THE JAPANESE HAVE INVADED THE US!!!!

[Beekissed]

My garden is hosting a HUGE swarm of mating Japanese beetles as I type this. Some are piled 4-5 deep on one another, making more babies to come back next year. The last time I saw this many Japanese beetles in our gardens on this land was back in the late 70s.

I placed a trap and within 30 seconds there were 10 beetles in the trap. Now I read that the traps merely attract more beetles to your land? I don't see how there could be MORE beetles.

At first this season it was just 3 or 4 I pinched dead on the cukes and corn each morning and evening, but today it's a beetle orgy out there, with huge swarms in the air over the garden and beetles piled on one another on any green surface in the garden. I don't think the trap is going to cause more sex hungry beetles at the moment...it looks like Woodstock out there right now!!!

 

[Nyboy]

Do your chickens eat them?

 

[Beekissed]

I don't know. I've never seen them eating those kind of beetles...I've never seen many Japanese beetles around here at all until now... and I'm certainly not letting them in the garden.

Now, if I had ducks, I'd turn loose the wrath of the ducks on them but the chickens will just scratch up everything I don't want them to destroy, eat a few bugs and leave the garden in shambles.

 

[Beekissed]

That trap now has around 60-70(just guesstimating here) beetles in it now! I made a sprayer jug full of soapy water and sprayed soap on any beetle I could see on any plant in the garden.

The trap seems to be working well for this swarm, as by the time I could make up the sprayer of soapy water, the numbers swarming over the garden and on the plants themselves had decreased...I assume they had all gone in the trap. Still found piles of them on the cuke leaves, so they got sprayed with soap.

This evening I'll move that trap further from the garden so as to attract the beetles away from that area, then I'll spray the most affected plants with some soapy citronella solution. That should kill off any scent from left over pheromones from these mating bugs. I hope.

 

[Beekissed]

Guess this answers the question about if chickens will eat Japanese beetles....

 

[Nyboy]

Maybe time to get some ducks, some duck breeds lay almost as much as chicken.

 

[valley ranch]

They look like they're happy to have them. Good source of protein.

 

[journey11]

Guess this answers the question about if chickens will eat Japanese beetles....

Looks like a game of Hungry, Hungry Hippos! I wonder if the chickens will eat them right off of the plant?

We've got swarms of them everywhere too. I started out handpicking them off of my morning glories, but their numbers are too profound now to keep up with that. Wonder what is the best way to kill them then? I have a Varigated Porcelain Berry Vine that serves best as a venue for Japanese beetle conventions.

 

[majorcatfish]

My garden is hosting a HUGE swarm of mating Japanese beetles as I type this. Some are piled 4-5 deep on one another, making more babies to come back next year. The last time I saw this many Japanese beetles in our gardens on this land was back in the late 70s.

I placed a trap and within 30 seconds there were 10 beetles in the trap. Now I read that the traps merely attract more beetles to your land? I don't see how there could be MORE beetles.

At first this season it was just 3 or 4 I pinched dead on the cukes and corn each morning and evening, but today it's a beetle orgy out there, with huge swarms in the air over the garden and beetles piled on one another on any green surface in the garden. I don't think the trap is going to cause more sex hungry beetles at the moment...it looks like Woodstock out there right now!!!

oh yes those traps will bring in every japanese beetle for miles.. what a great marketing gimmick i got suckered years ago then found milky spores that has cut back the hoards, to a low roar....
for some reason they are hanging out on the corn this year which is good ,it has not started to do anything so it chemical warfare for now, once it does time to use neem oil..

 

[Smart Red]

Not to down play your chemical attack, @majorcatfish, but most don't do a lot against beetles unless you manage to get them with their wings open.

My first line of offense against these voracious beast has always been hand-picking. That and several years of Milky Spore applications further and further from population central.