THE Japanese Beetle Thread (merged)

kuidaskassikaeb

I have a couple of suggestions. You could try traps. They do have a reputation for attracting more than they destroy, but in your case, you seem to live in a JB magnet, and have enough land that they may reduce your population. Anyway you could feed the bagfuls of bugs to chickens and at least get something out of this.

There are birds that do have reputations for eating Japanese Beatles: Starlings, Grackles and some others. Mostly though Starlings and Grackles feed on the ground and will specialize in the larva, which won’t do you much good right now, although you could put up a lot more bluebird boxes and just let the starlings move in (starlings have been having their own die off for thirty years so they are okay now.).

If you just want to see if any birds do like the beetles, the best way to attract birds to your property is to put up bird baths, especially if you live in a suburban area, where they have filled everything, and there usually is a shortage of clean shallow water. If any bird eats the bugs they will set up housekeeping. This time of year is good because it is still nesting season and even seed eaters are eating bugs because they need the protein. link

The post is about a wasp that they are introducing. I have no idea if it is any good. Take heart though, the gypsy moth, which was just as bad or worse, was beaten by diseases that seemigly came out of nowhere. The JB is set up for overshoot and die off: just like humanity.

Heineken

The gypsy moth has not been beaten. Far from it. It continues to move south and is now threatening central Virginia. It's probably less destructive than it used to be in your neck of the country, though.
Regarding JBs, birds help and I do everything I can to encourage them on my farm. However, it is still impossible to grow traditional fruit trees like cherries, plums, and apples. We're talking near-total defoliation by the end of July.

I don't support the use of JB traps, and neither do the experts. They attract more JBs to one's property than they kill.
Perhaps natural controls will eventually get the upper hand, but it won't be in my lifetime or yours.
_________________
"Actually, humans died out long ago."
---Abused, abandoned hunting dog

"Things have entered a stage where the only change that is possible is for things to get worse."
---Me and my brother

skyemoor

Heineken

Yes, I'm certain, Skyemoor. I saw JBs actively feeding on one of my paw paws. I killed them and found a few more the next day and killed them, and haven't seen any more since. But there are quite a few holes in some of the upper leaves near the unusually narrow spot where they join the leaf stem. My concern is that this is a very vulnerable point.

This discovery was a bit of a shock, after all the great things I'd read about paw paws vis-a-vis insect pests. Nevertheless, I'm still hopeful that paw paws can work out. Surround might be good for them; it seems to provide some protection for the nonpreferred plant victims. Also, Surround would keep paw paws cooler, which is a good thing for them. I've also seen JBs feeding on jujubes, BTW, doing light to moderate damage to the uppermost leaves.

This has been a very bad JB season here, once again, despite the rather dry conditions. They are absolutely creaming my plum trees---about 50% defoliated now. Each morning I knock them off by the many hundreds into a bucket with water at the bottom. But they keep coming and coming. That's the thing about Mr. JB---he grinds you down, and wins in the end.
Experimentally, I sprayed my plums with a diluted juice I extracted from sweetgum leaves, thinking that it would disguise the plums as sweetgums, which JBs abhor. But it didn't make the slightest difference. I may try the same experiment with a tulip-tree extract and maybe some others, but I'm not optimistic.

The remaining hope for my plums is the protective structures discussed earlier in this thread. I will work on that project over the winter.
_________________
"Actually, humans died out long ago."
---Abused, abandoned hunting dog

"Things have entered a stage where the only change that is possible is for things to get worse."
---Me and my brother

manu · Intermediate Crude Joined: Jul 26, 2006 Posts: 691

I have used a solar light at night with a bucket of water under it. Beetles fall in and drown. Also in the past I have mixed cow manure with ground up peanuts and water, put it in clay pots around the property. You need to have them under something to keep the rain out. Or you can get plastic buckets with a top, put a hole about three fourths up from bottom, four inches by four inches and cover the plastic with gunny sack material. The bettles with crawl into the hole and then fall in.

Heineken

JBs aren't very active at night. It's interesting to learn of your method, manu, although I don't see how it differs effectively from a typical JB trap, except that you're using it at night and it works by light instead of scent.
They're easy to kill in large numbers, but there are always a zillion times more of them than one can kill. The question is how to keep them from wrecking one's fruit trees, sweet corn, etc., without resorting to frequent daily application of deadly pesticides. So far no real answer has been found.
_________________
"Actually, humans died out long ago."
---Abused, abandoned hunting dog

"Things have entered a stage where the only change that is possible is for things to get worse."
---Me and my brother

cavemandoom30

This is a great thread..here is what I have to add..

The beetles seem to vary tremendously in their localized populations..where I live, we have essentially none, the few I have I make my son pick off, and they become chicken feed. However, where I work, and, at an organic farm I volunteer at, the bastards might as well be a plaugue of locusts...only 15 miles away, and totally different situation. We cannot find any effective , reasonable way to grow corn organically at all when it comes to the beetles..I really truly fear a post peak world where corn is ungrowable. Stop and think about that a bit, it's not a pleasant thought. I've been playing around with other grains a bit, which the beetle don't bother too much, but, hmm...they are'nt as easy to harvest, process, and as productive as corn...However, most other "vegetables", aside from okra, are not really bothered all that much by the beetles, corn is the worst hit by far. They are definetly a mess on fruit trees of some kinds, but, I wanted to add that I have yet to have a big problem with them on Asian pears..they seem to prefer European pears. Gooseberries, strawberries, figs, mulberries, che, paw-paw, all seem growable with beetles, at least around here, but, the stone fruits seem to a big problem. Mostly what I keep thinking of is simple hand-picking..Whenever I ask the old-timers how they dealt with insects in the past, it seems kids were forced into it, or paid, but, in any case, they did it, and that surely helped..Will that save a plum tree? Probably not, but perhaps smaller, less-susceptible plants it would help. When it comes down to life or death, kids won't be playing video games anymore, they will pick bugs or go hungry, simple as that. Also reminds me of the nightmare here in the suburbs with rodents...squirrells and chipmunks are my personal nemesis, I've yet to ever harvest any tree fruit at all, or any undamaged tomatoes in years, I can't save seed for lettuce because groundhogs eat the plants, can't even grow Sweet potatoes because rabbits eat those..I kill as many as I can with a variety of traps and pellet guns, but, it's hopeless RIGHT NOW, as more hordes just move in. I'm not at all worried about the future, though. When times get bad, those little furry cuties will will end up somebodies dinner. My grandfather told me in the depression, in Appalachia, where he was from, wild game of any remotely edible sort was nearly exterminated anywhere near humans...
I kind of think that perhaps, in the future, if millions upon millions of small children must hand pick beetles, that has got to have some effect on their population....hopefully..but, right now, things do suck. If anybody in Jap. land can grow organic corn, I'd love to hear about it!!

Heineken

Thanks for your interesting perspective on this, caveman. I've noticed variation in which plants they hit hardest from year to year, but very little variation in their numbers, which are always overwhelming here.
This year I found them munching (a little) on my goumis and paw paws, which they didn't touch at all last year. They also attack mulberries and jujubes, but, again, not enough to cause serious damage. I've even seen them eating tomato leaves (just a few).

I've about given up on my plums, but over the winter will try to build around each tree a barrier system of tall posts with transluscent "summer insect barrier" (available from Territorial Seed Company) tacked between them (covering roughly the upper half of the tree). The sheeting would go up as soon as the beetles appear in June and be removed after the fruit is harvested (if there is any, that is). I do some hand picking (I brush them into a bucket with a little water in it, early in the morning when they're stuperous), but it doesn't seem to affect the final outcome because the damned things are so numerous and have such a long season---June well into August.

After a few hours the water in the buckets with the drowning beetles turns a nasty brown, and later on it stinks horribly. Does feeding JBs to chickens affect the taste of the eggs? I haven't tried this but it does seem like a good way to dispose of them. You could catch thousands with those otherwise-useless JB traps.
_________________
"Actually, humans died out long ago."
---Abused, abandoned hunting dog

"Things have entered a stage where the only change that is possible is for things to get worse."
---Me and my brother

livesimply · Coal Joined: Jul 29, 2007 Posts: 2

Heineken · Last edited by Heineken on Sun Jul 29, 2007 2:42 pm; edited 1 time in total

Niagara

Heineken, What about hosting bats on your property or better yet purple martins? Would they have an impact on the JB numbers?
Also, I'm just thinking out loud, but has anyone tried using an electronic high-frequency sound emitter? Some claim this can repel mosquitoes. I don't know about JBs.
_________________
Remember: 73.3% of statistics are made up
and the other 23.6% are wrong

Heineken

There are many bats on my property. Unfortunately, they're active at night, when the JB isn't flying. The JB is not very attractive to birds, which is one reason why this pest is so successful in the eastern US. Some species of birds (like grackles) do take a few. But as I've tried to point out over and over, it's just a drop in the bucket. For every beetle you or a natural predator kills, by whatever means, there are thousands to take its place.

People who have not done serious battle with the JB do not realize just how limitless the supply of them is, or how long they keep attacking---for months on end. Basically the entire summer.
There is only one "solution": Avoid planting susceptible plants. Unfortunately, that means far fewer choices in an edible landscape. Especially it means far fewer fruits.
_________________
"Actually, humans died out long ago."
---Abused, abandoned hunting dog

"Things have entered a stage where the only change that is possible is for things to get worse."
---Me and my brother

Venerye

horsestoaster · Heavy Crude Joined: Feb 07, 2006 Posts: 109

OK Heineken.I get that Guineas and ducks ain't gonna get it for ya.I feel in your posts the despair you feel at the onslaught of these horrific pests.Anyone with any intuition at all would feel your despair and eroding resolve.I have a suggestion that I have not yet seen.It is thoroughly modern and invasive.I admit I have not had to fight these pests myself.I have seen a few as my guineas,ducks,chickens and geese have gobbled them down.No where near the pestilence you face I am sure.I no longer use them(because of the aforementioned fowl) but I have in the past in plenty of barns with pretty good results: What if you used either fly strips or even the sticky mouse ones around the plants you want to protect?I believe I understand the deluge of these horrible creatures you are experiencing,but if you could at least decrease their numbers would that then not decrease the reproductive numbers of these creatures?I know this isn't a natural kind of solution.Perhaps someone wiser than me(and this wouldn't take much) could find one.Some horrible sap or other that these nasty bugs would become encumbered upon and trapped to their doom?I have read your various posts and your increasing frustration is evident.Hope I have not added to it.Best to you in your struggle.

Heineken · Last edited by Heineken on Mon Jul 30, 2007 6:22 am; edited 1 time in total