eating the cherry tree I planted, along with everything in the mint family. Including monarda, basil, black and blue salvia, the red annual salvia. Now that they've practically wiped those out they are onto other things such as spicebush, phlox maculata, seedlings of purple coneflower, dianthus, sunflower and zinnia. This morning I found a JB hanging out on my aster. I have to disagree that they only eat stressed plants because they don't seem to be picky in my yard. The cherry tree I planted was literally a stick when I got it. It branched and leafed out very well, this is not a sign of a stressed plant. My monarda was just gorgeous, until something started eating it. I wish there were something that could be put on the plants to help the adult infestations. Even if I do the grub control, I will probably have a problem with adults. Like so may others have said, the whole neighborhood would have to do it. It is making me feel like, being an organic gardener, means not being a gardener at all. What is the point of all the work? When the damn beetles are just going to come eat everything, before the butterflies hummingbirds and myself can enjoy the flowers! I think from now on I will just not plant things they seem to like, which is no fun, because they seem to like half the stuff I have! Oh and I have to say, to the people who have no beetles because they're yard is so healthy. You are probably just lucky enough, to not have high amounts of these pests in your area. Or, you may have lots of neighbors faithfully doing grub control.

Tobacco Tea works as a contact poison.

Milky spore or benefical nematodes, you need to do the whole county and then some

House Finches will eat a few of them.

This post probably won't help but here goes.
I have a crop of Japanese Beetles that are 200-1000 strong. Been around for a month or more -- living in and on a Wisteria vine that seems to have a symbiotic relationship with a Crepe Myrtle(both here when I bought this place in 1982). They are eating voraciously but the Wisteria seems to be holding its own. Some of the JB's spent a few days in one of my Cherry trees and skeletonized a good many leaves but they either died or returned to home base. 20 yards away was the parent tree to the one they attacked and they left it alone.
I have an extremely healthy veggie garden with all the standards plus corn in tasseling stage, okra in bloom, melon vines in various stages and grape vines with clusters hanging -- all untouched within 50 yards of their home base.
I don't pretend to have answers, but I decided when I moved here to take off my glasses any time I go out to the garden. I can't see small pests so they don't worry me. If I lose a crop to something it wasn't critical to my existence and the next season I'll do better. My whole process is cover cropping or covering any space un-used with manure or shredded leaves or someone elses' grass clippings. Till under if I need a fine seedbed or plant through for transplants.
I would have to weigh in on the side of feed and mulch. Ignore anything that doesn't have 2 or 4 legs. Gardens are supposed to be where we relax. Have fun and enjoy all nature -- even the bad.

I certainly find that thr JBs prefer certain plants. I seem to have enough of those that they almost never bother my vegetable crops. Now raspberries, peaches [ripening], seedling tree apples, and grapes are something else.

My local JBs favorite "food" is surely the grape vines. Even with double daily duty removing the JBs they return within minutes to continue skeletonizing the leaves. 2nd on the food list are the hazelnut (filbert) tree leaves. These top 2 are followed by roses of course and then all the pit fruit trees (plum, cherry, peaches) and then the apples & raspberries. They are still going strong here and it seemed like they faded out by this time last season. I hope the heat wave cooks them ALL!!!! Dang pests are = to locusts. I may just invest into those bag traps next season, it couldn't possibly get any worse.

I forgot to add:
My neighbor about 1 block away doesn't grow the things I mentioned above but he does grow corn. Without anything else nearby to chomp on his JBs knaw down his corn ear silks to less than toothbrush size. The JBs have really put the hammer on his corn production this year. I guess my JBs are too busy with everything else to bother with my corn as it's doing good.

I planted tomatoes next to two of my roses. JB s do not like tomatoes or marigolds or onions. The roses next to the tomatoes survived. The one that was not next to a tomatoe wax stripped and died. This is my third year battling these bugs. I am going to plant things that they hate. They do not like soapy water with oil in it either. I spray the infected plants early in the am and it slows them down . Sevin on the surface of the ground once. I pick them off the plants in the morning and drown them. I found out that they do not burn well and stink to high heaven if burned. The only method seems to be planting stuff that they di not like

I have completely cut cut back the grape harbor. This was their hang out. I have my lawn treated for grubs too. They are an unidentifiable national problem. They were in Indiana when I left ther. In eight years they have shown up in Missour.

I still managed to have a nice yard; but I think that the secret is to get rid of their food sources and keep spraying! Good luck!