Japanese beetle traps

[zxcvbob]

I ordered a Spectracide beetle trap last summer, and it didn't get here until early August just as the beetles disappear on their own.  So I saved it, unopened, for this year.  I started seeing a few japanese beetles last week, so I set up the trap yesterday.  Now there are beetles everywhere.  I can't tell if the trap is catching more than it's luring in from the neighbors' yards or not.  The population might have been ready to explode anyway.

The first bag is almost full.  The kit came with 2 bags; I'll need to see if I can find refills locally.  I don't think I can empty the bag and reuse it because it's hourglass shaped, but I might try.  Maybe if I put it in the freezer to kill the bastards I can shake them out.

[WLJ]

Started putting some out three years and after catching bags full I notice they were actually attracting far more to our yard than we would have normally. It's insane how little time there is between opening a new scent packet and getting swarmed by masses of them. But into the 2nd and now the 3rd year I've noticed a greatly reduced number of them. I figure the traps while attracting more beetles to your yard than normal are putting a major dent into the local breeding pop while at the same time luring them away from the flowers.

[Kingcreek]

Give them to your neighbors.
I tried them when the beetles showed up here a few yards ago. The proprietary bags were full in a day. I bought more bags $7 for 4 of the iirc. They filled even faster.
Refusing to spend more money on more bags, I cut the bottom off of one and duct taped it to a section of plastic drain tubing and taped a 30 gal trash bag on the bottom. When I came home the 30 gal bag was heavy enough with beetles that it pulled apart and there were ankle deep beetles on the ground. So I parked a metal trash can under it and reassembled with fresh bag. I hauled 2 bags of the damnable things up to a brush pile in the pasture and realized that that there was just as many beetles on the fruit trees.
I threw the damn traps away and went to dusting and spraying with seven.

[French G.]

Yeah, best use of beetle pure is to hide them on someone else’s property. I am organic hippie and all I just go out with a bucket or mixing bowl and shake beetles off of my blackberries and then dump them out as an offering to my chickens.

[Boomhauer]

USDA has something for them

From Wikipedia

During the larval stage, the Japanese beetle lives in lawns and other grasslands, where it eats the roots of grasses. During that stage, it is susceptible to a fatal disease called milky spore disease, caused by a bacterium called milky spore, Paenibacillus (formerly Bacillus) popilliae. The USDA developed this biological control and it is commercially available in powder form for application to lawn areas. Standard applications (low density across a broad area) take from one to five years to establish maximal protection against larval survival (depending on the climate), expanding through the soil through repeated rounds of infection.

[zxcvbob]

If I had chickens, I would just get one of the lures (just the bait) and put it in or near the henhouse where the chooks could grab the beetles.

[zxcvbob]

During the larval stage, the Japanese beetle lives in lawns and other grasslands, where it eats the roots of grasses. During that stage, it is susceptible to a fatal disease called milky spore disease, caused by a bacterium called milky spore, Paenibacillus (formerly Bacillus) popilliae. The USDA developed this biological control and it is commercially available in powder form for application to lawn areas. Standard applications (low density across a broad area) take from one to five years to establish maximal protection against larval survival (depending on the climate), expanding through the soil through repeated rounds of infection.

I've thought about that.  I'll have to read-up whether it it also kills fireflies.  (I'm okay if it hurts junebugs and cutworms)

[Ron]

One season they were destroying my rose bush. I sprayed the bush with permethrin and that slowed them down!

I bought a lawn treatment that killed the grubs in the ground and that did the trick.

Not sure how eco friendly the stuff was but it worked.

[makattak]

I've  got a proprietary trap that kills them all.

It's called "ducks".

We had them covering our fruit trees the first year we had ducks. (They were too small at the time.) Second year I put the ducks in the orchard. I've found maybe 3 beetles on our trees total since that first year.

[BobR]

We don't have those but I just read this on the Old Farmers Almanac site, I wonder if Young Farmers use it also?

Fruit Cocktail Trap: You can buy Japanese beetle traps of all sorts, but most are no more effective than a can of fruit cocktail. Open the can and let it sit in the sun for a week to ferment. Then place it on top of bricks or wood blocks in a light-colored pail, and fill the pail with water to just below the top of the can. Place the pail about 25 feet from the plants you want to protect. The beetles will head for the sweet bait, fall into the water, and drown. If rain dilutes the bait, start over.

bob

[zxcvbob]

I've  got a proprietary trap that kills them all.

It's called "ducks".

We had them covering our fruit trees the first year we had ducks. (They were too small at the time.) Second year I put the ducks in the orchard. I've found maybe 3 beetles on our trees total since that first year.

What I'd really like is a flock of guineas.  My neighbors would probably shoot me, if my wife didn't kill me first.  (they are noisy critters)

[Cliffh]

Neighbor across the street has a small flock (6) of guineas.  They come across the road to our place daily.

The good:  They're good bug killers.

The bad:  They make the most god-awful noise.

I don't encourage them coming over, but I don't let the dogs chase them off either.  A couple more years and I'll have my own organic bug killers, for now I'll let the neighbors birds do the duty.

I also don't let the dogs chase off the neighbors' cats.  SWMBO doesn't like the idea of outside cats, so, again, the neighbors' animals come into play.