Go for the milky spore and forget the traps. Traps and their attractant pull in more beetles then could can ever imagine. They are smelly as well as messy to clean. Milky spore may do nothing this year, but next year and for the next 13 years of replication, they will do the job way better then traps.

And I can still report that I've only seen one Japanese Beetle on my gardens this year and the corn has tasseled without being devoured.

Here is a link that might be useful: Where they are

I have to say again that yes, they attract beetles from other yards BUT THAT MEANS YOU ARE KILLING THAT MANY MORE. Any females that do not get killed can lay up to 40 eggs and the numbers increase at an alarming rate. I don't believe milky spore will work if the whole neighborhood does not use it. It may kill the one in your yard, but any plants will still attract beetles from your neighbors.

I am using a milk jug this year and only have captured enough to cover the bottom of the jug - versus 2 years ago when I filled 28 bags in less than one week and I mean to the top, they were overflowing! Versus three years ago when they decimated my peach tree in one morning or several other years ago when they ate my whole patch of corn in a couple of days!

Ann, our battle seems to be working so far!

Put them at least 1/2 mile from your house. Last year neighbors on each side of me put out traps and the beetles ate every bloom on every rose AND comsumed every bloom from my enormous white crapemyrtle. I spoke with both neighbors, the entire block agreed NO TRAPS . We've all had many fewer beetles and we've all put down Milky Spore. Remember beetle season is only about six weeks at peak, then you just cut the roses back, feed 'em and before you know it the garden is beautiful again.

Yeah, the best beetle traps are no traps for my small yard, perimeter in the country might be a different matter. I don't know if I'm going to use them again or not, they were so bad 2 days ago, I sprayed just the blooms, and it worked, and gave me a well-needed breather w/some residual effect, so what if it is only 48 hours? Didn't want to do it but would do it again in a heartbeat. Took the traps down to see, saved the baffles and bait and double wrapped in plastic bags and put in back closet, threw the bags in the garbage. Yesterday just a few, went back to soapy water. Today one in front this morning, will check again tonight if it doesn't rain B4 then. They are supposed to be gone soon.

I'm not being a sacrificial lamb for the neighborhood again unless I decide otherwise. My canoe birches took the worst hit, dead leaves everywhere, never with that kind of damage before; I'm not sure they'll survive this as they are already old and weakened. I trapped hundreds but not in the thousands like some people. My neighbor is going to spot treat with Grub X (he has brown spots in lawn), but beetles left his one vulnerable new plant alone. He's also spreading milky spore, and I'm going to try my best to start that regimen, know it won't work right away and the other con's of it. Not enough people are affected in the community to do any kind of cooperative effort at this point.

I'm also going to continue hand picking as I did faithfully last year, did have a couple brown patches in my yard last year, none this but know some grubs are in my soil.

I'm going to play it by ear from now on. Only one person, my mailman, took a bad hit here with his new elm. Some still aren't seeing any unless they go to the park because they grow things they don't bother.

I will never be able to have raspberries or grapes like I've always wanted unless I want to go really nuts and spray whatever you can for a fruit crop. Those beetles ruined a big chunk of my summer, and some of last but not as bad because I didn't draw them in with traps. All because I love my roses that would attract them traps or no traps. If I can't continue the battle myself due to infirmities and continue living here, the roses will have to go, too, because nobody is going to do for pay what I have done.

That map is outdated as soon as it is published. They are spreading across the country, Ames rose garden had them (looks like Polk County is on the map), also Webster County which is not on that map.

As part of my estate, I wanted to set aside the lion's share to establish a preserve for mainly heirloom roses as the main event, many other trees, shrubs and flowers. I don't know if that is a good plan now or not, and could already foresee difficulties with something like that.

I'm going to find out how they fared on the farms in Henry County, IL. I had a linden tree planted as a memorial to my cat, love those trees. The beetles hit it, and if it is attracting more, I can't interfere with farming operations and will have it taken out and plant something else if need be. Deer hit it last year.

BTW, I don't see so well sometimes, but I didn't see any aqua on that map which means eradicated.

And I saw a tiger swallowtail butterfly on my phlox yesterday when I was really down, the first since I was a kid, grabbed my camera but too late.

I'm asuming this bug infested year is due to more rain than we've seen in many years. First time ever for thousands of jb's. Can't believe this I have beatle pops like Harry's every where I'm ordering the reusable traps that someone posted about. OMG this is horrible, I've emptied my beatle soap container three times today. Big pile for the coons tonight.

Spraying them with soapy water, including insecticidal soap doesn't work, right? That's what someone asked me yesterday who doesn't have any but saw much damage where they had some get together in one of the parks along the bikepath which runs along the creek, naturally a very damp area and surrounded by much grassed area either side and a lot more which makes it more inviting for people. I said it doesn't work. They are saying to take heart, the local experts and a couple others say it should be only one more week of it.

I'm turning my thoughts and hopes to the bigger picture than just my personal struggles to a long-term solution that isn't so dangerous except to that particular beetle and larvae, with the goal being total eradication which I fear is unrealistic. A better trap would be nice. These are powerful, but not enough and doesn't trap them all anyway, kill on contact, and many still choose the roses and other plants over the traps. I'll keep looking for new approaches and whatever works best for people is fine with me so long as it isn't some dangerous pesticide that harms us and/or the environment, bad enough I used what I did and only good for spot treatment where they are massed and impossible to get them all by picking. Even that immediately has an effect on them, but they can still fly away, so you don't know whether you've really gotten them all that you hit or not and worried about birds or other wildlife eating those, not the soapy water kills, which I want down the toilet or in the garbage, tied securely so if they aren't dead, they will be, don't want them in my garden but out of my sight. Even though they are dead, eggs might survive and be deposited, don't know. My garbage cart stinks from them, have kept it pretty odorless even in the heat the way I handle my regular garbage. I could wrap the bags/dead ones with newspaper and more plastic. Are they really all dead when you pour them out or can live ones still get away in that process?

pattyw, sorry you're having such a miserable time of it now.

*big sigh* Well, come on...isn't there anything that would make me feel like I am making a difference? I did manage to break up several orgies off my strawberries and peonies into my Bucket o' Death. That feels satisfying until there are just as many the next day.

One more week, huh? I was just wondering how much longer this was going to go on. Maybe i can hang in there a bit longer.

Aliska, I seriously doubt eggs would be viable after a beetles has been decomposing for hours in soapy water. I would think you would be just fine dumping them down the toilet or in a corner of the yard.

greenhaven, you made a difference just by starting the thread :-). Makes us look at all sides of it near the end of another siege.

Agree about the eggs, someone suggested it somewhere, I wasn't sure. I don't leave my soapy water too long because I see what Ivory Liquid in my dishpan does in a couple days if I leave it NO nobody would do that! Sometimes I do if I'm tired, in physical pain and not functioning well. It gets slimy and gel-like. Too many bugs make the water nasty and turns my stomach, I tell curious kids not to look, don't want them to get the wrong message about killing things and how. Maybe that is wrong, don't like to stifle their curiosity normally. After I had just sprayed, I told a little girl to choke up on her dog leash, go way around, the grass was safe, and not let it near the bushes because it was still wet, and I don't know.

A bug or two by itself, is not such a horror at all, even kind of pretty and stimulates my naturally inquiring mind. Until dealing with masses of them. Now it almost makes me sick to my stomach to look at them, dead or alive. My daughter wants to help by pushing them into soapy water with her car key. You TOUCH them? Yes. I have to sometimes. And wash my hands when I come in because I feel defiled :-). I'm not a germ freak. Dirt on my hands is nothing to me since I was a kid or touching other bugs; I'm not like your average, normal woman, don't freak out at spiders, mice, bats, latter do startle me and I proceed with caution when a couple have gotten into the house, etc. I've had to do things most women still rely on a guy to do and sometimes I have to have a man for a job. PERIOD. But I have a little chain saw, just do not have the physical strength to safely handle a big one or I would learn good safety practices and do it. My life has taught me an appreciation for what some men and women risk every day of their lives just as part of a regular work day. But I haven't yet heard of a woman climbing some cell phone tower when lightning can strike to make an urgent repair so people can yak on them, yes they are important in careers and emergencies. I don't have one yet.

Have you made a difference? Yes and no. In your own garden, a little, but like anntn6 in TN tells us, they battled for years to get where they are now in their little corner of the planet. One beetle. Excellent. They would be back like before if they let up on their efforts, plus look at all the others she has helped with her knowledge. Neither you nor I even have begun to control our own properties, but I still feel it is better than doing nothing and let more breed, the question is only how far am I going to take this and risk more of my plants in the name of stopping some from propagating? Even though in the long haul, they'll be back unless and until they become such a menace that something really serious and longlasting is discovered, developed, invented.

I don't think the country as a whole has seen the worst yet, sadly.

Yahoo news has an article about Mendel this morning. He made a difference. But you wouldn't have known it in his time, only later was the significance of his obscure life and work appreciated and recognized for what it was. So can we by not giving up and pressing on. I think of my ancestors and destroyed crops that were more important in the bigger picture than my ornamental plants. Food crops are another animal entirely. They didn't give up in the face of hardships far worse than this so far and still must battle every year.