I found the first cohort of beetles on my bushes yesterday. YUCK. I don't know if I have the energy to deal with them this year. We'll see how much they destroy before I get serious about drowning them in soapy water.

Laurel

I saw my first one yesterday, sigh . . . .

Yuck..been watching for them and found 3 today on my dwarf hollyhocks.

Found a few on hubbys beautiful orange rose. I just shook them off for now. By the weekend I'll get more aggressive at destroying them. Last year I found a spray from Bayer that was good at keeping them away. I found it at Lowes.

I had TONS of them on my pink bianca roses and a pink miniature rose. The first few I shook off, then realized how bad it was and out came the bottle of soapy water. Did two rounds, one early afternoon and one later on. Ugh. I'll do round 3 after work.

If you haven't tried putting down Milky Spore, I highly recommend it. I put some down 4 years ago and have only seen a few each year since then.

I used milky spore about four or five years ago. This is the worst I have ever seen the japanese beetles at my house, but they are not on all my plants, mostly the one corner of the yard next to the property line.

Mine arrived this past week end also. The neighbor puts those darn traps all over his property so no matter what I do to keep the out they get all over my plants. I have already pulled up the hollyhocks and if they get any worse the malva zebrina are going too. They were getting on the monarda too. I keep a bucket of soapy water handy and knock them into it as I find them.

Penny

Thank you to all my GardenWeb friends for alerting me to be on the lookout for the Japanese beetles!

I had not noticed any until now, but I hadn't really looked too carefully either. Found a few today and did away with them, and now I'll keep a closer eye on things.

I've had a huge problem with them in the past and found I had a lot of grubs in my lawn. I treated for those early this spring, and I was really hoping to see a big difference in the number of beetles this year. Only a few today, so time will tell...

My beetles are horrid this year! So disgusting, I probably have 100!

I haven't used it - yet - but milky spore is excellent for a few things:
1. Protecting your lawn from the grubs which kill the lawn.
2. Keeping digging animals like raccoons and other grub predators out of your lawn.
3. Cutting down the beetles in the area.

What it doesn't do - unfortunately - is get rid of the beetles breeding across the street - the same ones that fly over to visit!

Milky spore spreads every year, so eventually your neighbours to either side will have their grubs reduced. The best thing you can do, though, is get your whole community involved in applying it. Every house makes a difference. Even if you just take a walk everyday, and put down applications along the way, it will help.

A nurseryman here told me to apply milky spore in the spring to give it a chance to get well established before winter. Applying it in the fall doesn't have as good a result. This is zone 4.
Von

I am definitely planning to use the milky spore approach because the chemical warfare I tried this spring wasn't as successful as I had hoped. I have had LESS beetles, but still there have been more than I would like to see on my young bushes and weeping cherry tree.

One interesting thing I have noticed though is that once a couple of self-seeded morning glories came up that I allowed to climb up and around my wrought iron porch railing, the Japanese beetles stayed away from my other expensive plants and all flocked to the morning glories! Well if the morning glories are their preferred snacking pleasure, then I'm going to let a few morning glories come up and do their thing every year! Doesn't cost anything and much nicer to look at than those Japanese beetle traps that aren't all that effective either.

About the milky spore though - should I wait until spring to apply for best effect NEXT summer, rather than rush things and apply it this fall? What if I were to get some NOW and apply, would that be better than this fall? I know it won't help this year's battle, and hopefully that's almost through, but I want the best results possible for next summer.

I definitely agree that the neighbors need to do it as well, and mine would certainly agree to it, I just want to know the best time for us to approach this. Any advice about the best time to apply the milky spore would be greatly appreciated!!!

Can't we all just get along?