I spray the beetles with soapy water before pushing them into a pan of soapy water. Dawn Dish soap seems to be the key. The spray freezes them and they cannot fly. Most will die on the leaf within minutes. Test the plant with a small amount of spray first because some plants don;t like the soap.
Very thorough information, I found a few white bugs that were stuck on my grapevine and had to research to identify them - Only to learn they are Japanese Beetles that I fought all last year. 😢
I’m going to be using beneficial nematodes. Not a cheap solution but from what Im finding in research, it is a very good option and easier to apply than milky spore.
I collected two with my morning slug patrol and fed them to my chickens. Never seen them before in my life and ive been gardening seriously for over 20 years.
Go ahead and use the pheromone traps. Your plants are attracting them anyway and instead of going to your plants, the beetles will go to the traps. I have an urban rose garden. I use more than the recommended number of traps and I put them right into my rose beds. I don’t have any more beetles than without them, but have very very few on my roses because they prefer the traps.
I read a study by U of WI-Madison I believe that the traps still draw in more than your plants alone. They did not recommend the traps. I have used them at a distance and sprayed them. I think I had more that year, but cannot be certain as some years they are more plentiful than others. I hate them.
@@marccroft3328 I agree. My sapling pear & plum trees were covered in them & they had started to invade my vegetable garden. I put one trap halfway between my trees & another on the very edge of my garden, ALL the beetles I had went into the traps & I haven’t seen any more damage or beetles on plants & I check multiple times a day. The traps work. Oh, & we live out in the country, next to a pasture that the owners have left to go wild on one side & a crop field on the other side & behind us & another pasture across the road. Beetles could be surrounding us but since I put the traps up, NO beetles on my plants whatsoever!
Use lambda- cyhalothrin insectide. It is a synthetic pyrethroid that contains two active ingredients that kills on contact as well as leaving a residual on the leaves to be consumed.
There are two options for the milky spore. Powder which you put down in a grid pattern (every 4') only 1application. The other is the granules of which you put down as you said; spring, summer, and fall for 2 years. So 6 rounds of treatment total.
I opened my back door last night. And was swarmed. Front door was worse! I turned all my lights off. In case that's why these unknown beetles where swarming my doors. Now I've got one acre to protect. On a budget. Not to mention my very small patio garden. Already have seven dust on that area. Should've watched video first. Maybe diathecmus earth on plants? Ty for your video.
DT will certainly help along with hand picking. You can spray them with a soapy water mixture in the evening or early morning to help make it easier to catch them and drown them in soapy water. Just do a quick rinse to get the soap off to prevent sun scold. Good luck and keep at them!
@@BrewCityGardener thank you so much. I think I killed my garden with sevn dust trying to protect them. But, I will get that soapy water on the turf. Thanks so much.
My tomatoes were wilting the japanese beetle in grub form is eating my roots on my Romas. I go to war tomorrow i dont play well with pests. Nothing gets in the way of my tomatoe babies and a beautiful harvest.
I'm using milky spore treatments on my lawn. So far after one treatment no help. Also using D.E. for dusting and it's helping but not perfectly. I'm going to try D.E. in a liquid mix and see if that sticks better to the leaves. If it continues and gets worse I'll consider tree covers. If that doesn't work I'm getting a bazooka!
You mention that beetle traps should be "hundreds of yards" away from the plants. The instructions on the traps say a "minimum of 30 feet from the plants". I've captured many thousands of those beetles with traps and also spot spray pyrethrum in an old Windex bottle. It keeps them in check but doesn't get rid of them. They are drawn to my eggplants, cannas and crepe myrtle bushes.
@@creimom2536 Yes, they absolutely do. We had hundreds at first but after I set the bags out, we had thousands. By the end of the week it was many thousands. My neighbor's trees even suffered because there wasn't enough to feed that many of them in my yard alone. I've heard a ton of people say the same thing: they attract more!
@@brushcreek42 I put the traps right in my garden. The beetles are attracted by my plants anyway but when the traps are there, they prefer the traps over my plants. I wish everyone would use them
@@marccroft3328 Fortunately we had almost no Japanese beetles this year, just a few on the crepe myrtles and eggplants here in south central Missouri. We went 6 weeks this summer without a drop of rain and fourteen 100+ days in July, so maybe that affected them. I don't miss them. to say the least!
I leave the bucket sitting in the garden. The beetles don’t like the decomposing smell..! They stay way. In winter I use MilkySpore in the ground. It Kills the larvae..
Im getting ready to do battle again this year..Im going to try an old trick this year that seemed to work on keeping mesquitoes at bay when i lived up north..For any of you smokers out there heres what i did..Keep a 5 gal bucket with about 3 gal of water in it..Empty all astrays into it for a while, several weeks..Then take that nicotine water, add dish soap maybe 4 table spoons per gallon, pour only the water in a sprayer, and spray the lawn with it..Now that worked great on keeping mesquitoes away i wonder if it will work on these little green demonds...I figure since nobody has a solution if we keep trying things ones bound to work...P.S SEVEN DUST is a joke, i covered them with it, and one of them gave me the middle finger as they laughed, and kept chewing..Besides that it kills bees ,and NOBODY wants that...
Years ago I used to ask people, "how do they know they are Japanese Beetles. " Generally people would say I don't know. Then I would say,"that's easy, they speak japanese."
@@evelyncase681that last word is unnecessary. You also do now to put the punctuation in, at all. Are you undereducated, perhaps? Or is it that you are simply a rude person? It’s a lonely life, have at it.
I used the d.e. on my lawn 2 yrs and we were rid of them they hatch in june and july immediately start lookin forva mate and then lay eggs then 10days later they hatch eating whatever root oh btw they lay eggs in the dirt even grass hard clay hard dirt no problem they lay eggs in their the grubs eat roots and grow till they are ready then burrow out and cycle behins again Birds love the Japanese Beetle chickens eat them and blue jays scrubs sparrows cat birds the list is long ...
Honestly there is really nothing you can do because the grubs are in your yard and Aaallll your neighbors lawns.even if you try to get rid of them they will keeeepp on a comin
The benefit to treating your lawn that you've worked so hard in creating a lush blanket of green is that you will lessen the brown patches that these pest's larvae create. It's not bad enough that your plants are decimated, but your grass takes a beating as well.
A different gardener video, same subject, she said early morning they don’t fly as easily “they act like they’re drunk” (or sleepy?). Knock into bucket (w/drops of soap) then. Though she was doing video with success in early evening. So, maybe some success then too. Hope it helps
I have what seems like 100’s in my back yard where my flowers & garden are. They dive at your head like suicide bombers (pardon the comparison), but it’s true! My neighbors MUST think I’m certifiably INSANE bc they see me out there, at a MINIMUM, of 20x’s/day flicking them off my green beans, my butterfly bush, my blackberry/raspberry & passion fruit vines…all the while, flailing my arms & running in circles like a mad woman, lol Now that I watch this, I’m 2nd guessing the beetle trap I have! Maybe I need to move it to the very back of the yard? (I have it between my garden & my flower bed & fruit plants. (Per the directions) Any suggestions?! PLEASE, do tell! I’m open to ANY & ALL suggestions, short setting my yard on fire! Haha
I would move the trap as far as possible from the garden. If you have a gracious neighbor, they may allow you to place it on their property. Otherwise, utilize the tips in the video as best as you can. Thankfully, they don't sting or bite so catching them and drowning them is fairly easy. I have also seen people use a shop-vac to suck them up off their plants. Get creative. LoL. Just keep at it,..eventually you'll win the war!!
@@BrewCityGardener hahaha, thanks for the tips! I did move it to the very back of my yard (rt after watching your video) & voilà! Down from 100’s flying & diving & skeletonizing my garden & flowers…to just around 20, afterwards! Nearly instantaneous…(Wish I had looked this up 3 yrs ago! Lol) ….& I have NO IDEA why common sense didn’t kick in for me at some point, to tell me…*psst…”HEY! You’re drawing them closer to you! Move the lure awayyyy from the area!” 😂😂 Oh well, lesson learned & thanks again for no more suicide diving, June bugs!
I’m at wits end traps fill up so fast. They have a Velcro bottom so I empty them into a 5 gal bucket with soapy water. The smell and beetle poop is disgusting. But there’s thousands more. I think I brought them in with the attraction in bags. I even put soapy water in wet vac and sucked them up. I haven’t been at it a couple days now my grape vine and weeping pussy willow tree is so sad looking. I’m going to do something. I think I made the mistake of hanging bags in my grapevine and pussywillow tree
@@MrLassylady i like the idea of vacuuming them. I have thousands all eating american bamboo a plant thats invasive they arent in the garden so plan to attack them there.
