Battling the Japanese beetle.....

Hi Friends,

Flood, heat and now a new tormentor ........the Japanese beetle. I'm repotting my tropicals and was dive-bombed by two of the colorful rascals. After checking online the Japanese beetle was identified and seems to be moving across the US from the east. The information given said there was no natural predator and insecticides seem to be useless.

So....they have skeletonized leaves on my crabapples, cherry, linden and roses (leaves and flowers). The web info held out a bit of hope for a deterrent which is the bugs hate the scent of chives and garlic so I put my linden bonsai in my raised garden amongst the chives which seems to be working. Yesterday I split my rangy garlic and onion chives, potting several for my bonsai benches.

My question is: Have any of you found other way to battle this little glutton? Nina, any advice?

Thanks, Norma

Hi Norma

I felt so bad having battled the same problem myself That I kinda re-joined the forum because I knew I could help.

The product is called Milky Spore, Look that up and do some reading. Its the only thing I have found to be effective, now its not something you would put in your Bonsai soil, you treat your grounds with it, your yard. Its my understanding that the bacterium contained within spreads over years throughout your soil and kills the beetle in its Larval stage.

I used it in my orchard, and main production garden with a little left over to spot treat around some of my ornamental trees and I'v noticed fewer and fewer japanese beetles each year.

the product isn't cheep but I can testify to its effectiveness, In fact I'm going to re-apply next spring under my grapes. You may find as I do the occasional straggler on an tree here or there but this product helps reduce the over all population in your immediate area and as i say it works and is the only thing I have found that does..its saved my orchard thats for sure..there are also far fewer beetles on my bonsai this year..Finally! My Elms breath a little easier.

look it up and good luck!

Thank you, drgonzo!

I do have bare patches in my grass this year and I suppose this is from the grubs eating the roots....! I will look into the treatment you have recommended but I'm going to speak to a few neighbors who have extensive gardens to see if they have noticed the infestation. It makes sense that if I treat my garden there still may be beetles invading from nearby.

I'd hoped Nina would have more information about these pests and now hope she can comment on Milky Spore as the best treatment.

Best regards,
Norma

Hi Norma

Its my understanding that their range and life cycle are both pretty limited. They grow as grubs in the soil emerge and eat your elm trees (or what have you) then mate and basically lay eggs right back down under the tree they just ate (or very near-by) and it starts all over again next year over and over.. thats why I say I was able to spot treat certain ornamentals and every year since I have fewer and fewer beetles on those trees..of course it was my luck that they seemed to just move right on to my grapes and my pussy willow.

Another excellent control is if you have free range chickens call them over to an infested tree and shake a few limbs such that the beetles fall to the ground, the resulting feeding frenzy may provide some balm for the soul in helping to inflict some sort of vengeance on these little beasts

Norma . . . I think Nina is SO busy on her SOD research that she can't visit us very often.

Milky Spore is an effective control, but it is truly effective only if you and all of your neighbors use it -- and continue to use it.

There's some research being done on Japanese beetle control. If you call your local agricultural extension agent's office (there is one of those in almost every county in the USA), someone there can give you the latest info on Japanese beetle control.

You CAN put out traps, but as many people will tell you the traps actually lure beetles to your yard. The partial solution here, of course, is to put the traps on the edges of your property (and hide them from your neighbors).

Thanks, Jim..

The neighbor behind my property has a huge basswood that overhangs...this tree of course has been drawing the beetles. I have decided to use the Milky Spore but what are these traps that you mentioned? There's a cat that ventures onto my property at night....will the traps harm her?

The local news has been pretty "cavalier" about the threat ...."the trees will come back next year as good as ever". Nothing has been said about the grubs or their grass roots diet or that the population of beetles will increase!

Regards,
Norma

They are hanging traps that you put on poles or hang from trees, etc. They use a pheromone (sp?) to attract the beetles, which fall into a bag and cannot escape. Usually available everywhere around here (Lowes, Home Depot, WalMart) though they might be sold out at many places this late in the season. They definitely do attract and catch beetles, often filling the bags very quickly. Question is always, do they catch/kill more beetles than they attract to the area?

We've had them around here forever, the population seems to ebb and flow from year to year...though there does seem to be an overall increasing trend.

Edited to add - google "japanese beetle trap" and you'll see what they look like.

Thanks, Chris..

I found a homemade trap and bait using : 1/4 c.sugar,1 pkg.yeast dissolved in 1c. water and mixed with 1 mashed banana.
Put mixture in gal. milk jug with no lid...put it in a sunny place off the ground.
Strain the trap in the evening!

I'm going to try this for now until I can get the Milky Spore spread.

Norma

Norma wrote:Thanks, Chris..

I found a homemade trap and bait using : 1/4 c.sugar,1 pkg.yeast dissolved in 1c. water and mixed with 1 mashed banana.

[...]

You're joking sweetie!

Get a flame thrower and burn out all these jap roaches.

On a slightly more positive side, I seriously doubt that the Japanese beetle infestation has ever killed an otherwise healthy plant. Their damage is cosmetic. Extensive, sometimes, but cosmetic. Of my trees, the ones that seem to get hit the hardest are the crape myrtles -- both in the yard and on my tables.

There is a proper time to put out the milky spore. I don't know when it is, but I vaguely recall that it is NOT while the adult insects are such a bother. Ask your extension office.

Spore is generally put out in very early spring after ground thaw and if possible before heavy rains, once applied it spreads and, very successfully in my case anyway, interrupts the life cycle of the beetle, its basically a one time application, I'm not sure how far an individual beetle travels but in my experience they tend to complete their life cycle within an acre. I treated my Orchard 3 years ago and it has taken care of them in that area but I have other spots I need to hit and will do so this spring.. Excellent product.

As far as Traps, well I live in wine country and The japanese beetles LOVE grape leaves, The guy at my local agway doesn't even bother selling the traps because he knows what all the old farmers around me know, it just baits them in. But he does sell milky spore!
-Jay

Norma,
I was suprised to see that they are up in your neck of the woods.
Here in NE Ohio we've lived with them since I can remember as a small child. Radio stations, etc. used to have contests where there were prizes for kids that brought in the biggest jugs of dead beatles. My neighbor , when I was a child, had ivy on their whole home and we really got them! Much worse back then. A lot of folks used the traps then, that has dropped off quite a bit as they will attract them to your home. ( But, you can always give them to your neighbors 2 homes away as gifts!! )
Since I've become a home owner 33 years ago I've noticed them in less and less amounts over the years. I think the lawn fertilizer sprays that folks use on their lawns now severely knock off the grubs since the sprays are so caustic, and the granular fertilizers and weed killers you can put down yourself with broadcasters.
In years past I've used Sevin to spray and mixed a little horticultural oil with it so it didn't rain-off so fast. Sevin is the most popular spray here for them.
They seem to do so well because nothing will eat them! I even tried throwing them in my pond when I had my bluegills and even they would spit them back out. Goldfish wouldn't touch them. I think in the latest years I've dispatched the most just by throwing them against the fence when I pulled them off bonsai leaves.
But, their damage is NOTHING like the damage from the 17-year cicadas!
Years ago I had this tee-shirt made for my business. It was one of 5 I made. I used one of my teachers favorite old joke sayings of doing "Full contact bonsai". I thought you'd like it.

D.

Hi Dale,

EE-Ya-a-h!! I love the ninja beetle! Too bad you aren't still selling the t-shirt...I've scared the neighbors with news of the ravenous beetle and what it will do to their perfect lawns and trees...can you imagine what the sight of me wearing this t-shirt design would do to these poor growers of golf-course-worthy grass?

Thanks for the advice about spraying seven with horticultural oil but is there a danger to my dog? I suppose I could keep her out of the garden for a couple of days but that is her job, as she sees it, protecting the bonsai! And she is good...a red heeler or Australian cattle dog takes their work very seriously...!!

And thanks again for the smile..
Norma

Dale,

Do you have pictures of the other shirts you designed?

This one is excellent!
-Jay

Norma, When I was making all natural fertilizer cakes to use/sell EVERYONE told me to mix in Sevin and it wouldn't hurt the dogs if they ate any. The dogs loved the cakes and would nab them and snack when they could reach them. I was doubting, So, I never used it ( I was never bothered by the fact of a stray fly maggot anyway) just to be safe, but, people STILL tell me it wouldn't hurt them!? If you were just spraying a few bonsai I think it would be fine. I've done it for 33 years now and have always had dogs. Lawn spray is probably far worse for dogs!

Jay,
I'm glad you liked them. Here are a few others from over the years. Concepts were all mine but artwork for the screen printing was done by Florida artist Clay Gratz.

The first one was a B&W drawing of my logo. No pics of the shirt art though.
Drawing was by my sister-in-law. Clay didn't do this one, I used her pencil drawing which lost a lot of detail due to a lot of pencil shading. I need to get Clay to re-draw this for a new shirt but using his B&W only style which works excellent for silk screens.



The Mantis went well with the Japanese Beetle



The 'Kimono Girl' was the best selling shirt, reprinted 3 times I think.



The 'GOT BONSAI' was the only one with front and back designs.
A BIG seller!





I also had one of ME doing pottery at a wheel but no photos of that art. A bad seller!
I GAVE AWAY a lot of those!
I sent my last one to IBC potter Morea in Amsterdam area. Maybe she'll post a pic of her wearing it

Norma,
Also, the date that I start looking for them here in NE Ohio ( zone 5) is JULY 4th. That is the magic date. I don't know when your date would be up there but I'm thinking maybe a little later?

Dale

Surviving from these Japanese beetles is really a tough thing, I use to manually pick off these beetles from plants, but after some time they come back again. Finally i consult some pest control expert for this and they sort this out.

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