THE Japanese Beetle Thread (merged)

bshirt · Heavy Crude Joined: Dec 23, 2006 Posts: 437

Heineken, Boy, that's downright scary. Have you heard how fast they're migrating north? Please tell me they won't hit us for awhile. Smile

Ferretlover · Last edited by Ferretlover on Thu Jul 17, 2008 8:01 am; edited 1 time in total

For general pest prevention, the mint family takes high honors. Peppermint (Mentha x piperita) repels ants, mice, flies, lice and moths. Pennyroyal (Mentha pulegium or Hedeoma pulegioides) wards off fleas, ants, gnats, lice, mosquitoes, ticks and moths. Spearmint (Mentha spicata) is also effective against many of the same pests. Between them they form a good first line of defense against almost any nuisance. Mint may be grown near a doorway or window in an attempt to secure your abode from without. Because the mints can be invasive, you may want to grow them in a pot rather than in the ground, lest you have another nuisance on your hands. The mints are quite adaptable in their site requirements. Tolerant of sun or shade, you may even be able to coax them to grow on your screened porch. They prefer more moisture to less, so use a large enough pot to keep them happy.
link

firmament · Coal Joined: Aug 01, 2007 Posts: 5

In Japan, they fry them up and eat them: link

Ferretlover

eeeeeeeeeewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww

Heineken

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

Rooted around in some old tomes.The one from the 1920's said mix a jar of water and kerosene and place it away from the plants that are tastiest to these nasty bastards and have some sort of light source to attract them(may not be exact wording).It did not specifically mention Japanese beetles as one could assume they were not yet evident in the 1920's.It was just under the heading of beetles and generalized.I guess these beasties are attracted to the light and then meet their doom drowning in kerosene(yuck!!).I know someone else recommended a light source.The kerosene is the new solution.(in 1920)I wrote this more to amuse than inform I guess. Also to let you know some of us are still hittin' the books on your behalf.I have some books from the 40's I haven't looked at yet.I am not sure of when the invasion happened.I think I remember my Mom speaking about 'em attacking her garden in the mid-60's when I lived in yankeeland.Have to check on that.Keep fighting.Gives the rest of us sad sacks hope.

Heineken

I know one thing: the Japanese beetle will be around long after we're gone.
_________________
"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

oowolf

After reading this thread, I'll never complain about occasional grasshopper defoliations again. I hope to be long dead before the Japanese Beetle arrives in western Montana.

Heineken

That's approximately the right thinking, oowolf. The JB is worse than all the other pests put together. I say that without exaggeration.
_________________
"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

Laurasia · Intermediate Crude Joined: Jul 10, 2004 Posts: 527

Heineken: This might seem crackpot, and wouldn't apply to trees, of course, but what about turning this on its head and deciding that the 'JB months' are your non-growing season? Perhaps starting your veggies, etc, much, much earlier and having Spring as your main growing season, then treating 'JB Season" rather like homesteaders used to treat Winter - a time for non-growing and using up your stored, canned food? It would require a rethink of how things are done, but by the sound of it, you are at the end of your tether.

Regards,

L.

Heineken

You make a good point, Laurasia. "Timed" plantings to avoid the worst phases of various pests have long been a part of the organic approach to gardening. Alas, this strategy has very limited utility when it comes to the JB, since its primary victims of importance are, as you note, fruit trees, as well as other "fruity" perennials like grapes and berries. Also, the JB has an unusually long season.

Summer vegetables tend to be bothered less by JBs, in any case, with the important exception of corn. Planting corn very early or very late is a great strategy for dealing with the JB, and some other pests. Some summer vegetables, like cucumbers and tomatoes, are practically invulnerable to JBs.

I've had great success with my three raised beds of strawberries this year. For some reason, the JBs have scarcely touched them. Maybe they've been diverted by my plum trees, which are in tattered ruins.
_________________
"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

cynyc2

You mentioned that you tried to use beetle soup, but you filtered out all the good stuff - the bug parts. It is possible that those parts are needed to keep the JBs away. It could be that chemicals in the bugs are not water soluble. It could be that the little carcases need to rot, in order to work.

My girlfriend suggests saying "Beetlejuice" 3 times in a row.
_________________
Better lucky than good.....

Heineken

Unless you filter out the solids from blended JBs, you cannot use the resulting juice in a sprayer because the solids clog the sprayer nozzle. I am certain that, after being put in a blender, anything in JBs that might repel living JBs goes into sufficiently liquid form to be sprayed, after the solids are filtered out.

Perhaps you're right about the "rotting" part, but I seriously doubt it. The juice I used was already pretty smelly. My feeling is that JB juice simply doesn't work as a repellant, and that this method is just another JB old-wives' tale.
If it worked well, it would be common knowledge and everyone would be doing it and you could buy the stuff commercially.
_________________
"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

Heineken

I am looking for a US source of fine, light, insect-type netting with a mesh size small enough to act as a barrier to Japanese beetles but large enough to admit plenty of sunlight and rainfall. A mesh size of around 1/8 inch would be ideal.
My idea, as I discussed earlier in the Japanese beetle thread, is to build, around each of my susceptible fruit trees, a simple wooden framework out of posts and narrow wooden cross-strips and staple the netting to them. The netting would cover the trees on top and around the sides down to a level a couple of feet off the ground. (Because of the way Japanese beetles land on plants [only from above and the sides], it's not necessary to block off access from below.)
However, my efforts to locate a source of this specific type of netting have not been successful. Can anyone point me to such a source?
_________________
"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