A person needs to take a multiple angled approach to controlling these devilish beasts. Milky spore/Nematodes/Grubex for the grubs, About a 100 traps scattered around your neighborhood, emptied daily. An arsenal of toxic poisons/or organic, if you don't want to poison the children.

Keep it up for a few years and you may have them under control?

I found them by the droves yesterday so I sprayed Malathian. It was all I had on hand. The beetles were everywhere. Last year they weren't so bad. I hope the Malathian works. I'm just worried about foliar damage as I'm not expecting apples until next year.

~thomis

Last year I had them bad. I could not get rid of them. I had to spray some serious insecticide to kill them off. Haven't seen them this year yet....

There must be a method to figure out when they pop. I bet it has something to do with growing degree days (GDD).

Interesting observation.

I had a cast iron pan upside sitting on the lawn (i had forgotten about it) for a couple weeks. The grass had grown long enough to mow so i moved it out of the way (it was garbage). The other day i looked at the spot where it had been sitting and noticed at least 20 Chafer beetles dead.

My theory is that the beetles hatched and could get out so died. There is no other good theory. They couldn't have flown under it (pan is very heavy) for some reason.

If that is true, my lawn alone most have some very high rates of beetles. On the order of 1000's...

If that is true, my lawn alone most have some very high rates of beetles. On the order of 1000's...

Yeah, that sounds like about par for the course.

If anyone's looking for a trap crop to spray instead of their trees (or simply to give them an alternative to eat), I've found that the Japanese beetles *love* my lady's thumb smartweed. It's a persistent garden weed and heavy reseeder, so I wouldn't recommend planting that particular species in an area that you have to weed, but planting some of its relatives or planting it in an area surrounded by grass that gets mowed might be a good idea. It's the only thing of mine they ever seem to touch.

I plan to do the milky spore, nematode thing, but what insecticides are useful NOW, since the bio controls will take a while to kick in? I'm getting damage on my English walnuts and really would like to protect them this year. There are only a few nuts on these trees, so I'm not concerned about this year's crop, but the trees are really getting some nice growth and I'd like to keep them going!

Chuck

I've had good luck with liquid Seven and Imidan
RED

They have made their way to me too.

We used to call them june bugs, and its june and they are
everywhere. I have over 100 rose bushes, and I've never
seen them this bad. I don't a have a decent bloom. One of
my plum trees is almost completely defoliated, but the
other two have hardly been touched. Go figure. Unless you
do the milky spore thing, which can be quite expensive,
the only thing you can really do is wait for july to come.
Even with milky spore, you still have to worry about
them flying in from your neighbors yard.

rayrose,
June bugs and Japanese beetles are not the same.

Bought some ammo today. Let you know how they work. Plan on starting with 2 and maybe adding one more next year.

{{gwi:111170}}

These can also be used for Rose Chafers, with the attractant.

Frank:

I hate to say this, since there would be nothing better than to encourage you, but that money you just spent on beetle traps would be better spent as a down payment on a nice can of pure milky spore. Traps attract a lot of beetles, but they just keep coming, and coming, and coming. And most of them are hatching out right beneath your feet.

My son tried a half-dozen of those traps, but was continually overwhelmed with beetles. They didn't stop until I applied a single can of milky spore to over 2 acres, distributed with the applicator tube in tiny amounts across the property. Now, in the 2nd season after application, he has no beetles at all. Zip. In the 1st season after application, he still had a few. Chafer beetles (which we used to call June bugs) disappeared along with the JB's.

I see that Chuck is looking for fast results. That would be Sevin liquid. But it needs to be re-applied every 3-5 days to keep up with the beetles, since it is a contact insecticide with virtually no residual effect. Don't let a temporary victory with Sevin delay the application of milky spore, which is the long-term solution. Yes, it's expensive, and worth every penny.

Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA

That has been ordered. I'm hitting them with everything. Sevin works great, but i have a 2 yr old who likes to explore the yard. I can't be spraying toxins anymore. I'm moving to Surround or baggies.

Traps were $18/piece...

Research i've read seems mixed at best. Some things say the traps work, some say they attract more bugs. We'll see.

They've got to be better then the bottle of "clarified neem" that i bought years ago. Most that does is put a nice shine on the leaves.

i did milky spore 3 years ago after having everything (and I do mean everything) eaten back to a nub. No problems last year at all.

Combine the traps and the milky spore and you should be set. Just dont put out the traps until after you have a problem next year. otherwise they will just attract more.

Don and others,

Milky spore sounds like a winner, but what about a place like mine where my orchard is surrounded by 15 acres of pasture? And what about my neighbors pastures? Would it do any good at all to treat the one acre of my orchard, with all that open space and beetle ground surrounding it?

Seems like Sevin is the only option for me.

Marc

Still not out here, although we haven't even hit 1000 gdd.

Milky Spore sure gets a lot of negative reviews on the web. A lot of reading i've done doesn't think to highly of it (waste of money). Some people have even said its harmful to humans? huh? Starting to think i should have just bought some Merit or other grub killer.

You can't beat these things. I'm spraying with a nicotine based """""organic""""" homemade sprayed. I'm growing my own and soaking it for a long time, make sure its extra potent.

You might be stuck with poisons to get rid of them.

I love when sites recommend growing things they don't eat? Whats the point then! If that was the case i really wouldn't care what they were doing.

Jelly-
The traps are more for the Rose Chafers (they just need to be used with a different attractant, which i'm ordering). According to Ohio State research, they've been successful with trapping, although they say to use a lot of traps, so i may add another.

Frank:

1. If milky spore receives negative reviews on the web, that may tell you more about the web than milky spore. It is nonsense to say it is harmful to humans or that it is a waste of money. It certainly has not harmed me, or the flock of little call ducks that forages freely in my orchard. Sometimes I think there is as much total crap on the web as useful information. Milky spore is not a chemical, but a biological agent much like Bt, targeted exclusively against beetle larvae. Grub killers are fine, but they last only one season. Milky spore can be effective for 20 years or more, so long as it can find a few beetle larvae to infect and propagate itself.

2. I have only become aware of this in the past couple of years, but I now realize that milky spore is just as effective against rose and masked chafers as the Japanese beetle. Chafers used to infest my plum trees as night, practically defoliating them, while the JB's took over in the daytime. The total absence of these beetles is even a little hard for me to believe, and has impressed my son, whose place (near Charlottesville, VA) I treated with one 44 ounce can on over 2 acres in August, 2007. He has yet to see a single beetle this year, but by this time in the summer of 2007, he had a massive infestation. The milky spore is now well established on his property. No traps or spraying for him this year.

3. Marc: I also have one acre of orchard and garden beds, which I treated with 3 cans of milky spore in June, 2007. I now know that I could have gotten by with only one can, had I spread it out in smaller doses. I went about 30 feet into the properties of my three adjoining neighbors. Now not only do I have no beetles, neither do they. Somehow, the milky spore spread and continued to infect beetle larvae in an expanding arc. Based on my observations, I would say the beetles do not fly in from long distances, but hatch out mostly right beneath the trees they infest. Aside from the untouched plum leaves, the difference is most dramatic on red raspberries, which used to attract hordes of Japanese beetles to eat the leaves, blossoms, and even the fruit beginning in early June. Now there are none whatsoever.

So do not assume milky spore will not work for you until you have tried it. Go ahead and put out traps, spray with Sevin, or whatever else you want to do this season. But, right now, buy a can of pure spore (about $80) and the applicator tube (about $10) and put it down at your earliest convenience, carefully distributed in tiny amounts across your entire property. Cut the grass first, so you can see where you have placed the spore and can avoid going over the same spots twice, and don't apply if the grass is wet which will clog up the applicator opening. You will have that opening adjusted to a very small aperture. Then about this time in 2010, come back and tell me the results. God willing, I will still be here, especially if I can beat these cigarettes.

Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA

Don, are you implying that Japanese Beetles are not very good flyers and stay within 400 feet of where they were born? I wish that were true of Green Fruit Beetles that come flying in at altitudes from a few feet to as high as 40 feet, on the look out for fruit to eat. BTW, so far this year I haven't seen any of them, maybe they are waiting for my Nectarines to ripen.
Maybe milky spore works on two acre properties, but what do you do in a neighborhood where all lots are 50 feet wide, except for a few double lots that are 100 feet wide? Unless everyone on the street used it someone elses beetles would just fly onto your property.

Based on Don's experience, I spread 2 cans in a wide grid over about 5 AC in the early fall of '08. So far this year, I've got fewer than 1/4 the number of Japanese beetles I had last year when I had to cover my young trees in Surround (and use Sevin) to prevent them from being completely defoliated (which happened to many of my young trees while I was on vacation in '07). My orchard is on the edge of 20 AC of pasture. I realize that this is only the beginning of one season, but so far I'm a believer. I'll post a follow up next year.

Here is a thread on the subject:

LINK

They are not well established up here yet, last year i mainly had some on my plums and on a wild grape in the back. I'm not putting out traps unless i see an infestation. If your going to put down Milky Spore, now is the time.

Here is what the USDA has to say about them:

USDA

They say BT (for the grubs)?

Californian:

Based on my personal observations of having applied milky spore twice (once recently, once over 20 years ago), I have concluded that the Japanese beetle does not fly long distances. I don't think I am familiar with the green fruit beetle you have (unless it is the large, green beetle that looks like a JB on steroids), but your beetles may have different habits.

I was quite amused by the USDA website, with all its references to "integrated pest management". Looks like something put together by a group of politically correct grad students. They seem to be worried about actually eliminating the JB, but this is an introduced species and I am very happy when it is gone completely.

The suggestion that milky spore must be applied repeatedly to be effective, and that it only affects 18% of the beetles is just pure hogwash. Where do people come up with this stuff? Milky spore is a very effective biological control that takes some time to work. In my case I had about 90% control the first season after application, and 100% the second. Anyone who would like to take a look around Jellyman farms to see if a beetle can be found is welcome to do so at any time. If you drop by at night, do not come disguised as a deer.

Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA

LINK

Here is a link to a paper from David Smitley who is an entomologist at Michigan State University. His research seems to indicate that Ovavesicula popilliae is a promising biological control of the Japanese beetle and one reason population of the beetle are on the decline in CT and New Jersey. Now they just need to release a product to the homeowner so he can infect his local area with it.

The beetles must have had a second hatch I had sprayed and had them under control with very little damage. I was gone for 5 days and checked my orchard the 6th day and they were everywhere. My plums look terible. Started on the apricots, 1 peach tree and for some reason the only apple with damage was a Jonathan. They have developed a taste for the fruit. They love plums and peaches

The JB population seems to be in serious decline here in the Lehigh Valley of Pennsylvania (about 20 miles from the New Jersey border. I spread Milky Spore a few years ago, and last year there were very few beetles to be found in my yard....then I talked to other people in the area and found out there were few beetles anywhere around here. I wonder if it's due to Ovavesicula popilliae?

Alex

Hi Alex and fellow Lehigh Valley resident,

Yeah, the JB are much lower this year. I've put down about 5 applications of milky spore (via a spreader) in the past few years and I think that has been helping. I hand-picked a hundred a day last summer at the peak but this summer I'm only getting 10-20. Maybe it was the milky spore or the wet weather we've had.

I did three traps three summers ago and it was an absolute disaster. I could fill a bag in a day and was throwing out 10 bags a week of rotting beetles. I'm sure I was attracting them from all over the neighborhood.

They've been on rhubarb, red raspberries, strawberries and cherry trees the most so far. I got a bag of Surround to protect my cherry tree but I haven't needed to spray yet because the damage has been light.

I've gotten a 2nd, stronger surge over the last week, as well, and am now at about 1/2 of the total number I had the last few years. For some reason, 75% of them are focused on about 5 plants (2 potted roses, 2 nanking cherries, and a blackberry, all near my house), while largely leaving my larger cherries and roses alone. In years past they were on just about everything (and definitely on all of my cherry trees). Has milky spore made them sick and, thus, lazy in the first year of application? By the way, I've found that nanking cherries make a great trap plant. Mine love them and it is nearly impossible to hurt nankings once they get going.

Frank, it's interesting you are seeing the beetles this year. I started seeing them 3-4 years ago in my yard and they got more numerous with each year. This year I haven't yet seen a single one (knock on wood).

I also haven't seen more than a couple cucumber beetles this year and normally they are at biblical plague proportions by now.

I am not using any kind of pesticide or anything else to control them either, they simply haven't shown up yet.

I forget where abouts in Wisconsin you are. I am equidistant between Madison and Milwaukee.

NOT THIS YEAR. Heck the frost hasn't come out of the ground yet :) Actually i'm still seeing Rose Chafers (very similar to Japanese Beetles, but a lot earlier (June 1))

I had Japanese Beetles last year, but i don't remember the date that i saw them. By the time they show up my peaches/plums will probably be harvested or pretty close this year.

I'm right alongside the Mississippi River, in La Crosse.

They'll get to you before me.

I may take those traps back. I still have the receipt! I bought them for the Rose Chafers (i'd still have to order the attractant). I think trapping only will work if everyone does it. I think controlling the grubs is the best method IMBY.

do you guys think that milky spore is the BEST way to control these SOB's?
RED

This morning my small garden was infested with these darn things. My daughter and I picked at least 100 of them off my corn and beans. It took us over an hour and you could still see them everywhere.

If these things start as grubs, why haven't the darn moles in my yard put a dent in the population?

This is from 7/10/09

[quote]JAPANESE BEETLE - Adults have become increasingly noticeable in yards and home gardens in Dane, La Crosse and Milwaukee counties. Numbers are low at this time, but heavy feeding on grapes, lindens, raspberries, roses and many other plants should be expected in the next 6-8 weeks. Because trapping in residential areas may attract more beetles than normally would be present, this practice is not recommended unless areas are isolated from other Japanese beetle breeding sites or if mass trapping is used.[/quote]

From Wi Pest bulletin.

Nothing yet in my yard, but i'm keeping a close eye. I'll probably just hand pick what i can, depending on the level of infestation.

Don is so generous with his highly detailed responses. He's inspired me to chime in with some experience of my own.

First, I applied MS on my property 15 years ago and if the stuff didn't work, well it sure was highly coincidental that after 3 years of heavy infestation the season after application the JB pop. was down way low and the next year there were practically none. It has stayed that way.

I manage a site where there are two orchards, maybe 1500 feet from each other. One orchard is frequently mowed and the grass is managed like a typical lawn. It is heavily infested by JB's.

The other orchard is only mowed 3 times a year and the JB's are absent, even though there are many plum trees in the mix of the same varieties that are being feasted on at the nearby site.

This is some indication that the JB's are not as mobile as often advertised and also that frequently mowed grass is more attractive to Japanese beetles than neglected meadow.

I had a terrible JB problem. I used a drum of MS last year and spread it by hand on 6 acres.
Boy was it expensive. But after a terrible year last year. I have seen 2 JB this season. BTW, I live in Ohio

erdoc-

You say you spread it by hand? I need to put some down here in the next couple of weeks. I'm thinking about filling an old spice bottle with the stuff and using that (i think Don mentioned it).

Don-
No more traps. Everything i read said they are worthless and do more harm. Hoping the MS destroys my Chafer larvae (which are probably feeding as i type!)>

I've read that there is Bt that works for JB larvae. I believe its the same stuff that is in those Mosquito dunks.
Bacillus thuringiensis v. israelensis

Something to research maybe?

Still nothing in my yard.

frank.- yes I walked around and dumped it as directed. I used a tablespoon to dispense it. I tried other methods without much success. Imagine trying to spread flour everything clogs up.

It does seem to be working though.

Erdoc:

If you used an entire drum of pure milky spore, I can't imagine what that would cost. About the same as a Mercedes-Benz I would guess. The 40 oz. cans cost around $80, which is already expensive but worth it because you can distribute it so thinly. With a drum of pure spore, I could just about cover my entire county, but it would mean a lot of walking.

The applicator tube sold with the MS works very well, but you have to keep the adjustable application end dry; hence the need to wait until the grass is very dry before applying. The MS does tend to pack up in a way similar to cornstarch, so you have to turn the tube over and shake it once in a while. The MS itself must also be kept very dry and protected from humidity or it will not flow well. That's why it is best to use the entire can once opened.

Based on past experience, I could cover 6 acres with three 40 oz. cans, distributing less than 1/2 teaspoon on grids of about 8 feet. I know the instructions say to use more on closer grids to be effective, but it ain't necessarily so. I do think timing is important, and that the months of July and August are the ideal time to put it down.

Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA

Don
I just bought two 10 oz containers for my 1/3 acre yard.
I've got over 100 rose bushes planted about 4 ft. apart,
and was planning on putting some at the base of each bush
and the rest throughout the yard. But I'm planning on doing this, when it gets a little cooler (oct-nov). Why do you think that applying it now would be more effective??

Rayrose:

Because the milky spore propagates better in warm than cold soil, and because this year's crop of grubs is already in the ground or soon will be. Don't wait for cool weather.

If you get a nice thundershower after putting down the spore, all the better. It will wash in and go to work.

Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA

Harvestman, I've observed the same difference in JB populations in pasture vs. mowed yard on my property, as well.

Some more info i found...Some stuff i have never known before.

[quote]We had high numbers of Japanese beetle adults in southern and northern Illinois last year, and nothing has occurred since then to decrease their numbers. Central Illinois had lower numbers than predicted last year, and we have still not figured out why.

Reduced numbers of Japanese beetles in this area of the country are typically affected by two climatic conditions. Once the larvae hatch from eggs in late July to early August, they need 11 inches of water through the fall before descending deeper into the soil for the winter. They tunnel downwards when the turfgrass root zone temperature drops to 60oF. Thus, a summer into fall drought can cause a reduction in beetle emergence the next year. Of course, irrigation helps the grubs to survive, so the drop in numbers may not be so severe in housing developments where a high percentage of the lawns are irrigated frequently.

Deeply frozen soil during the winter is the other climatic condition that reduces the number of Japanese beetles. Most Japanese beetle grubs migrate only about eleven inches deep into the soil for the winter. They can tolerate freezing temperatures during the winter for 2 to 3 weeks before dying. Several years ago, the soil in central and northern Illinois froze 18 inches to 3 feet deep and stayed that way for about 6 weeks. The following summer, only about 1/4 to 1/3 the number of Japanese beetle adults emerged, compared to the previous summer.

We had adequate rainfall last summer and fall for the Japanese beetle grubs to survive. Temperatures did not get cold enough last winter without protective snow cover to freeze the soil very deeply. Based on that, we are expecting a normal to high emergence of beetles this year.
Male Japanese beetles emerge before the females. They are able to detect females tunneling near the surface of the turf before they emerge, resulting in their being numerous in these areas. As soon as a female emerges, many males will try to mate with her, creating a ball of beetles a couple of inches in diameter. This is referred to as "balling." These become obvious on the closely mowed turf of golf greens and tees. [/quote]

http://web.extension.uiuc.edu/cook/blogs/eb21/20080702_2211.html

jelly- Using 3 40 oz jars would have been much less expensive. I wish that I would have heard that you could put it on as sparse as you say. I put it on like the directions stated.
The beetles are gone though so I probably shouldn't complain to much

Picked 5 Japanese Beetles off my plum today. They are a lot more jumpy then Rose Chafers. Chafers you can easily grab and toss in a bucket, but JB's you almost have to have the bucket under them because they drop off so fast.

I was reading where a person would collect all kinds of JB and feed them to their fish in a pond. They said the fish got so full that they had to recapture the beetles!

I just got 1 40oz can of milky spore and i'm going to try to stretch it.

I used to grow bacterial and fungal cultures for natural products research, so the first thing I thought of when seeing the cost of Milky Spore was to check if it was possible to culture Bacillus popilliae easily. Bottom line is that there seem to be significant difficulties in producing virulent cultures....darn. I was hoping it would be like my old friend Metarrhizium anisopliae, an insecticidal fungus I used to grow easily in the lab. I was imagining cultures in some common medium one could make at home, followed by simply dispensing the culture medium about the yard. Seems that in vitro culture is difficult, and spore formation is important for useful applications. Now, if you could collect a few gallons of grubs, infect them with a bit of the milky spore, wait a bit and then blend up the results for dispensing.....

Now I'm wondering if the bags of adults I'm catching would be a good growth medium. Milky spore doesn't seem to kill adult beetles, but that doesn't mean blended beetles might not be a good medium. The DW might object to using the blender for that!

Chuck

Frank:

Did you get the applicator tube? I know it costs $10. but it makes application so much easier and more controllable. However you put the MS down, now is the right time to do it. You will see measurable results next season, and by the following season dramatic results. The more JB's you have now laying in the soil, the better it will work and propagate.

My little call ducks (I have 20 out there now with the spring hatch) never showed any interest in eating the beetles, although they would try, and sometimes succeed in eating the much larger cicadas when we had the 17-year hatch a couple of years ago. I don't think JB's taste very good. They sure don't smell good.

Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA

OK guys you have convinced me. I just ordered 40 oz of MS and an applicator. Found it for $67. on the net. I will apply it as soon as I get it. Thanks
RED

My chickens can't get enough of them. I set a cup of JB's that I've collected near their pen and they eat about one per second.

I didn't buy the applicator... My problem is that the soil is rock hard.. Since last July we are over 10 inches below normal on precip. Today we were just put into a moderate drought (it gets worse the north of here). I might start putting it down in sections and then water them in well or something...or just hope to God it rains soon to loosen the soil up. I'm sure i'm still safe if i get it down before Mid Aug? The ground doesn't freeze until at the earliest mid Nov and some years a lot later then that. *USUALLY* fall is wet.

I've picked another 6 the past two days. So they are really thin so far. I'm putting down MS for the Rose Chafers more then JBs...

I've killed about 20 total beetles so far. Seem pretty light. They keep hitting the same trees, the sweet cherries. The females are out because i caught a couple doing the nasty on a cherry leaf...a big no no in my yard.

Still haven't laid down spore because the soil is rock hard and we haven't had a decent rain in a long, long time. I've had to water all my trees multiple times already this summer. Once we get some rain, i'm going to lay some down. Hopefully i can put it down in the next week.