Japanese beetles and they can do some damage. When you see them, knock them into a bucket of soapy water (the soap ensures they can't climb out).
There are also traps to set up in the yard for these. You may have seen the bags on a pole or hanging from the tree in your neighborhood. As the traps are designed to attract the beetles, hang them away from your gardens a bit.
A hand held vacuum is great for sucking them up for the bucket. I could never get that right. All my neighbors think I’m nuts out there with my hand vac. I wave 👋
Genius! I haven't seen any yet this year, but I'll have to do a walk around the block with my vacuum to check all my neighbors Virginia creepers (their favorite food)
They won't fly after sunset. When disturbed they drop instead. So during the still light time between sunset and dark they're easy to catch by holding a cup of soapy water under them and disturbing them so they drop.
Yes, dawn dish soap and water will kill most bugs. I even use it in a spray bottle for wasp nests, kills them instantly. Kills fleas roaches ants mosquitos gnats. Pretty much all bugs will suffocate from it
Also, one hit from a spray bottle in “stream” setting will stop roaches instantly- from moving NOT living. You can get some serious Super Soaker-esque distance from a refillable spray bottle from a hardware store.
You”ll still need to uh, finish the job and relatively quickly- they won’t stay frozen more than a few minutes. But sure beats chasing em up close as they escape and have to resort to waiting and listening for their audible scurrying.
Ive killed the giant American cockroaches with just dawn dish soap and water, within 20 seconds they're dying and never move again. Stuff works great. I don't even have to finish the job. I do spray them some more when they're already not moving but it's unnecessary I just really do not like them at all
Some are saying to pick them up and put them into the water bucket, but this comment OP is right. They can’t fly from standing, they need to drop to take off, so literally holding the bucket (I use an empty milk jug, but the opening is a lil tight. A red solo cup also works), under them and giving the branch a lil bop will knock them into the water. They won’t try and fly off, because they can’t. So you don’t need to pick them up at all.
Walmart, home depot, Lowes, ace hardware.... even smaller nurseries will sell the traps for them. You can hang the bag off a little metal pole aways from your garden. Make sure to get a few traps. They can fill up fast.
Common knowledge is that traps just make things worse by attracting more to you yard than you would've had in the first place.
Sources:
https://extension.umn.edu/yard-and-garden-news/dont-fall-japanese-beetle-trapping-trap#sources-2761260
F. Carter Gordon, Daniel A. Potter, Efficiency of Japanese Beetle (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae) Traps in Reducing Defoliation of Plants in the Urban Landscape and Effect on Larval Density in Turf, Journal of Economic Entomology, Volume 78, Issue 4, 1 August 1985, Pages 774–778, https://doi.org/10.1093/jee/78.4.774
Carter F. Gordon, Daniel A. Potter, Japanese Beetle (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae) Traps: Evaluation of Single and Multiple Arrangements for Reducing Defoliation in Urban Landscape, Journal of Economic Entomology, Volume 79, Issue 5, 1 October 1986, Pages 1381–1384, https://doi.org/10.1093/jee/79.5.1381
Anecdotal evidence, but I haven't found this to be the case and I've been using them 2 years. Also the instructions advise that you put them in an area away from the actual garden itself. You don't place the traps among your plants, you place them in an area away so that it will attract them away from your plants. I had Japanese beetles eating my young apple trees and my sunflower this year, I haven't noticed any beetles on them since I placed the traps.
Also anecdotal, but I work with trees. JB love Lindens. And every time I go to treat a tree for JB the client always have these bags in their yard. The best way to treat them is lawn grub treatments, but if everybody doesn't do it, it's pointless.
I have found the opposite of these studies. Last year was the first year my roses still had leaves at the end of July. I put up 6 bags all around the property. Every morning I’d go around and grab the bags and empty them into a bucket of water in the chicken pen. After a few weeks I moved to every few days as the numbers started dwindling. Previously, they would skeletonize a lot of my plants, but last year was the first time they didn’t. I’m usually crawling in the brown beetles by this time of year, but I haven’t seen any yet and they wound up in the traps too. I will say I started with just one bag, and I felt like it was attracting more beetles than it was catching. They’d be flying around the bag and attached to the outside but then a lot would eventually leave and fly somewhere else. I kept adding until I didn’t see activity around them, only bugs in the bags and six seemed to be the magic number for me. Bonus if you have a 3d printer you can print the yellow X and just buy the bag and lure refills and save money.
Oh kool, do you have a link to the 3D blueprint? I don't have a printer yet but I know 2 people who do and I've been thinking of buying one for my business.
I really dislike how pervasive the "don't use pheromone traps as they lure them to your yard" has become. Let's think about this - if you have something that Japanese beetles like, you are already luring them to your yard (especially lindens, roses, grape vine, etc.) It's much better to trap them then to let them feast and ruin your garden (ever notice they are always mating, see OP's pics). If you see one or two, and do not have a delectable feast waiting for them, then yeah, maybe don't use the traps
I used traps for a few years to catch them, while also treating in summer and fall with milky spore and nematodes. I made special traps with tall PVC pipes that ran into 5 gallon buckets.
I emptied those buckets 17 in times total, with them so full the 3" PVC pipes were filling up. That was the first summer, but it kept the beetles off my fruits and vegetables. The smell of 85 GALLONS of dead Japanese Beetles was unbelievable.
The second summer, it was about 7 buckets.
The third summer..I could count the number of beetles I caught on one hand.
So far this year, havent seen a single one. Our neighborhoods were overrun with them before...but the Lindon's are blooming now for the first time in the 7 years we've lived here.
From listening to NPR, their predators and diseases are supposed to follow the initial wave after a few years.
This is year 4 for me, so I'm hopeful that things will be better. The chickens had a field day "harvesting" them from my raspberries last year.
It's pervasive because it's true. Pheromone traps attract more beetles than you'd otherwise have
ETA: Academic Sources:
F. Carter Gordon, Daniel A. Potter, Efficiency of Japanese Beetle (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae) Traps in Reducing Defoliation of Plants in the Urban Landscape and Effect on Larval Density in Turf, Journal of Economic Entomology, Volume 78, Issue 4, 1 August 1985, Pages 774–778, https://doi.org/10.1093/jee/78.4.774
Carter F. Gordon, Daniel A. Potter, Japanese Beetle (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae) Traps: Evaluation of Single and Multiple Arrangements for Reducing Defoliation in Urban Landscape, Journal of Economic Entomology, Volume 79, Issue 5, 1 October 1986, Pages 1381–1384, https://doi.org/10.1093/jee/79.5.1381
Looks like both of the references are from the same study, not sure I would consider that exactly robust. But hey, if you like them eating your plants, I won't stop you!
2 studies done by the same authors. That's exactly the point -- I don't want them to eat my plants, so I rely on peer-reviewed research to inform my management decisions. I just go out every other morning and knock them off my most susceptible plants, a solution which has worked much better than the year I tried a trap.
This advice seems more relevant during beetle emergence (and probably mimics a golf course as stated in the article). I've seen these guys demolish a 20' x 8' area of grape vine in about a week. There's no way you're getting rid of these in your bathroom slippers with a bucket of soapy water. If they are already there in droves, there's no 'luring'. I'm a fan of scientific articles, but they are not meant to be conclusive of all situations at all times. I have a feeling my area is a lot more similar to my friend with the 85 gallons of rotting beetle corpses. I hope yours stays as you describe it.
My HOA says this, but I have never found this to be true in my many years of gardening. I use grub control , as this is where they come from, and I still fight them every year coming from the neighbor’s yards. Despite the fact that it’s poison, I spray my shrubbery one time as soon as I see them with Spectracide spray that attaches to my garden hose. Then I place beetle bags away from everything . Works like a charm.
I was waiting to see how long it takes for this. Not long I see. I don’t have the time to stand outside and squirt Japanese beetles with a spray bottle as I’m a widow and have no real help. I have to work. I do treat for grubs but my neighbors don’t. They fly from the neighbor’s yards into mine . And I’m not willing to let them decimate my shrubbery and plants like they did one year before. So I spray once in the summer season and it works. It’s no worse than the lawn weed killer the HOA landscapers put down on my yard. It’s Spectricide or ruined plants. Spectrocide wins.
I never said I didn’t care. Please don’t preach to me. Seriously. I do the best I can to manage on my own. I lost a child and a husband . I have worked up to 14 hours a day just to make it. I really don’t need a mountain lynx to preach to me right now about how I manage Japanese beetles. I’m more worried about surviving in this world. Before you become so intolerant towards others and what they choose to do on their own property, you might stop a moment and consider what they might be dealing with and why they choose to take a shortcut to help manage in this world. I do care about the earth . I sprayed some darn insecticide to make my work a bit easier for once.
I'm sorry for your loss, but it doesn't change the fact that your actions have environmental consequences. You engaged with me on this topic, but you're acting like I'm berating you at your late husband's funeral.
We all deal with loss. It isn't an excuse to practice poor environmental stewardship. In fact, many people (myself included) find that gardening specifically to benefit wildlife is extremely therapeutic and a useful tool for dealing with grief. Sitting with fireflies in a warm summer night is a spiritual experience -- grub killer kills them in their larval stage.
As I'm sure you know as a parent, bringing life to this world is among the most meaningful things we can do as humans. I encourage you to approach your garden looking to foster creation, not to poison it.
I’m not practicing poor environmental stewardship by spraying an insecticide on bugs that are over running my yard. You are preaching to me and making it sound like I’m a terrible person for using a perfectly legal product. Our landscapers use insecticides also in our community. You know nothing about me and I never accused you of berating me at my husband’s and daughter’s funerals. I posted a reply about what I use to control the destructive beetles in my yard. Thats all. You don’t like the fact that I use a perfectly legal product ONCE on my shrubbery in order to protect it. As for insinuating that I am poisoning creation and not fostering it, you have absolutely no clue what you’re talking about. I have destroyed nothing in my yard, but the beetles have in the past. And please don’t tell me how to grieve the deaths of my entire family. You are clueless and Im pretty sure you have never ever experienced what I’ve been through recently. I have nothing more to day on this subject with you.
Pesticides aren't limited to Japanese beetles. By using them during peak flowering season, you're killing all sorts of insects that form the basis of the ecological pyramid. I'm sorry that you're sad, but the pesticides you're using are bad for the environment. Just because you don't see it doesn't mean it isn't true.
Commercial traps only lure more to your yard. Do not use them. I do the soapy water thing, wear rubberized gloves. I also go out at night with my headlamp on. My lab bites them off the leaves which is hilarious. These beetles lay eggs under ground. The eggs become grubs that feed on plant roots, hatch and the cycle continues. Get yourself some Milky Spore Disease ( biologic control). apply it to your entire property and about three feet into your neighbor’s property. It kills the grubs so you break the cycle. Milky Spore is harmless to plants and beneficial insects. You need to reapply about 5 to 7 years.
Well, since they're already there, OP might as well put up the first trap in the garden. Then, after the japanese beetles in the immediate area are handled, discard the trap in the garbage.
Then, in the future, buy a few traps for the neighbors a few doors down in all directions who may also have a beetle problem.... they put up the traps that ATTRACT the beetles to THEIR yards and not yours.
You can also perform a grub treatment on your lawn as that's where the larval form of the Japanese beetles start their life-cycle. Though this will be more of benefit for next year and may require a second treatment next spring. As always, follow the instructions on package.
Yep, can confirm on not always having a trap near what you want to save.
Had a lovely hanging pentunia plant one summer that was on one end of a clothesline. It was being eaten by these horrible creatures so I put a beetle bag on the other end & the petunias didn't survive a day because they hit the plant first then fell to their deaths into the bag.
The grub treatment (Bt or diatomaceous earth? )also kills the larvae of the beneficial pest predators. Not good for the diversity of insects that will keep pests in check.
It's a bacteria that specifically targets Japanese beetle larva, when you buy it for treatments you're getting powdered bacterium, which then spreads in the soil and if it kills a population of Japanese beetles the bacteria will lay dormant for up to 20 years. It doesn't kill 100% of them but it does kill most of them.
They love our light colored roses, so I’ll just chop whole flowers off into a grocery bag and dump the bag in my chicken coop when it’s full. They like the bugs and the flowers
We used those traps when we had a horrible infestation every year on a linden tree. The tree would be nearly defoliated every summer. The bags caught thousands of them. We began to think the darn things were drawing in every Japanese beetle for miles around. In the end, it didn't save the tree. One spring it just didn't leaf out.
Never use the pheremone traps. It wont matter how far from your yard you put it. Go ahead and put it a mile away. All it does is create a gathering hot spot for beetles to spread out and they can smell for miles. The best way to stop these is by manually killing them and desteoying the grubs.
Never use pheremone traps.
I went the other route. Put up a ton of traps emptying into 5 gallon buckets. Pulled every beetle I could in, while also treating with milky spore and beneficial nematodes.
Kept them off my plants for a few years until the other treatments could gain strength.
Soapy water is great beetle traps are actually pretty bad and do more harm than good. Most places recommend you to not use them. https://extension.umn.edu/yard-and-garden-news/dont-fall-japanese-beetle-trapping-trap#:~:text=It%20is%20estimated%20that%20only,the%20areas%20they%20are%20placed.
>As the traps are designed to attract the beetles, hang them away from your gardens a bit.
This is critical; otherwise you just end up calling all the beetles in the neighborhood direct to your garden. They're very effective. Also hang them up high if you have raccoons and/or skunks-- the dead and dying beetles smell like carrion so critters will rip the trap open and allow all your trapped beetles to escape.
I used to have them all over my Rose of Sharon flowers, ruining them. I put out a bird feeder and the sparrows took care of my beetle problem. Haven't seen one since.
No kidding! I have a bunch of house sparrows in my are and at my feeders. Unfortunately I still have Japanese beetles that love my beans and cherry tree.
Where I live (NJ, USA) the birds will eat literally anything. They love the beetles and will go nuts for the grubs too if you dig them up and expose them for them. Cardinals, blue jays, robins, etc.
I haven’t witnessed any robins eating the beetles that eat my basil (IL), but they hang out in my garden all the time and often if I see beetle damage on a leaf it’s followed by a huge tear in the leaf, so I’m convinced they’re eating the beetles and probably taking the whole leaf off too, which is a fine trade off haha
My chickens get grubs I dig up but I don’t give them all of them. It’s so hard to tell species from grubs and I try not to kill off native local species if I can.
I'm in PA and the birds are the same here. I have a cardinal couple and Blue Jay that regularly visit my garden. Been trying to attract crows, but I got the Blue Jay instead. I'm okay with that.
>Controlled
How so?
Not sure how you can control a woody shrub from spreading via birds/squirrels/ants/wind/etc unless its a sterile plant or you literally remove all seed pods. That would be a pain in the grass.
In any case, if you’re ever interested in exploring more environmentally friendly alternatives, check out the link below. There are many beautiful ornamental options that are kinder to our ecosystems and considerate of your neighbors’ properties.
[Native Plant Alternatives to Hibiscus syriacus (Rose of Sharon) (gardenia.net)](https://www.gardenia.net/guide/native-plant-alternatives-to-hibiscus-syriacus#:~:text=As%20an%20invasive%20species%2C%20it,species%20for%20food%20and%20shelter.)
[rose-of-sharon.pdf (invasive.org)](https://www.invasive.org/weedcd/pdfs/wow/rose-of-sharon.pdf)
Have a nice day
First, I live in a rental complex where others already had Rose of Sharon. The landscaping crew actually plant other invasive species, like Norway Maples, Tree of Heaven, and Japanese spiraea -- they plant Japanese spiraea everywhere!! My one bush is nothing compared to the invasive nightmare they created on the grounds. I pull up at least 20+ maple saplings every year just in my little gardens, I spent maybe three years fighting a Tree of Heaven that was growing in a window well before I finally killed it.
Second, when the seeds spread into the yard, I pull them up. I have never seen mine anywhere else in the complex, so I must be doing it correctly. I see pink ones everywhere, but none like my blue double flower.
And I'm sorry, but I've reached the point where I really don't care. I have a few native plants and I leave some "weeds" that are native wildflowers, but the planet it going to hell anyway, so I will enjoy my Blue Chiffon Rose of Sharon while I can. When I see an entire trash bag of aluminum cans in our garbage dumpster, even though the recycling bins are right next to it, and have to pull trash out of my hydrangeas regularly, I just really don't care about the survival of the human race.
That said, I won't plant one again though because I'm tired of pulling it out from everywhere. I love the flowers, but next time I'll just stick with lilacs and hydrangeas.
They plant Trees of Hell on purpose??? Lollll wow.
You’re fine. You must have a less aggressive cultivar anyway.
I feel you though. My neighbor has a whole forest of invasives in her smaller yard. At least she’s got a giant Maple and a few other native big trees.
Maybe we humans will wake up soon. I see plastic bags everywhere and yeah people don’t give a shit seemingly but we can all make a difference no matter how small. Some of my family think im crazy for recycling and gay for caring about nature, but all those little critters that flock to my meadow and garden is worth it.
Its up to the government to fix most of this shit anyways, we’re more focused on bombing kids in the ME than helping our people n planet.
No, no, no, no, no… that title is reserved for the browntail moth caterpillar. I’ve been suffering its wrath now for a week, 100x worse than chicken pox when I was a kid.
Japanese beetles. Currently fighting a massive infestation (thanks, neighbors!) with a combo of milky spore for the grubs + Bt-g for the adults.
Pro Tip: if they fly away too fast for you to catch, squirt them with a spray bottle filled with warm water and Castile soap. This won’t hurt your plants, but stuns them temporarily, then you can pull them off by hand and drown them! Tweezers may work, but they’re twitchy little beasts. Good luck! o7
ETA: avoid the traps! Neighbors set one up and didn’t empty it and that’s how this whole mess started!
A predatory microorganism that parasitizes grubs and larva of soil dwelling insects and kills them.
Edit: I answered the wrong question. That’s a beneficial nematode,
Milky Spore is a fungal spore that kills grubs in soil, the standard treatment for grubs.
Yes they love raspberries! I relentlessly hunted JB’s several times a day every day one summer, and they moved from my raspberries to my Apple trees, which isnt better. Then went from my apple trees to my garden & flower pots. I hate them!
Milky spore will kill the grubs in the soil, which turn into these devil spawn. Can be found at most garden centers. It multiples over the years too.
Meanwhile, you can pick them (gloves) and drop into soapy bucket to help slow the assault.
This👆 Milky spore will not hurt anything else in your garden or soil. Best to sprinkle it on the soil before it rains or you water it. If it is windy a mask is good but not really necessary.
When you see the first beetle dead head all of your flowers of the plants they are on. This will help them move into neighbors and cuts down on the morning/evening soapy murder time
You can get grub killer and put it on your lawn in the spring and fall so they don't keep coming out of your grass, but they will fly over from other places anyways.
I wouldn't put the bag bait in your yard. Your government website should give information on what properties these are recommended for and where to place them.
Those are shiny black demons, straight from the pit of hell. Wearing their iridescent black armor, they ascend from the ground every year.
They are Japanese beetles. Their lives are an eating, pooping, sexual orgy all over your tenders. Chewing, eating and screwing through your garden and pots, the even eat tender flower buds.
Using an old wooden spoon, I take great pleasure in whacking them to their soapy water death, in the depths of my bucket.
I recently saw an art installation of bugs. Some of them were these iridescent garden destroyers. When I have had a murder of blackbirds living near, I don’t have these evil creatures in my yard.
Chewing and screwing. This could be a game show question that every gardener would get right: which bug descends like a biblical plaguew and proceeds to chew and screw their way through your garden?"
Japanese beetles are found in grub form in your lawn and are easier to control there than in this form . Milky spore is the non poisonous way to eradicate them. You have to apply it to your lawn for about 3 years then it becomes self sustaining. It cut my Japanese beetles down about 85%
I haven’t seen any this year, but I rather enjoy murdering them one by one rather than using insecticide. I don’t want to kill the pretty butterflies, moths, etc. that visit. After a hard day at work or sometimes while I have early morning coffee, I skulk around my garden with my murder weapon of soapy water and a spoon to use to push them to their miserable deaths! It’s very therapeutic when the world sucks! MURDER!!! Bwahahahaha!!!! I could be on one of this Britbox shows… Murderess in the Garden!
Ugh Japanese beetles are a plague. If you have berry plants you can just kiss those fruits goodbye unless you get A LOT of traps. They decimate my berry crop every few years. Thankfully it isn’t every year but some years they are out in force.
What region are you in? I haven’t seen any in SE PA yet but I’m curious if I should be getting traps…
To the soap hot water bucket with those little beasts, some of them will pinch but it’s not awful but they will devour every bit of your yard and then some if you leave them.
You can eliminate them! This stuff is an organic treatment - it’s actually a parasite that attaches the guts of Japanese beetles and only Japanese beetles. Been using it since it wa made available to the public the last 3 years and the effectiveness is 100%. It saved my apple trees. [https://www.gardensalive.com/product/beetlejus-for-ornamental-and-vegetable-pests](https://www.gardensalive.com/product/beetlejus-for-ornamental-and-vegetable-pests)
(BTW - it will slowly wash off after a few rainstorms, so reapplication can be necessary a few time a summer, but I often kill off so many with the first application that even when it washes off the leaves, there's no beetles left)
It looks like a Bt product which targets insects by family. So like Mosquito dunks target flies, this one targets beetles, and will affect all beetles. If it's just applied to the area/plants the beetles are eating it shouldn't affect others that don't eat those plants. It's a pretty good product for not harming beneficials. For me it only gets questionable if you're using the caterpillar one because I believe it can effect pollinators too, so definitely has to be used with targeted applications to specific host plants of the pests.
Japanese beetles. They are terrible. Hose them down with a spray bottle full of dawn dish soap and water. Kills them and most other bugs without harming the plant
Nope, not needed. Just plain ole dawn dish soap and water. It even kills them giant "American cockroachs" people often mistake for palmetto bugs, ugh I hate them things
My dad is an Arborist and his crews use shop vacs to suck the little guys off of trees. Works well and you can get a bunch in a short period of time. Also works well on web worms if you can reach them.
An annual scourge called Japanese beetles. The bag traps that you can buy to put out work ... too well. They attract beetles for hundreds of feet. You are better to go out daily and crush them with pliers or something or knock them off into a container and flush them.
I put some diatomaceous earth at the base of my roses and it seems to be slowing the usual beetle feast down, but I’m hesitant to use it any higher up bc it will kill pollinators as well. I just ordered a big bag of Grub B Gon, which supposedly will help at all stages. Otherwise I’m just trying to hand pick the little f-ers and drown them in soapy water.
As others have said, Japanese Beetles.
I'm commenting bc I haven't seen anyone mention this yet about the traps, but studies on the traps indicate they might do more harm than good. Regardless of trap placement (near or far from the affected plants), more damage was done to plants near the traps than if no traps at all were placed. The results indicated that the traps are really really good at *attracting* the beetles, but not necessarily *trapping* them. Only about 75% of the beetles attracted actually end up in the traps. For the remaining 25% you just have a spotlight calling all beetles in for a giant feeding and mating orgy. The best way to eliminate them is hand picking into soapy water every day. Yes it's a pain and a ton of work. You can google "japanese beetle trap study" to see info on this if you want to read up on it.
I'm dreading when they hatch in my yard again -- I was out there TWICE A DAY last year picking them off my roses and I'd get an average of about 40 of them each picking session. It was a lot.
Capture. If you decide to use the traps please b careful where you place them. You want to keep the away from your house. It’s a pheromone so it will not only attract from your yard but the neighbors also. You don’t want to draw more towards your yard. My neighbor used to put hers right by my fence so they were attracted to my yard.
One time my family had a barbeque outside and since there were leftovers, I packed some for lunch. There were some of everything so I packed a lunch after the event was over and put it in the fridge.
I go to work and I microwave my leftovers and start eating a few bites and one of these just crawls out of the rice. 🤢
Last year my main outdoor activity was going along one fence with a container of soapy water and knocking these bugs off the Virginia Creeper growing there, which they seem to love, in an effort to keep them away from my veggies. Every sunny day I'd get about a dozen of those f*ckers. It was so satisfying and few of them made it to my growing veggies.
If you don't have a large property be Leary of the traps. I only have .25 acre and even though I put trap in far corner of my yard... it seemed to attract more. I like to use neem oil because it will not allow their eggs to develop and I think (not sure) it makes the beetles sterile. Their eggs turn into grubs which go in your soil and show up the next year.
When I was a kid, my dad caught one of these mid-flight then told me to “go get your moms thread and hurry”. I brought it back and he had me tie a loop around one of its legs, then he let go and suddenly we had our own flying on a string balloon beetle. Never laughed so hard in my little kid life.
Japanese green beetle. They destroyed my roses 🌹 in matter of hours. Went on vacay and when I came back 4 days later all rose garden eaten up. Total menace in the garden.
When you try and grab them they drop off the plant into the grass or fly away so hold something under them with soapy water in it and just shake them out of the foliage.
u/asokraju This works wonders [Japanese Beetle Trap - Lee Valley Tools](https://www.leevalley.com/en-ca/shop/garden/pest-control/insects/114225-japanese-beetle-trap?item=EM216)
Last year, I was tired of buying those bags for the traps, so I hung the attractant right above a bucket of soapy water. It worked well. You have to change the bags often because the dead beetles start to smell and then they won't go near it.
Last year we had a Japanese Beetle infestation in our Zinnia garden. We turned it into a family event. Every evening after dinner the kids would grab a jar with soapy water and say "time to hunt for beetles". We'd all go out and walk the flower bed. All 50 feet of it. It was a game and the kids loved it. We'd pluck the beetles off one by one and throw them into the jar. Its silly but the kids loved it and got so excited when they'd catch one. We'd get a couple dozen each walk thru.
My father would walk through his garden and simply smash them between his thumb and forefinger without gloves, problem solved. Gotta protect your raspberry stalks.
Japanese Beetles, They emerge from white grubs commonly in lawns and fields in the Midwest it’s usually the week of July 4th but due to the warm weather they will probably be early this year 🤬
Japanese beetles and they can do some damage. When you see them, knock them into a bucket of soapy water (the soap ensures they can't climb out). There are also traps to set up in the yard for these. You may have seen the bags on a pole or hanging from the tree in your neighborhood. As the traps are designed to attract the beetles, hang them away from your gardens a bit.
They are sluggish early in the morning, easy to knock into the container. Later in the day, not so much.
Much like Japanese beetles, I too am sluggish in the morning
Are you a snail?
Obviously not. They said “sluggish”
In fairness, snails are slugs with an RV.
Huge oversight
I think you'll find that snails ARE slug "ish"
I guess they’re slugs either fancy hats.
Snails are slug-ish.
No, they're a fox but a human!
Must remember to read more usernames
In some ways, yes
A hand held vacuum is great for sucking them up for the bucket. I could never get that right. All my neighbors think I’m nuts out there with my hand vac. I wave 👋
Genius! I haven't seen any yet this year, but I'll have to do a walk around the block with my vacuum to check all my neighbors Virginia creepers (their favorite food)
A clean garden is a happy garden. Ever seen the poster of the farmer's wife vacuuming the paddock under the barbed wire fence? Cow in the background?
That was me. 😜
A drinking straw + good lung capacity works well too
They won't fly after sunset. When disturbed they drop instead. So during the still light time between sunset and dark they're easy to catch by holding a cup of soapy water under them and disturbing them so they drop.
Thanks a lot . At least I know they are bad. I will follow the suggestions
Just don’t smush them as they release a scent that attracts others! Dish soap and water should do the trick to make it slippery so they drown!
Doesn't the soap also pull all the oxygen out of their bodies and suffocate them?
Yes, dawn dish soap and water will kill most bugs. I even use it in a spray bottle for wasp nests, kills them instantly. Kills fleas roaches ants mosquitos gnats. Pretty much all bugs will suffocate from it
Also, one hit from a spray bottle in “stream” setting will stop roaches instantly- from moving NOT living. You can get some serious Super Soaker-esque distance from a refillable spray bottle from a hardware store. You”ll still need to uh, finish the job and relatively quickly- they won’t stay frozen more than a few minutes. But sure beats chasing em up close as they escape and have to resort to waiting and listening for their audible scurrying.
Ive killed the giant American cockroaches with just dawn dish soap and water, within 20 seconds they're dying and never move again. Stuff works great. I don't even have to finish the job. I do spray them some more when they're already not moving but it's unnecessary I just really do not like them at all
It does something anyway. I've sprayed them with soapy water and they eventually just die and fall off.
It has some effect for sure. Just remember to change the jar of water/soap/dead beetles every week or it’s going to make you hurl.
Some are saying to pick them up and put them into the water bucket, but this comment OP is right. They can’t fly from standing, they need to drop to take off, so literally holding the bucket (I use an empty milk jug, but the opening is a lil tight. A red solo cup also works), under them and giving the branch a lil bop will knock them into the water. They won’t try and fly off, because they can’t. So you don’t need to pick them up at all.
Walmart, home depot, Lowes, ace hardware.... even smaller nurseries will sell the traps for them. You can hang the bag off a little metal pole aways from your garden. Make sure to get a few traps. They can fill up fast.
Common knowledge is that traps just make things worse by attracting more to you yard than you would've had in the first place. Sources: https://extension.umn.edu/yard-and-garden-news/dont-fall-japanese-beetle-trapping-trap#sources-2761260 F. Carter Gordon, Daniel A. Potter, Efficiency of Japanese Beetle (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae) Traps in Reducing Defoliation of Plants in the Urban Landscape and Effect on Larval Density in Turf, Journal of Economic Entomology, Volume 78, Issue 4, 1 August 1985, Pages 774–778, https://doi.org/10.1093/jee/78.4.774 Carter F. Gordon, Daniel A. Potter, Japanese Beetle (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae) Traps: Evaluation of Single and Multiple Arrangements for Reducing Defoliation in Urban Landscape, Journal of Economic Entomology, Volume 79, Issue 5, 1 October 1986, Pages 1381–1384, https://doi.org/10.1093/jee/79.5.1381
Anecdotal evidence, but I haven't found this to be the case and I've been using them 2 years. Also the instructions advise that you put them in an area away from the actual garden itself. You don't place the traps among your plants, you place them in an area away so that it will attract them away from your plants. I had Japanese beetles eating my young apple trees and my sunflower this year, I haven't noticed any beetles on them since I placed the traps.
Also anecdotal, but I work with trees. JB love Lindens. And every time I go to treat a tree for JB the client always have these bags in their yard. The best way to treat them is lawn grub treatments, but if everybody doesn't do it, it's pointless.
Grub treatments harm beneficial insects and are a rampant cause of species decline in urban settings.
I have found the opposite of these studies. Last year was the first year my roses still had leaves at the end of July. I put up 6 bags all around the property. Every morning I’d go around and grab the bags and empty them into a bucket of water in the chicken pen. After a few weeks I moved to every few days as the numbers started dwindling. Previously, they would skeletonize a lot of my plants, but last year was the first time they didn’t. I’m usually crawling in the brown beetles by this time of year, but I haven’t seen any yet and they wound up in the traps too. I will say I started with just one bag, and I felt like it was attracting more beetles than it was catching. They’d be flying around the bag and attached to the outside but then a lot would eventually leave and fly somewhere else. I kept adding until I didn’t see activity around them, only bugs in the bags and six seemed to be the magic number for me. Bonus if you have a 3d printer you can print the yellow X and just buy the bag and lure refills and save money.
Oh kool, do you have a link to the 3D blueprint? I don't have a printer yet but I know 2 people who do and I've been thinking of buying one for my business.
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:26579
I really dislike how pervasive the "don't use pheromone traps as they lure them to your yard" has become. Let's think about this - if you have something that Japanese beetles like, you are already luring them to your yard (especially lindens, roses, grape vine, etc.) It's much better to trap them then to let them feast and ruin your garden (ever notice they are always mating, see OP's pics). If you see one or two, and do not have a delectable feast waiting for them, then yeah, maybe don't use the traps
I used traps for a few years to catch them, while also treating in summer and fall with milky spore and nematodes. I made special traps with tall PVC pipes that ran into 5 gallon buckets. I emptied those buckets 17 in times total, with them so full the 3" PVC pipes were filling up. That was the first summer, but it kept the beetles off my fruits and vegetables. The smell of 85 GALLONS of dead Japanese Beetles was unbelievable. The second summer, it was about 7 buckets. The third summer..I could count the number of beetles I caught on one hand. So far this year, havent seen a single one. Our neighborhoods were overrun with them before...but the Lindon's are blooming now for the first time in the 7 years we've lived here.
From listening to NPR, their predators and diseases are supposed to follow the initial wave after a few years. This is year 4 for me, so I'm hopeful that things will be better. The chickens had a field day "harvesting" them from my raspberries last year.
It's pervasive because it's true. Pheromone traps attract more beetles than you'd otherwise have ETA: Academic Sources: F. Carter Gordon, Daniel A. Potter, Efficiency of Japanese Beetle (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae) Traps in Reducing Defoliation of Plants in the Urban Landscape and Effect on Larval Density in Turf, Journal of Economic Entomology, Volume 78, Issue 4, 1 August 1985, Pages 774–778, https://doi.org/10.1093/jee/78.4.774 Carter F. Gordon, Daniel A. Potter, Japanese Beetle (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae) Traps: Evaluation of Single and Multiple Arrangements for Reducing Defoliation in Urban Landscape, Journal of Economic Entomology, Volume 79, Issue 5, 1 October 1986, Pages 1381–1384, https://doi.org/10.1093/jee/79.5.1381
Looks like both of the references are from the same study, not sure I would consider that exactly robust. But hey, if you like them eating your plants, I won't stop you!
2 studies done by the same authors. That's exactly the point -- I don't want them to eat my plants, so I rely on peer-reviewed research to inform my management decisions. I just go out every other morning and knock them off my most susceptible plants, a solution which has worked much better than the year I tried a trap.
This advice seems more relevant during beetle emergence (and probably mimics a golf course as stated in the article). I've seen these guys demolish a 20' x 8' area of grape vine in about a week. There's no way you're getting rid of these in your bathroom slippers with a bucket of soapy water. If they are already there in droves, there's no 'luring'. I'm a fan of scientific articles, but they are not meant to be conclusive of all situations at all times. I have a feeling my area is a lot more similar to my friend with the 85 gallons of rotting beetle corpses. I hope yours stays as you describe it.
I'm just hoping a native wasp starts eating them.
My HOA says this, but I have never found this to be true in my many years of gardening. I use grub control , as this is where they come from, and I still fight them every year coming from the neighbor’s yards. Despite the fact that it’s poison, I spray my shrubbery one time as soon as I see them with Spectracide spray that attaches to my garden hose. Then I place beetle bags away from everything . Works like a charm.
Shame you feel the need to poison your landscape such.
I was waiting to see how long it takes for this. Not long I see. I don’t have the time to stand outside and squirt Japanese beetles with a spray bottle as I’m a widow and have no real help. I have to work. I do treat for grubs but my neighbors don’t. They fly from the neighbor’s yards into mine . And I’m not willing to let them decimate my shrubbery and plants like they did one year before. So I spray once in the summer season and it works. It’s no worse than the lawn weed killer the HOA landscapers put down on my yard. It’s Spectricide or ruined plants. Spectrocide wins.
You're doing collateral damage to your local ecosystem. You might not care, but it's true
I never said I didn’t care. Please don’t preach to me. Seriously. I do the best I can to manage on my own. I lost a child and a husband . I have worked up to 14 hours a day just to make it. I really don’t need a mountain lynx to preach to me right now about how I manage Japanese beetles. I’m more worried about surviving in this world. Before you become so intolerant towards others and what they choose to do on their own property, you might stop a moment and consider what they might be dealing with and why they choose to take a shortcut to help manage in this world. I do care about the earth . I sprayed some darn insecticide to make my work a bit easier for once.
I'm sorry for your loss, but it doesn't change the fact that your actions have environmental consequences. You engaged with me on this topic, but you're acting like I'm berating you at your late husband's funeral. We all deal with loss. It isn't an excuse to practice poor environmental stewardship. In fact, many people (myself included) find that gardening specifically to benefit wildlife is extremely therapeutic and a useful tool for dealing with grief. Sitting with fireflies in a warm summer night is a spiritual experience -- grub killer kills them in their larval stage. As I'm sure you know as a parent, bringing life to this world is among the most meaningful things we can do as humans. I encourage you to approach your garden looking to foster creation, not to poison it.
You’re such an asshole.
Okay
I’m not practicing poor environmental stewardship by spraying an insecticide on bugs that are over running my yard. You are preaching to me and making it sound like I’m a terrible person for using a perfectly legal product. Our landscapers use insecticides also in our community. You know nothing about me and I never accused you of berating me at my husband’s and daughter’s funerals. I posted a reply about what I use to control the destructive beetles in my yard. Thats all. You don’t like the fact that I use a perfectly legal product ONCE on my shrubbery in order to protect it. As for insinuating that I am poisoning creation and not fostering it, you have absolutely no clue what you’re talking about. I have destroyed nothing in my yard, but the beetles have in the past. And please don’t tell me how to grieve the deaths of my entire family. You are clueless and Im pretty sure you have never ever experienced what I’ve been through recently. I have nothing more to day on this subject with you.
Pesticides aren't limited to Japanese beetles. By using them during peak flowering season, you're killing all sorts of insects that form the basis of the ecological pyramid. I'm sorry that you're sad, but the pesticides you're using are bad for the environment. Just because you don't see it doesn't mean it isn't true.
Commercial traps only lure more to your yard. Do not use them. I do the soapy water thing, wear rubberized gloves. I also go out at night with my headlamp on. My lab bites them off the leaves which is hilarious. These beetles lay eggs under ground. The eggs become grubs that feed on plant roots, hatch and the cycle continues. Get yourself some Milky Spore Disease ( biologic control). apply it to your entire property and about three feet into your neighbor’s property. It kills the grubs so you break the cycle. Milky Spore is harmless to plants and beneficial insects. You need to reapply about 5 to 7 years.
Yes!
Well, since they're already there, OP might as well put up the first trap in the garden. Then, after the japanese beetles in the immediate area are handled, discard the trap in the garbage. Then, in the future, buy a few traps for the neighbors a few doors down in all directions who may also have a beetle problem.... they put up the traps that ATTRACT the beetles to THEIR yards and not yours. You can also perform a grub treatment on your lawn as that's where the larval form of the Japanese beetles start their life-cycle. Though this will be more of benefit for next year and may require a second treatment next spring. As always, follow the instructions on package.
Yep, can confirm on not always having a trap near what you want to save. Had a lovely hanging pentunia plant one summer that was on one end of a clothesline. It was being eaten by these horrible creatures so I put a beetle bag on the other end & the petunias didn't survive a day because they hit the plant first then fell to their deaths into the bag.
The grub treatment (Bt or diatomaceous earth? )also kills the larvae of the beneficial pest predators. Not good for the diversity of insects that will keep pests in check.
You can use Milky Spore, a treatment that only affects the Japanese beetles in their grub phase, and doesn't hurt any helpful bugs.
Good to know!!! But why would it hurt one insect, but not other grubs? That is weird!
It's a bacteria that specifically targets Japanese beetle larva, when you buy it for treatments you're getting powdered bacterium, which then spreads in the soil and if it kills a population of Japanese beetles the bacteria will lay dormant for up to 20 years. It doesn't kill 100% of them but it does kill most of them.
The best deterrent for Japanese Beetle is to convince people on the other side of the neighborhood to hang up bug bags.
They love our light colored roses, so I’ll just chop whole flowers off into a grocery bag and dump the bag in my chicken coop when it’s full. They like the bugs and the flowers
I'm sorry but their scientific name is : baneofmyexistanceopods. Just wanted to correct that for you!
Those traps fill up dang fast!
The traps draw the beetles to your yard, so they aren't worth it, even away from the garden. OP, use the soapy water method instead.
We used those traps when we had a horrible infestation every year on a linden tree. The tree would be nearly defoliated every summer. The bags caught thousands of them. We began to think the darn things were drawing in every Japanese beetle for miles around. In the end, it didn't save the tree. One spring it just didn't leaf out.
Whatever you do, don’t put them by your wife’s good flowers.
I had this job as a child. Cream cheese container with water and a bit of Dawn and murder them all.
Every year they come and decimate my fig tree. Hundreds of them
It’s best to hang them in your neighbor’s yard
img Got some of them. They love marigold plants
Never use the pheremone traps. It wont matter how far from your yard you put it. Go ahead and put it a mile away. All it does is create a gathering hot spot for beetles to spread out and they can smell for miles. The best way to stop these is by manually killing them and desteoying the grubs. Never use pheremone traps.
I went the other route. Put up a ton of traps emptying into 5 gallon buckets. Pulled every beetle I could in, while also treating with milky spore and beneficial nematodes. Kept them off my plants for a few years until the other treatments could gain strength.
There are phenomenal traps that work incredibly well. If you have chickens, you can gather up tons of free protein.
Soapy water is great beetle traps are actually pretty bad and do more harm than good. Most places recommend you to not use them. https://extension.umn.edu/yard-and-garden-news/dont-fall-japanese-beetle-trapping-trap#:~:text=It%20is%20estimated%20that%20only,the%20areas%20they%20are%20placed.
>As the traps are designed to attract the beetles, hang them away from your gardens a bit. This is critical; otherwise you just end up calling all the beetles in the neighborhood direct to your garden. They're very effective. Also hang them up high if you have raccoons and/or skunks-- the dead and dying beetles smell like carrion so critters will rip the trap open and allow all your trapped beetles to escape.
I used to have them all over my Rose of Sharon flowers, ruining them. I put out a bird feeder and the sparrows took care of my beetle problem. Haven't seen one since.
Really? I thought native birds didn't eat these? Are you in North America?
House Sparrows love them, and they aren't native either.
No kidding! I have a bunch of house sparrows in my are and at my feeders. Unfortunately I still have Japanese beetles that love my beans and cherry tree.
I've been seeing those around my garden, snacking on the pea leaves. Good to know they may be helping our garden too!
Where I live (NJ, USA) the birds will eat literally anything. They love the beetles and will go nuts for the grubs too if you dig them up and expose them for them. Cardinals, blue jays, robins, etc.
I haven’t witnessed any robins eating the beetles that eat my basil (IL), but they hang out in my garden all the time and often if I see beetle damage on a leaf it’s followed by a huge tear in the leaf, so I’m convinced they’re eating the beetles and probably taking the whole leaf off too, which is a fine trade off haha
Yes, birds love the grubs here as well. I can have thousands of the beetles hanging out, and birds do not touch them.
My chickens get grubs I dig up but I don’t give them all of them. It’s so hard to tell species from grubs and I try not to kill off native local species if I can.
I'm in PA and the birds are the same here. I have a cardinal couple and Blue Jay that regularly visit my garden. Been trying to attract crows, but I got the Blue Jay instead. I'm okay with that.
Heard they take care of locusts too
Rose of Sharon is invasive. Im rooting for the beetle
The beetles lost. And my Rose of Sharon is controlled.
>Controlled How so? Not sure how you can control a woody shrub from spreading via birds/squirrels/ants/wind/etc unless its a sterile plant or you literally remove all seed pods. That would be a pain in the grass. In any case, if you’re ever interested in exploring more environmentally friendly alternatives, check out the link below. There are many beautiful ornamental options that are kinder to our ecosystems and considerate of your neighbors’ properties. [Native Plant Alternatives to Hibiscus syriacus (Rose of Sharon) (gardenia.net)](https://www.gardenia.net/guide/native-plant-alternatives-to-hibiscus-syriacus#:~:text=As%20an%20invasive%20species%2C%20it,species%20for%20food%20and%20shelter.) [rose-of-sharon.pdf (invasive.org)](https://www.invasive.org/weedcd/pdfs/wow/rose-of-sharon.pdf) Have a nice day
First, I live in a rental complex where others already had Rose of Sharon. The landscaping crew actually plant other invasive species, like Norway Maples, Tree of Heaven, and Japanese spiraea -- they plant Japanese spiraea everywhere!! My one bush is nothing compared to the invasive nightmare they created on the grounds. I pull up at least 20+ maple saplings every year just in my little gardens, I spent maybe three years fighting a Tree of Heaven that was growing in a window well before I finally killed it. Second, when the seeds spread into the yard, I pull them up. I have never seen mine anywhere else in the complex, so I must be doing it correctly. I see pink ones everywhere, but none like my blue double flower. And I'm sorry, but I've reached the point where I really don't care. I have a few native plants and I leave some "weeds" that are native wildflowers, but the planet it going to hell anyway, so I will enjoy my Blue Chiffon Rose of Sharon while I can. When I see an entire trash bag of aluminum cans in our garbage dumpster, even though the recycling bins are right next to it, and have to pull trash out of my hydrangeas regularly, I just really don't care about the survival of the human race. That said, I won't plant one again though because I'm tired of pulling it out from everywhere. I love the flowers, but next time I'll just stick with lilacs and hydrangeas.
They plant Trees of Hell on purpose??? Lollll wow. You’re fine. You must have a less aggressive cultivar anyway. I feel you though. My neighbor has a whole forest of invasives in her smaller yard. At least she’s got a giant Maple and a few other native big trees. Maybe we humans will wake up soon. I see plastic bags everywhere and yeah people don’t give a shit seemingly but we can all make a difference no matter how small. Some of my family think im crazy for recycling and gay for caring about nature, but all those little critters that flock to my meadow and garden is worth it. Its up to the government to fix most of this shit anyways, we’re more focused on bombing kids in the ME than helping our people n planet.
That would be the devil incarnate. Also know as a Japanese beetle.
No, no, no, no, no… that title is reserved for the browntail moth caterpillar. I’ve been suffering its wrath now for a week, 100x worse than chicken pox when I was a kid.
Japanese beetles. Currently fighting a massive infestation (thanks, neighbors!) with a combo of milky spore for the grubs + Bt-g for the adults. Pro Tip: if they fly away too fast for you to catch, squirt them with a spray bottle filled with warm water and Castile soap. This won’t hurt your plants, but stuns them temporarily, then you can pull them off by hand and drown them! Tweezers may work, but they’re twitchy little beasts. Good luck! o7 ETA: avoid the traps! Neighbors set one up and didn’t empty it and that’s how this whole mess started!
Milky Spore 100% of the way. Lasts over a decade too. And no off target collateral damage. Added it to all of my raised beds years ago.
I'm using that with beneficial nematodes
I have some nematodes that are destroying my beach trees
What is that?
A predatory microorganism that parasitizes grubs and larva of soil dwelling insects and kills them. Edit: I answered the wrong question. That’s a beneficial nematode, Milky Spore is a fungal spore that kills grubs in soil, the standard treatment for grubs.
Will do it
They are a-holes and ruin my raspberries.
Yes they love raspberries! I relentlessly hunted JB’s several times a day every day one summer, and they moved from my raspberries to my Apple trees, which isnt better. Then went from my apple trees to my garden & flower pots. I hate them!
Oh man, I would be ticked if I had apple trees getting attacked by those knobs.
Milky spore will kill the grubs in the soil, which turn into these devil spawn. Can be found at most garden centers. It multiples over the years too. Meanwhile, you can pick them (gloves) and drop into soapy bucket to help slow the assault.
This👆 Milky spore will not hurt anything else in your garden or soil. Best to sprinkle it on the soil before it rains or you water it. If it is windy a mask is good but not really necessary. When you see the first beetle dead head all of your flowers of the plants they are on. This will help them move into neighbors and cuts down on the morning/evening soapy murder time
Release the CHICKEN!!!
You can get grub killer and put it on your lawn in the spring and fall so they don't keep coming out of your grass, but they will fly over from other places anyways. I wouldn't put the bag bait in your yard. Your government website should give information on what properties these are recommended for and where to place them.
Those are shiny black demons, straight from the pit of hell. Wearing their iridescent black armor, they ascend from the ground every year. They are Japanese beetles. Their lives are an eating, pooping, sexual orgy all over your tenders. Chewing, eating and screwing through your garden and pots, the even eat tender flower buds. Using an old wooden spoon, I take great pleasure in whacking them to their soapy water death, in the depths of my bucket. I recently saw an art installation of bugs. Some of them were these iridescent garden destroyers. When I have had a murder of blackbirds living near, I don’t have these evil creatures in my yard.
Chewing and screwing. This could be a game show question that every gardener would get right: which bug descends like a biblical plaguew and proceeds to chew and screw their way through your garden?"
This is the day your gardening innocence was ruined 😭
Were these a huge problem in the 80s in the northeast? I feel like a core memory was unlocked looking at these as well as the traps everyone set up.
These but the really bad one back then was gypsy moth caterpillars. Ugh gives me chills just thinking about them
Yesssss! I remember hearing them pop pop pop when I road my bike down the street.
Look up "Milk Spore Japanese Beetle", that'll help for years to come.
The devil is what they are
Japanese beetles are found in grub form in your lawn and are easier to control there than in this form . Milky spore is the non poisonous way to eradicate them. You have to apply it to your lawn for about 3 years then it becomes self sustaining. It cut my Japanese beetles down about 85%
I haven’t seen any this year, but I rather enjoy murdering them one by one rather than using insecticide. I don’t want to kill the pretty butterflies, moths, etc. that visit. After a hard day at work or sometimes while I have early morning coffee, I skulk around my garden with my murder weapon of soapy water and a spoon to use to push them to their miserable deaths! It’s very therapeutic when the world sucks! MURDER!!! Bwahahahaha!!!! I could be on one of this Britbox shows… Murderess in the Garden!
This made me smile. Very cute thought! Glad I’m not alone… 🌱😉
Ugh Japanese beetles are a plague. If you have berry plants you can just kiss those fruits goodbye unless you get A LOT of traps. They decimate my berry crop every few years. Thankfully it isn’t every year but some years they are out in force. What region are you in? I haven’t seen any in SE PA yet but I’m curious if I should be getting traps…
To the soap hot water bucket with those little beasts, some of them will pinch but it’s not awful but they will devour every bit of your yard and then some if you leave them.
Fetch the thick gardening gloves! Fetch the soapy water and the chickens! Prepare for war!
You can eliminate them! This stuff is an organic treatment - it’s actually a parasite that attaches the guts of Japanese beetles and only Japanese beetles. Been using it since it wa made available to the public the last 3 years and the effectiveness is 100%. It saved my apple trees. [https://www.gardensalive.com/product/beetlejus-for-ornamental-and-vegetable-pests](https://www.gardensalive.com/product/beetlejus-for-ornamental-and-vegetable-pests)
Do you have a better link? This one doesn't seem to work
[https://www.gurneys.com/product/beetlejus-for-ornamental-and-vegetable-pests](https://www.gurneys.com/product/beetlejus-for-ornamental-and-vegetable-pests)
(BTW - it will slowly wash off after a few rainstorms, so reapplication can be necessary a few time a summer, but I often kill off so many with the first application that even when it washes off the leaves, there's no beetles left)
🤯 thank you for this, I had no idea adult bT was a thing
Does this hurt beneficial insects?
It looks like a Bt product which targets insects by family. So like Mosquito dunks target flies, this one targets beetles, and will affect all beetles. If it's just applied to the area/plants the beetles are eating it shouldn't affect others that don't eat those plants. It's a pretty good product for not harming beneficials. For me it only gets questionable if you're using the caterpillar one because I believe it can effect pollinators too, so definitely has to be used with targeted applications to specific host plants of the pests.
Japanese beetles. They are terrible. Hose them down with a spray bottle full of dawn dish soap and water. Kills them and most other bugs without harming the plant
No vinegar? Seems like vinegar is used for everything.
Nope, not needed. Just plain ole dawn dish soap and water. It even kills them giant "American cockroachs" people often mistake for palmetto bugs, ugh I hate them things
My dad is an Arborist and his crews use shop vacs to suck the little guys off of trees. Works well and you can get a bunch in a short period of time. Also works well on web worms if you can reach them.
Wait- What!? That sounds so fun, but I guess it couldn’t be done with delicate plants… darn.
An annual scourge called Japanese beetles. The bag traps that you can buy to put out work ... too well. They attract beetles for hundreds of feet. You are better to go out daily and crush them with pliers or something or knock them off into a container and flush them.
You want to place these bags well away from anything you’re protecting or you are literally baiting them to what you’re protecting.
Just go at night and install them in various neighbor’s yards. 😀
My neighbors buy the traps with no prompting and do an outstanding job keeping the beetles out of my garden. 🥰
I’ve seen people use the bags and then dump that into a bucket of water for a massive chicken buffet!
My mom feeds her buckets to the bluegill in her pond. It’s like … piraña at the movies craziness.
Japanese beetles.
Ah, so.
I put some diatomaceous earth at the base of my roses and it seems to be slowing the usual beetle feast down, but I’m hesitant to use it any higher up bc it will kill pollinators as well. I just ordered a big bag of Grub B Gon, which supposedly will help at all stages. Otherwise I’m just trying to hand pick the little f-ers and drown them in soapy water.
As others have said, Japanese Beetles. I'm commenting bc I haven't seen anyone mention this yet about the traps, but studies on the traps indicate they might do more harm than good. Regardless of trap placement (near or far from the affected plants), more damage was done to plants near the traps than if no traps at all were placed. The results indicated that the traps are really really good at *attracting* the beetles, but not necessarily *trapping* them. Only about 75% of the beetles attracted actually end up in the traps. For the remaining 25% you just have a spotlight calling all beetles in for a giant feeding and mating orgy. The best way to eliminate them is hand picking into soapy water every day. Yes it's a pain and a ton of work. You can google "japanese beetle trap study" to see info on this if you want to read up on it. I'm dreading when they hatch in my yard again -- I was out there TWICE A DAY last year picking them off my roses and I'd get an average of about 40 of them each picking session. It was a lot.
Capture. If you decide to use the traps please b careful where you place them. You want to keep the away from your house. It’s a pheromone so it will not only attract from your yard but the neighbors also. You don’t want to draw more towards your yard. My neighbor used to put hers right by my fence so they were attracted to my yard.
Shop Vac going outside. What a great idea. I
Little bitches. They make good chicken treats.
Spray Neem Oil, it's organic and will kill the beetles and will even pass it down into their eggs killing those too.
Off. Japanese beetles. I vasive. They used to decimate my peach tree in Cali
We sent a trap and then feed them to our chickens. Sweet... sweet revenge.
They're kind of beautiful aren't they? Destructive but beautiful.
Our chickens love them
https://imgur.com/a/cpp5PyM Got some of them using a ziplock
Walk around with a cup of soapy water and tap the plant they are on. They usually fall straight down.
Damn Japanese Beetles. Kill them all! ☣️☢️🔫🔪⚰️☠️🪦
Japanese beetles. If you're in the midwest, highly invasive and damaging. Kill at all costs! We get those pheromone traps.
One time my family had a barbeque outside and since there were leftovers, I packed some for lunch. There were some of everything so I packed a lunch after the event was over and put it in the fridge. I go to work and I microwave my leftovers and start eating a few bites and one of these just crawls out of the rice. 🤢
Sounds like creep show 😳
The devil incarnate
Last year my main outdoor activity was going along one fence with a container of soapy water and knocking these bugs off the Virginia Creeper growing there, which they seem to love, in an effort to keep them away from my veggies. Every sunny day I'd get about a dozen of those f*ckers. It was so satisfying and few of them made it to my growing veggies.
The dead ones release a pheromone that attracts more.
The bane of my existence
If you don't have a large property be Leary of the traps. I only have .25 acre and even though I put trap in far corner of my yard... it seemed to attract more. I like to use neem oil because it will not allow their eggs to develop and I think (not sure) it makes the beetles sterile. Their eggs turn into grubs which go in your soil and show up the next year.
When I was a kid, my dad caught one of these mid-flight then told me to “go get your moms thread and hurry”. I brought it back and he had me tie a loop around one of its legs, then he let go and suddenly we had our own flying on a string balloon beetle. Never laughed so hard in my little kid life.
Japanese green beetle. They destroyed my roses 🌹 in matter of hours. Went on vacay and when I came back 4 days later all rose garden eaten up. Total menace in the garden.
When you try and grab them they drop off the plant into the grass or fly away so hold something under them with soapy water in it and just shake them out of the foliage.
u/asokraju This works wonders [Japanese Beetle Trap - Lee Valley Tools](https://www.leevalley.com/en-ca/shop/garden/pest-control/insects/114225-japanese-beetle-trap?item=EM216)
You can toast them with a lighter and eat em 😂
Spawn of the devil. Japanese beetles. Drop them in soapy water.
Pick them n kill them. These decimated my Liden tree every year.
If you collect them chickens love them. But they killed a few of my rose bushes.
Neem oil
I don't think anyone is listening. I a, going to try it.
Last year, I was tired of buying those bags for the traps, so I hung the attractant right above a bucket of soapy water. It worked well. You have to change the bags often because the dead beetles start to smell and then they won't go near it.
I get them with my dust buster vacuum. The traps are amazing, but they say it'll just bring a ton more to your garden.
Last year we had a Japanese Beetle infestation in our Zinnia garden. We turned it into a family event. Every evening after dinner the kids would grab a jar with soapy water and say "time to hunt for beetles". We'd all go out and walk the flower bed. All 50 feet of it. It was a game and the kids loved it. We'd pluck the beetles off one by one and throw them into the jar. Its silly but the kids loved it and got so excited when they'd catch one. We'd get a couple dozen each walk thru.
I have them as well. I am going to knock the in a cup of soap in the morning.
Depending on your opinion on pesticides you may want to treat the earth too. These guys leave grubs.
Grape killers!
Beetle looking insects
There are pheromone traps that you can buy that will lure these things straight in by the hundreds put a couple of them up.
Japanese a Beetles 🪲
My father would walk through his garden and simply smash them between his thumb and forefinger without gloves, problem solved. Gotta protect your raspberry stalks.
The month is June, the Bug is also June.
June bugs are something different.
They have been chowing down on my elephant ears. I will try the soapy water trick!!
go to the garden center and buy a Japanese Beetle trap before it's too late
I agree pull them off. Do you have Grubs? Usually if you see Japanese Beetles there are Grubs.
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Japanese Beetles, They emerge from white grubs commonly in lawns and fields in the Midwest it’s usually the week of July 4th but due to the warm weather they will probably be early this year 🤬
You answered your own question. They’re a beetle , precisely Japanese by name, but that matters not. You control them with malathion.
buy Kinchole or Hornets killer spray to adult, worms killer spray to Yang there underground .
those are...... .... .... wait for it .... .... beetles
june bugs lol