If you buy some, you might want to give them to your neighbors. They seem to attract more than they catch.

The Japanese Beetle "traps" use a pheromone, an odor of a female beetle in estrus, to lure male beetles in which release a pheromone that attracts more female beetles, on and on ad infinitum. These "traps" actually attract more beetles to your garden and so are then a waste of your money in controlling Japanese Beetles.

Everything i've read says they don't work. Go with milky spore ... Or cover your crops. For what i've been reading lately, there is nothing to stop these little beasts as they march westward. I have never seen them here in Southwest WI, but they been reported around my area.

Hi Folks...It seems to me that the JB traps would reduce the local population of beetles...and that over time there would be fewer beetles to munch on their favorite things in your yard. Is that faulty reasoning? Wouldn't the traps reduce the local population over time? Franklin

I agree with everyone above in that those traps just draw more of them in. The one time that we had them real bad we just got rid of the one plant that they liked real well, it was ugly anyway, and they went with it. I've been told the 4 O'Clocks will get rid of JBs too and so far they seem real easy to grow.

Stroup

Hi Folks...let me ask again. Will the use of JB traps reduce the population of these rascals over time...and if not...what makes you think it won't? A dead JB...male or female...means there will be alot fewer eggs laid for the next year. Franklin

Franklin, I learned in Master Gardening instruction that JB beetles will travel up to a mile to get to the traps. You may kill some from your yard but then you are luring even more from your neighbors. On the way to the trap they are going to stop a eat whatever they like in your yard. So, no, the traps will not reduce the population over time. I agree with everyone else. save your $ and skip the traps. In the cool of early morning they aren't very active. If you shake the plant over a bucket of water, they drop right off into the water.

Hi jannoel...congrats on being a master gardener. Am one myself sort of...seein' as I have gardened for over fifty years...:-)
Another comment or two about JB's and I will shut up about the subject...:-)
JB traps don't make little JB's do they? JB's have a life cycle of once a year if I remember right...from egg to adult. If all gardeners and house owners would use traps we would soon cut way down on their population I believe.
I hand pick daily also...morning and evening when I have time. I also use Sevin on the places that I can't reach and that works well. Franklin

Japanese Beetle traps will not reduce the population of the Beetles around you becuase they will draw many more beetles in than you would normally see if you did not have a lure for them, as I stated in my earlier reply to your question.

Hi kimmsr...I didn't just fall off the turnip wagon dude...:-) Because the JB has a one year life cycle their numbers would be very much reduced if traps were in general use...now thats not hard to figure out is it...;-)...the more male and female jb's you catch the less there will be to mate and start a new cycle. Even you should be able to figure that one out kimmsr...:-) Franklin

Hey Franklin,

I use the traps -- for the sheer pleasure of killing these nasty demon spawn of satan. :-)

Actually, the JBs go to the traps and leave my roses alone, for the most part. And there's something very satisfying about killing hundreds or thousands of them.

Of course, I deadhead the roses when the beetles first appear. But, drat it!, the roses love all that great compost they're given and insist on setting more buds, which attracts the JBs.

I laugh demonically while telling the JBs that, as individuals, they are now evolutionary dead ends. Then they are dumped into their final stop -- the pail of soapy water. It's the last sight they will ever see.

Seriously, though, we purchased ours from www.gardners.com. Gemplers was sold out.

If you google "gardners supply coupon" you might find the 20% off coupon that we found and used.

The traps last for several years, especially if you don't knock them off the holders and run over them with the lawnmower. :-)

The lures have to be replaced every year. They usually get you through the JB season, but the baits only last about 6 weeks or so.

Also, when the JBs first start coming in droves, make sure to empty the traps daily. We found that the JBs will avoid the traps once there are too many already in the traps.

I have about 2 acres, 80 roses, and many other ornamentals. I use 6 of the traps. We put them about 10 feet or so away from the nearest rose, and the beetles head for the traps. It's funny, but the lures smell like roses. :-)

Since we're already attracting JBs with the roses, we might as well kill a bunch of them.

Once we see the first JB, we crack open the lures and put the lures in their places in the traps.

If you have a full-service nursery near you, they might carry what you need. How about an Agway or other farm store?

All the best in your fight against the Japanese beetles!

These traps were developed, many years ago, as a means of monitoring the population of Japanese Beetles. The interested USDA peopel knew that these traps would not catch even a small part of the population of JBs but they could estimate fairly accurately the numbers from what they found in the traps. These traps capture just the males, the pheromone is a female mating odor, an odor meant to attract male beetles and will not even attract any females. The females will be attracted to the area by the odor the trapped males release, but not to the trap, so since it is the females that lay the eggs the number of eggs layed will not be reduced by placing traps.

oldmainer, my parents used to use those traps (in Maine no less) and had WAY more jbs. Way fewer since they stopped using the traps.
If everybody used the traps everybody would have jp problems. The failure in your logic is you forget how much wilderness there is... The northern Maine wilderness alone has MILLIONS of acres in it and Maine is smaller than New Brunswick...
JBs have hundreds or thousands of offspring each...

Population wise compared to insects we humans are a drop in the planetary bucket. They were here before us and they'll be here long after our day has passed.

Hi Kimmsr...I believe the dual scented traps will attract and catch both male and female JB's...Franklin

The lures not only attract males, but also contain a mixture of floral scents to attract females. In addition, some companies make lures that are peppered with the congregation pheromone that is normally released by the first insects that arrive to their destination. Not that it matters, because the first beetles, often males, who go into the traps will release the congregation pheromone and attract even more beetles to the trap.

So yes, they do attract females. Is it a significant number? I don't know.

Since the female does not lay all eggs at once, but only several per mating session, returning every few days for another round and another egg-laying episode (what a gal!), the traps *could* be a form of coitus interruptus. :-)

It's true that the traps attract beetles from beyond the perimeter of your property, but just having the JBs' preferred plants will cause them to travel long distances to get to the plants, so it's difficult to quantify whether the traps attract more beetles than the preferred plants would attract.

Chances are, if one is desperate enough to inquire about the traps, they're already finding that their plants are attracting the beetles from far and wide.

I'd allow that the traps could be nothing more than efficient collection and disposal units. If that's the case, then certainly going from plant to plant and manually knocking the beetles into a bucket of soapy water is an equally useless exercise. The equipment would be cheaper, but how much is your time worth?

But let's assume that the traps work somewhat, taking some number of males and females off the mating market, reducing the number of insects available for reproduction. It's certainly not going to eradicate an overwhelming population, but it might gradually reduce the local population.

Aside from the satisfaction of killing off hundreds, if not thousands, of these destructive pests, the traps do reduce damage to the plant because the beetles' first preference is to go to the traps. Once they're in the traps they tend to stay there. Not all of them, but most of them.

In the few years that I've used the traps there are far fewer JBs on the plants, which means more leaves that haven't been skeletonized. If more leaves are unassaulted the plant is healthier.

In the some 50 years that these traps have been around not only has the Japanese Beetle population not diminshed any at all but it has increased exponentially. These traps do absolutely nothing to control the total population of them.

I disagree with most here. I never bothered using traps and the populations in my yard got worst every year. After 4 or so years of using JB traps the population seems to be diminishing. I set the traps over a 5 gallon bucket half-filled with soapy water. Some of the local birds are fat and happy. They just sit by the trap and gobble all day. Like I said, I'm finally noticing a reduction each year.

Hi everyone! This is my first post so be gentle. I've lived im my house for 14 years. A couple (10?) years ago my hubby and I put out jb traps and caught a ton. I never really noticed until about 2 years ago that we had a major problem with them again. I added roses to my gardens and last year the beetles covered them. I even sprayed but that didn't stop them. I would look out over my lawn and could see them just swarming everywhere, it was horrible. This spring I found sooooo many grubs I knew I was in trouble, so when they started swarming I went out and bought more traps. I got 2 Spectracide and 1 Safer Brand traps. The first day they were filled. After a little over a week we must've caught thousands. The best part is that I have not seen 1 beetle on my roses!! We have 3 acres and sit between our woods and a large cornfield but I feel by using the traps I've cut down on the devastation that the beetles would've done. Hopefully we'll cut the population for next year too.

IMHO I think these are great for controlling the problem one might have in their own garden. I'm not naive to think this is going to control the jb population in my county.