The Japanese beetles are out in full force this week… and it’s bad. Last year I told you about one way to control Japanese beetles without using pesticides.
Pesticides are effective against Japanese beetles, but I don’t recommend using them; they kill other bugs in the garden, including bees and beneficial insects.
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| Japanese beetles destroying my roses |
The infestation seems to be worse already this year than last year. They are out much earlier and I’m already getting over 100 in my bucket each time I go out and hand pick them. I have a bad feeling that July could be a devastating time in the gardens.
I heard about Japanese beetle traps last year, but I heard both pros and cons to using the traps. The biggest con I heard was that the traps will attract Japanese beetles from all over the neighborhood to your yard.
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| Japanese beetles destroying my canna lily leaves |
This was the main reason I didn’t try them last year. But I have some of the biggest gardens in my neighborhood, so I’m pretty sure that I already have one of the largest populations of beetles in my yard. Plus, I figure that if I’m killing an extra few hundred beetles in these traps, well that’s less beetles that can reproduce in the neighborhood. So, I decided to give the traps a try.
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| Japanese beetle trap |
The key to using these traps is to put them in an area of the yard away from their favorite plants. If you put them right in the garden, more beetles will be attracted to the plants they love, and more damage may occur.
I decided to put the traps on the corner of our porch, which is on the other side of the yard from the infested plants. Plus it’s in a spot where I can watch it from inside the house (morbid curiosity).
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| Japanese beetle trap setup |
A word of advice before you setup one of these. I’ve used yellow jacket traps before and there’s a warning on the label that says to assemble and hang the trap before you open the attractant because it will start attracting them immediately. I decided to take this same advice with the Japanese beetle trap (which is funny, because opening the attractant is the first step in the instructions).
So, I setup and hung the trap, then I opened the attractant. Boy, am I glad I did this. As soon as I climbed down the ladder, there were Japanese beetles flying at the trap from all directions. The beetles don’t bite or sting, but having a bunch of them buzzing around and crawling on me while I tried assembling and hanging the trap would have been awful. Yuck!!
Seriously, within a few seconds there were already beetles in the trap and tons of them flying around towards the trap. Oh boy, I have a feeling I’m going to be disposing of these traps daily. Good thing the replacement bags are inexpensive.
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| Japanese beetle trap at work, notice the beetles at the top near the gutter |
Trap is wide open on top, and I don’t know how the beetles won’t escape. Perhaps they can’t fly back through the small funnel opening in the middle, or they’re too dumb to figure it out. I don’t care, as long as this works.
Have you used these traps before? What did you think?
Update July 2nd @9:45 pm – just over 24 hours later and the bag was over 1/4 full!! There must be a few hundred beetles in there. Nasty! I twist tied the bag shut at the narrow center, then removed the bag, tossed it in the garbage and replaced it with a new bag (after dark when the beetles weren’t flying around of course!).
Julie says
Thank you for this very helpful post. I had a horrible infestation last summer that killed major sections of my lawn. I used a Grub-Ex type product this year to kill the larva but like you said, pesticides will kill the good with the bad insects and the cost also adds up fast to treat large lawns. I hadn't heard of these traps so now I am off to the store to get a bunch! I'll keep you
Amy - Get Busy Gardening says
You're welcome Julie! Good luck with the traps and let me know how it goes for you. I emptied my trap last night because it was over 1/4 full! There had to be a couple hundred beetles in there in just ONE DAY!!! Can you believe it! Disgusting! I might need to go buy another trap to put on the front of the house.
Susan in Eagan says
I've always read/been told NOT to use the traps because they attract more beetles, but our yard is fairly big, and I could put them at the perimeter. It's so disheartening to see them devouring everything. I've been catching dozens every day.
Do you find the tulle rips easily? I got old curtains at Goodwill that I'm going to try this year–they're green, so maybe
Amy - Get Busy Gardening says
Hi Susan, I've been catching hundreds in the traps every day! We went away for a few days, and I forgot to take the trap down. There must have been 1000 in there today! Plus we must have caught another 200 in our bucket tonight. Wow!
The tulle doesn't rip as easy as it looks like it would. I have chicken wire around the bottoms of the grape vines to keep the rabbits from doing
PlantPostings says
I heard the same advice. I guess your course of action makes sense–if you have the biggest infestation in the neighborhood anyway. I saw my first Japanese beetle yesterday. Ours haven't been too bad, but maybe it's because we've had less than an inch of rain since mid-May! Not a fun year for my garden.
Amy - Get Busy Gardening says
Yah, I can't believe how many I've been catching with the trap. But it's so satisfying to see all those dead beetles that would have otherwise reproduced thousands more. Ugh, what a terrible pest.
Yah, your drought has been worse than ours. We had a ton of rain in May which caused flooding (and of course allowed the beetles and mosquitoes to mature/hatch) – but now we'
Erin says
I've done both hand-picking, spraying and the bags. The bags WILL draw 1000s more to your yard, but that's 1000s you are taking out of circulation. I don't want to spray chemicals all over everything, especially since the one bush they love is the same bush my hummingbirds visit. I can't keep up with hand-picking because I'm at work during the most active part of the day and
Amy - Get Busy Gardening says
Erin, I totally agree with you. I wish some of my neighbors would put up the traps too and help kill even more beetles. I'm thinking about putting another in the front of the house. I'm too squeamish to dump out a trap, I like to be able to just twist tie it shut and throw it away. 🙂
My beans are taking the worse hit this year. Last year, they were prolific even with the
Susan in Eagan says
Erin, have you noticed fewer beetles chewing on your plants since you started using the bag? I'm really tempted to try it, but Bachman's tells me it will attract JBs from two or three football fields' lengths away, and that's scary!
I'm trying geraniums–have you heard about that? I found one paralyzed JB nestled in a blossom today, so that's a good sign.
Amy - Get Busy Gardening says
Wow, that's a long way for them to come! For me, it seemed like there were less in my bucket after the first few days of setting the trap. But now that we've been out of town for a few days, the JBs were all over the roses and beans tonight. I can't believe how many were in our bucket. But, the trap was pretty full. I meant to take it down while we were gone, but forgot. I will get
Susan in Eagan says
The little bit of research I've done refers to them as "common geraniums," and I've run into a couple sites that say white ones are better than colored.
I'm not seeing paralyzed JBs at the base of the plants so far, but it's easy to pop a few geraniums in the ground, so I'll wait awhile before declaring this a success or a failure. (I've never liked
Susan in Eagan says
I just wanted to add that the geraniums don't kill them, they just paralyze them and leave them prey for birds to pick off (for up to 24 hours, supposedly).
Amy - Get Busy Gardening says
Wow, this is great information. Thanks for clarifying about the paralysis and not death. They would also be easy to pick up and drop into a bucket of water or step on. I've never heard of using geraniums before so thank you for sharing! I can't wait to hear if you have success with this or not.
Susan in Eagan says
Two beetles found paralyzed on geraniums today! Two isn't much–I had expected lots more–but I was pleased to see the paralysis actually happened–we'll see what transpires in the long run. Maybe they just haven't found the plants yet (eternal optimist).
Amy - Get Busy Gardening says
Yes, that is awesome! I went out and bought three geraniums. I'm going to put them in a pot right under the trap. I'm going to put a bowl of water under the pot so they will drown when they drop. Can't wait to see if it works!
Amy
Lynn says
I had not much of a problem until I put out the traps. We have 25 acres so I was able to place the traps a long distance from my plants. I wish I’d never used the traps because now I have an enormous problem. Thousands every year! It is so disheartening to see my beautiful garden devoured every year!
Amy Andrychowicz says
Interesting. It might be that the population hadn’t exploded in your area yet. The first few years I saw them in my garden, I only saw maybe five or ten of them all summer. It took about 5 years before their population exploded here in MN, and now they are everywhere. I never used traps until after the population exploded.
Susan in Eagan says
The bowl of water is a great idea! Let's keep our fingers crossed. (I murdered another hundred or so beasties yesterday on my rounds from grapevines to roses to grapevines; even found some on the daylilies.)
Amy - Get Busy Gardening says
Yes, my fingers are crossed. I will be checking often. I think I killed about 1,000 yesterday. The trap was full and I got at least a couple hundred in my bucket. Gosh, they are so disgusting! They love the roses and beans the most in my yard.
I actually cover our grapevines. They don't need bees for pollination and I know the Japanese beetles (and birds) LOVE them. Here's a
Susan in Eagan says
Yes, I covered two of our grapevines (third one is way too big) last year, but haven't gotten around to it yet this year (remember the green curtains from G'will?). I've had no beetles on the beans that I know of. Isn't that strange? They're pole beans–are yours bush?
Amy - Get Busy Gardening says
Covering our grapevines has worked great for us. I know what you mean though, summer is always so busy! It is funny that the beetles haven't bothered your beans (mine are pole too). My neighbor said the same thing. Ours are so invested that I'm thinking we're not going to get a very good crop of beans this year. Weird!
Hey, BTW, I saw two beetles laying upside down under
Susan in Eagan says
I'm thrilled the geranium worked its magic! WOW is right! I haven't planted the rest of mine yet–they're still on the deck getting dried out–but now I will tomorrow for sure.
Also, I read somewhere that you aren't supposed to squish the darned things because they release pheromones that call out to other beetles to come.
And guess what? I found two beetles
Amy - Get Busy Gardening says
I'm keeping mine in a pot on the deck, that way I can see and kill the ones that are paralyzed easier.
Ha, I read the same thing about wasps and bees. I'm not afraid of the beetles though, let them come! 🙂
Oh no, sorry they discovered the green beans! They also love to eat my canna lilies, sunflowers and zinnias. Ugh, where will they show up next?
CrazyAnn says
I used traps last year and killed at least half a million. No, that is not an exaggeration in any way. I had the big tanglefoot traps and emptied them sometimes 3 a day. But the trouble is…..you are pulling them in from up to 3 miles away. Yep, 3 miles.
So this year I did not choose to reuse my traps and spent most of the summer hand picking. I can feed the hand picked ones to
Amy Andrychowicz says
Wow CrazyAnn, thanks so much for sharing your experience! It's so awful how many beetles you had come to your yard and traps! I can't believe how out of control this pest has become.
The beetles have gotten exponentially worse for me over the last two years. They didn't seem any worse after putting the trap in my yard this year, so I still feel ok about it. It's so
CarolScott says
I've tried everything aside from pesticides (I'm an organic gardener) to get rid of these beetles. I finally read that if you kill them while they're in their grub stage you can most effectively stop them. So I found this milky spore powder and sprinkled it around the plants in the spring and since then I've not really had any issues. This of course took some foresight (last
Amy Andrychowicz says
Yah, we tried that last year. It's not cheap and we feel kinda hopeless since none of our neighbors treat their lawns. I didn't notice a difference. In fact the beetles were worse this year than they have ever been before. The beetles just come over from other yards. I'm glad to hear it worked for you! I've heard that from others too.
Amy
Jill Donaldson says
Has anyone ever used these beetle traps inside. The reason that I am asking is that I live in a converted barn surrounded by forest and crop fields and the little darlings are entering through crevices in the walls. Any suggestions to get rid of these pests would be greatly appreciated.
Amy Andrychowicz says
Yuck, sounds terrible! No, I’ve never had this issue. I’ve never heard of them getting inside like this, are you sure they are Japanese beetles and not the Asian Lady Beetle (often mistaken for ladybugs)? Japanese beetles have a pretty short lifecycle, and they hibernate in the ground. Asian lady beetles will cluster on buildings and find their way inside to hibernate. Whatever it is, hopefully you’ll get it under control.
Pete says
Pour them from the bag into a bucket with water and dish soap. Then reuse the bag over and over. Just dump them each night as some animals may chew through the bag.