JapaneseBeetlesBug Juice, Clay Spray, ‘The Hoover
Hover’ and Seven Other Ways to
Beat Japanese Beetles
Q. Mike: I am being overrun; I
used Sevin; they laughed at it. I mixed it stronger; they laughed
louder. I have dogs and am not comfortable spraying insecticides all
the time.
-----Lillie in
Chrisman, IL
I have a horrendous invasion on my crepe myrtle, birches, apple and
cherry trees. Do you have any long-term solutions? The birds
could have a FEAST if only they ate them!
---Cathy in
Seaford, Delaware
Could you please share any info on those nasty bugs? I'm sure my
neighbors get a big laugh every time they see me try to put a new
'bag-a-bug' bag on the stand.
---Kim in
Ashburn, VA (right outside Washington, DC)
Several years ago they suddenly appeared, destroying a cherry and peach
tree and decimating my apples. The next year I lost my entire crop.
This year I notice that some are a little bigger and have a red sheen;
are these mutants? Do you have a solution short of a nuclear blast?
---Ed in
Portland, TN
We just planted a Crepe Myrtle bush; immediately Japanese beetles were
all over it. We spray and they just come back. Is there a good natural
way to control these pests? Thanks.
---Margaret in
Canton, Georgia
A. I cast an
especially wide geographic net for this week’s questioners so that you
folks leaning in real close right now would know you weren’t the only
ones being defoliated by these pests.
Now—long-term solutions? Yes & no. Female
Japanese beetles only lay their eggs in turf, and you can cut the
numbers of the resulting grub babies that reside in YOUR lawn
substantially; check out our grub Q & A from April (http://www.gardensalive.com/article.asp?ai=555)
for details. Like it says there, don’t scalp your lawn or water it
during dry spells this summer; those females will soon be egg laying,
and they greatly prefer moist, low-cut turf. (Don’t worry if rain is
scarce; the lawn will just go dormant and green up again when wet times
return, but those females will have long since flown to homes where
they have a fast hand with the hose.)
However, lots of the pests will still fly in from other areas. And the
well-known ‘Japanese’ variety isn’t the only beetle to blame here; a
number of similar looking ‘scarabs’ are also out there making mischief
(the probable explanation for those ‘mutants’ in Tennessee). Luckily,
the ten controls I’m about to reveal are effective against all manner
of aggressively appetitive (and amorous) armored attackers. Ready? Here
we go:
1. Hand picking can be very effective.
Get around their ‘drop and roll’ defense by snagging them early in the
morning when they’re slow and sluggish. Place a pan with some soapy
water in the bottom below the infested area, reach for the beetles from
above, so they can’t fly away, and they’ll drop right down into the
water.
2. Smother the beasts with a spray of good old insecticidal soap. Just be sure
to spray the beetles, not the
plants; soap sprays have to coat the bug to be effective.
3. Plug a vacuum
cleaner (preferably a shop vac) into the nearest grounded outlet
and hose the little nasties up like they was dust bunnies under a
couch.
4. Make beetle-repelling “bug juice” with your catch! Whiz a
handful of the sucked-up beasts in an old garage-sale blender with a
pint of water (this alone should make you feel much better!), strain
the resulting slurry and spray it on your plants. Old time farmers
swear that pests won’t go near plants that have been sprayed with the
remains of their relatives.
5. If you’re a wuss (or only have one blender), try
making a more congenial repellant by whizzing up two cloves of garlic and a hot pepper in that pint
of water instead of the pests. Strain, add a drop each of dishwashing
soap and vegetable oil (or better still, insecticidal soap and
horticultural oil), and spray it on the plants under attack early in
the morning.
6. Or cut to the chase and soak plants under attack
with one of those commercially available garlic sprays designed to deter
mosquitoes; see last week’s Q (http://www.gardensalive.com/article.asp?ai=572)
for all the details. It should work even better than a home-made spray,
AND the area will be free of biting bugs for a couple of weeks as a
bonus!
7. If nothing less than an insecticide will suit you, make
it a non-chemical, non-toxic one. The natural product Neem—derived
from an Indian tree—should kill any beetles it hits and act as a
‘feeding deterrent’ to repel future attackers.
8. Luckily, Cathy in Delaware is wrong—birds DO eat Japanese beetles. So
create a beetle buffet by placing birdbaths,
feeders
and nesting
boxes near the plants under attack. And don’t chase away starlings! These so-called ‘pest’
birds feed on both the adults AND their grub-babies in your lawn!
9. Fruit trees and grape vines can be protected from
beetles (and the many other pests they attract) with a clay-based insect barrier, like
Garden’s Alive’s “Surround
at Home”. These sprays coat the plant with a thin gray film that
repels both insects and disease, and smothers any pests you actually
hit with the spray!
10. Traps do catch lots of beetles
(and yes, the sight of that wriggling bag filled with defeated
defoliators is very satisfying), but they also have the potential to
greatly INCREASE beetle damage. That’s because the lures attract about
four times as many beetles as would otherwise try and ravage your
roses, but about half of the pests bounce off and escape the bag,
effectively doubling your beetle battle. Experts say they work best
when used as a perimeter control, positioned on the furthest outskirts
of your property, far away from the plants under attack.
(Hey—or maybe buy a case of the things, give them away to all your
neighbors, and tell them to put the traps right in the middle of their
gardens. Then you can spend the summer reveling in your untouched
roses!)
Smart garden design helps too; try and locate their favorite
plants—fruits, roses and the like—as far as possible from big expanses
of lawn. And use common sense—all insect pests are attracted to
stressed plants, like, ahem, a crepe myrtle planted during a blistering
hot summer down South. (Fall is the best time to put big, long-lived
[you hope] plants in the ground. Spring is second best. And summer is
death on a stick.)
And finally, insect problems are always worse in non-organic gardens,
where the balance of nature is out of whack. Chemical fertilizers cause
lush, weak growth that brings in pests by the droves. And, as many
listeners wrote when telling us about their beetle woes, toxic chemical
pesticides like Sevin don’t work well to control these (and other)
pests, but are excellent at killing and driving off beneficial insects,
birds and other predators that DO—not to mention limiting your happy
and healthy lifespan on the planet.
Helpful
Products From Gardens Alive!
Are Japanese Beetles eating your Garden? Bite back with these products!
Surround
at Home Crop Protectant
Natural mineral-based product protects crops from many pests
Surround spray dries to a powdery film that protects fruits and
vegetables from many insect pests. Surround doesn't rely on toxicity!
instead protects plants with an organic barrier film.
Japanese
Beetle Trap
Powerful Trap attracts adult beetles like Magnets!
The Japanese Beetle Trap is a highly effective pheromone trap. This
trap catches and confines more beetles than any other trap we've
tested!
Oil-Away
Insecticidal Spray
Kills Insect pest with Vegetable oil, not petroleum or chemicals.
This Plant based spray works as well against pest as many harsh
chemical products, yet doesn't harm your Plants!
Super-Light
Insect Barrier
Keeps out hungry insects
This lightweight row cover provides an excellent all-season insect
shield. Translucent polypropylene fabric transmits 95% of sunlight but
causes almost no heat buildup, so you can leave covers on all summer,
without harming heat-sensitive plants.