MSU article on dealing with Japanese Beetles

13 years ago

Just found this yesterday...lots of good info. Something i found interesting was this:

http://ipmnews.msu.edu/fruit/Fruit/tabid/123/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/2859/Controlling-Japanese-beetles-in-fruit-crops.aspx

"Soil-applied insecticides

Japanese beetles typically lay their eggs in moist grassy areas, and many fruit farms have a large amount of this highly suitable habitat. An additional approach to reducing the impact of Japanese beetles in a farm is to reduce the overall population by targeting the grub stage of this pest to reduce the abundance of beetles in the following year. If the location of high grub densities near fruit fields is known, these areas could be treated with a soil insecticide to get maximum return on this treatment. Our experience in Michigan blueberry fields has been that application of Admire (16 oz/acre) to grassy field perimeters in late June/early July reduced the abundance of beetles on bushes for the first few weeks of their flight period in the next growing season. After that, beetles flying into the area from outside swamped out this effect, so there is only a short-lived benefit from targeting the grubs in fields surrounded by infested grassy areas. However, as part of an overall IPM program to minimize the impact of Japanese beetle, this approach can help reduce the number of beetles growers must control. Platinum is another soil-applied insecticide that can be used for this grub control strategy."

That would go against the Milky Spore school of thought? I think we need to be treating large areas... We can spend trillions on wars so why not a few 100 million defeating these right here in our backyards? They are foreign invaders and i'd qualify them as terrorists.

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Comments (7)

alan haigh
13 years ago
If you ever noticed how often medical research contradicts previous research just imagine how much this would occur with horticultural research if the same kind of funding was going into it. It takes a tremendous amount of research to establish anything as fact.

I find it curious that at one site I manage there are 2 separate orchards less than a quarter of a mile apart. One of the orchards get's decimated by JB's but the other has same varieties that are barely touched. How would the researchers explain this?
Scott F Smith
13 years ago
The way you get rid of JBs is you zero them, they attract each other. These researchers seem pretty ignorant. I spend three years squishing JBs by hand and I have been beetle free for five years now - when you are at zero then zero will migrate in since there is no scent of their fellow beetle to attract them.

Scott
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Or you can do what I do, ignore them for the time they are around, then reclaim your roses after the worse is over. Yes, I have lots of them as I live in an area surrounded by soybean fields, another beetle favorite. My lawn service treats the lawn yearly with an insecticide for grubs that seems to be very effective without harming the earthworms. I've accepted the fact that millions of them will fly in as roses are a gourmet meal for Japanese beetles. Not spraying an insecticide on the roses for over five years seems to have created a good balance in my garden which is filled with many birds and predatory insects. I think they sense their presence doesn't bother me so much as they seem to congregate more in the gardens of neighbors who complain and wage war on them each year.
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They don't seem terribly bad here in Decatur; I'm still finding them on most open blooms, and I have some lacy foliage, but it's certainly not as bad as years past. Then again we had drought conditions that sprang up around August last year and we've been in a mild to moderate drought ever since. I'm more exasperated trying to keep up with watering than I am killing JBs; that's a first. They did emerge early this year, along with everything else that's out of whack on our normal seasonal timeline. I have found a new favorite tool for bug hunting, though; vise-grip pliers. Dishwashing gloves were too slippery & when I'd squish the JBs they'd shoot out of my fingertips like a marble. The heavy, leather gardening gloves were better for squishing, but too cumbersome to pick JBs out of blooms without shattering the bloom. The pliers are perfect.
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Here are some answers I received from Prof. Daniel Potter of University of Kentucky about Tiphia vernalis: 1. "I know of no commercial source for bulk purchase of Tiphia vernalis, although a few years ago there was [someone catching and selling them]. There is no research that would suggest buying a few hundred and letting them go on a property would have any benefit, however. Doubtless they are already there, and working subtly behind the scenes, taking a modest toll on the JB grub population." 2. To increase the number of Tiphia vernalis near you, and thus increase their "toll on the JB grub population", Prof. Potter suggests that you should PLANT PEONIES. "We also have seen [Tiphia vernalis] abundant at flowering peonies, feeding on the nectar, and even showed that parasitism rates on grubs in turf adjacent to peonies was higher than away from such flowers. So planting peonies in a home landscape may pay some dividends, although perhaps not enough to notice a reduction in JB densities." 3. The attraction of Tiphia vernalis to peonies is very specific: "We screened dozens of other kinds of spring-blooming flowers and most of them did not attract appreciable numbers of Tiphia." The Tiphia are attracted to "honeydew" produced by aphids and scale insects (that live on foliage of many types of plants), but not to flowers other than peonies. 4. To conserve (avoid killing off) the Tiphia, also follow this advice: "Avoid treating lawns with 'season-long' grub treatments, especially imidacloprid (Merit or Bayer Season-long Grub Control) in May, as that is when T. vernalis is most active. If preventive grub treatments are needed wait until June or July, which conserves the beneficial wasps." (Of course, you're doing the right thing for the wasps if you've "gone organic" and don't use any chemical pesticides.) 5. Prof. Potter also tested milky spore disease and found it to be of NO use: "milky disease spore powder (not effective in our multi-year trials; despite manufacturers' claims, there are no data supporting any benefit from its use in suburban lawns & landscapes)." 6. Prof. Potter also doesn't recommend the pheromone traps, writing "counter-productive, attracting many more beetles than they catch". Actually, I am disputing this point with him: my argument is that by attracting the beetles to one area (within a certain radius), the trap must be drawing them away from other areas, so the effect of the trap (beneficial vs. harmful) depends on where you place it in relation to the plants that are to be protected.
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Hi, I'm also plagued with the devils here, although I can't say that they have any color preference, and as they adore Hibiscus syriacus leaves (no signs of flowers yet) it's not specifically a scent issue either. As an experiment I put up pots of white geraniums and placed them next to two roses including their favorite meal (my Hansa rose - I've forgotten what a flower on it looks like, although I do recall they were fragrant). As you may know Hansa is not white, yellow or pink, but a deep magenta color. I had read that white geraniums were a delicacy and the beetles would eat the flowers and fall intoxicated beneath it. Well, it's been nearly a week and not one floret has been damaged. Last year I tried the same experiment with pink geraniums with the same results......Oh, love to spend more time weeding or enjoying my garden instead of hunting Japanese Beetles all day long.
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franktank232
Original Author
13 years ago
Scott-

Aren't they like humans, they are attracted to SEX and FOOD?? :)

Like i said, a lot of money should be spent controlling these things. I see/hear things all the time about the Ash borer that is now in this area destroying ash trees, but nothing about the Japanese Beetle that has just made it into this area.

I have yet to see a Japanese Beetle this year...
franktank232
Original Author
13 years ago
Harvest-

Treating the grubs still looks like a good way to lessen the impact. The more area the better... In this case, who knows how much area they treated and what the surrounding area was planted in (grass/fields/etc). Really this should be an even bigger selling point for MS. Since it lasts more then one year (vs an insecticide). Its too bad there wasn't more solid research on the subject.
wayne_5 zone 6a Central Indiana
13 years ago
Around here they infest the roadside rows of soybeans and 3 or 4 rows of roadside corn silk. They also infest the outer rows of soybeans along fencerows. So... yards and orchards are not the only bases of JBs.

Frank...you got some extra work in the war.
Monyet
13 years ago
I use imadan after the second week they show-up,usely the end of june for my plum tree's and asian persimmon.I live in the woods surrounded with wild grapes and millions of j.beetles.no problems!
gtippitt
13 years ago
Cardinals love eating the adult beetles. I hate Japanese beetles and love bird watching, so I always keep bird feeders full of sunflower seeds and a bird bath near my garden. I have almost no problem with japanese beetles, while my neighbor fights them non-stop in her rose garden. Her problem with them improved somewhat after I explained to her that the scent of her traps were luring them to her roses as well as the traps, so she finally moved them away from her roses.

The birds eat the bird food rather than my food. When they see a nice high-protein bug snack to go with their seeds, they snap them up quickly.

Ironically many people go berserk trying to kill moles on their property like Bill Murray in Caddyshack. Moles don't eat plants like voles do. Moles do love to eat Japanese Beetle grubs and baby voles.

Harvestman,
"How would the researchers explain this?"

Since you set me up for this one like place-kicker, I could not resist. One very easy explanation if that frequent usage of high nitrogen fertilizers causes plants to develop fragile new growth that is higher in proteins and attracts more destructive bugs.

http://www.biconet.com/reference/HGbeneficials.html
"Soft, succulent new growth on plants attracts aphids and other critters, especially if you are still using high-nitrogen fertilizers and encouraging unhealthy fast growth."

Greg

MSU article on dealing with Japanese Beetles

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alan haigh

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MSU article on dealing with Japanese Beetles

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alan haigh

Scott F Smith

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wayne_5 zone 6a Central Indiana

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