I don’t do anything to control Japanese Beetles other than handpicking. I don’t have much lawn, but my neighbor has 5 acres of lawn and there is a cemetary beyond that so treating my lawn wouldn’t make much difference. That said, there are definitely fewer beetles this year. I has been very hot and humid and that has led to fewer and smaller roses so maybe there just hasn’t been as much to draw them to my garden.

I moved to the Champlain Islands, VT last year. Japanese beetles are not too bad here. We have old grape vines on the property - they mostly cluster on the grape leaves together. Interestingly, the grapes are working as a sort of decoy. I go through every day and dump them off the grape leaves (and my roses) into my soapy bucket. I am considering treating some of our property with milky spore, etc., but we have 4 acres, so doing the whole property is not feasible.

I should add - I would much rather have them eat the grape leaves. Not my roses!

There were almost no Japanese beetles this summer. Usually, starting the end of June and all of July my roses are covered in them. I sure didn't miss them at all this summer.

The JB come to my garden on July 1, a

nd dwindle off to none by few days into August. Their lifespan is supposed to be one month. I am surprised you have them July-Sept. One method of having less JBs is to prune back rose blooms/canes after June flush, to show no rose blooms in July. Prune off tops of all roses just when JB would arrive. Then roses sleep about 4 weeks to bloom again, & JBs ha

ve nothing to feast on. I do soapy water, prune off roses mostly for July, and will be trying grub granules and Milky Spore powder. The JBs are so less in my July since few roses are still bloomimg-most were pruned back.

I do soapy water & squish them every day! They were not successful in doing much damage. Then I remove every leaf & bloom they nibbled on-they cant remember where to find my roses. If you leave famaged leaves or blooms-it gives off a scent which attracts more JBs.

Aug 5, only a few sighted in my garden still alive. Soon to be gone for this season.

I had 90 roses & they didnt get to eat much…. lots of blooms, even after pruned back! . I have some roses that take a break & many just bloom all the time-sparingly.

Milky Spore powder (not granules) is suppose to eradicate them for 10-20 years-we will see!

I've never seen a lot of JBs in my home garden. I don't know if that is because we put down milky spore the first year we were here, or whether it is because the birds eat them, or whatever.

My other garden, in Hyde Park, was kind of bad last year. We did the soapy water bit, and put up some traps a suitable distance away. This year, I've seen a few, but not too many.

@Kittysrosegarden, I have also read that their llifespan is one month. but not all of them live for the same 30 days. I have seen stragglers as late as November.

I cut my roses back after the first flush, but since that is usually in May, they are all primed to bloom again at some point during the July beetle peak.

One year I grew pole beans and the beetles loved them and they did help keep the JBs off my roses. There is a lot to be said for trap crops.

Markay,

Trap crops sound good. They like my graoe vine leaves & may be why I don’t see that many on my roses. Try Milky Spore Powder… I think it is the best solutuon.

I have read somewhere that they run on something like 10 year cycles where they get really bad mid-cycle then wane. I think we're definitely on the far side of that cycle if so. I talked to my other rose society people and they're much better than in previous years all over town (and presumably the central plains region). Where I used to pick off 100s on any given round of the garden, now I have to hunt to find a dozen. They're usually gone by late August but I haven't seen any in the garden this month. I do have plenty of roses for them to feed on...

I'm of course grateful!

Cynthia

We have them here in NW Illinois. We live right next to a 1,000 corn field. For the last two years, we've applied grub control in the Fall and just yesterday, I used Neem oil and I didn't see not a one JB this morning. Amazing stuff and would highly recommend.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B007CRG4CW?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title&th=1

Someone asked me what their friend could do about the terrible Jap beetles this year. I said put down milky spore, and toss it across the fence in the neighbors yards too, just before a rain. ( I don't know if they sell the spreadable form anymore) I saw maybe 3 beetles this year. True, last year the drought was pretty bad, and they may have had rain at a good time to save their population. We put down Milky spore 40 years ago in East Tennessee. 30 years ago when we bought our property you couldn't buy the stuff. So I went east to my grandma's & dug red clay out of her yard (it was being torn up anyway for new septic lines), brought it home, dried it, sieved it and threw it around. Plainly it worked.

In Paul Zimmerman’s book Everyday Roses he wrote about using cedar as a beetle repelent. Specifically he suggests taking vcedar twigs or cedar shavings and soaking them over night and the pouring the soaking water into s sprayer and spraying it on roses. I haven’t tried this because it seems like it would make BS worse. Beetles won’t kill a rose but BS can.

My experience this year was just like Ken's. I am mystified as to why it was so different. I didn't use milky spore or grub control.

I have thousands of beetles and not many blooms from July until fall each year as they eat everything. I've applied milky spore for 2 years now and have not noticed much change in the population, but I'm surrounded by fields and I think that's where most of them are coming from. I see my roses as a beautiful flower to enjoy in the spring and fall, but I let my hydrangeas and petunias be the stars of the garden in the summer while the roses take a back seat. Helps me stay sane and still enjoy the roses without feeling frustrated and defeated

Elestrial - very wise of you. Like you said, there's not much you can do about it with a field next to your property.

I had a lot less JB’s this year. The month of August can be bad, too, but big decline in them this year. Thrips have been horrible though.

That's great that you had a lot less JBs. Ugh about the thrips.

Yes, ugly, ugly blooms and into the garage they go.

Did you mean into the garbage the ugly blooms go?

Oops, yes, garbage, thank you!

I live in the city of Minneapolis and haven't seen any in my garden the last several years. I've seen a few at the public rose garden here. I have a robust and mixed garden visited by many predatory insects and birds, and I'm wondering if they might eat the grubs.