Which is more effective- Sevin or Bayer?

Is there anything in the market like a very very fine net, which looks invisible and thin but small enough grids to filter JBs? So that I can cover my rose plants?? Has anyone tried this method or is this a stupid question?!!
Kris

Kris, a lot of exhibitors set up physical barriers to protect their prize blooms from bugs (not just JBs) and also to protect from rain. A product called remay is used by some (Cut big circles, run a wire around the outside of the circle, then draw up the wire until you have a big pouffy thing that goes over the bloom.
A larger barrier to protect the entire plants is harder because it's not going to be effective to reuse it (rose thorns will tear it up, even when you try to go in and cut a bloom).
Most of the beetles will fly in, only a few will come directly from the soil under your roses. If you had access to lots of used window screens and could build an aluminum frame to slip them in...then you'd have a barrier.
Downside...decreased airflow could lead to increased fungal problems.
And there remains the need to kill the darned bugs. For each female who lives, you can expect her to lay up to about 40 eggs. And those forty will find mates, and you could expect their offspring to be 800 the following year.
Ducks will eat Japanese Beetles.

Thanks, I checked Reemay, But is there any thing that is very transparent?

If you go with solid and transparent, where there are folds in it, the transparency may act as a lens and burn the petals. Solids will hold moisture in, as well, and higher humidity leads to fungal problems.
Netting (as in sold in fabric stores) is an option, but may need to be spray starched between uses. The coarser netting has openings about the size of "o" on medium fonts under internet's favorites. Bridal is much finer, but may transmit less light than remay.

I just couldn't help myself...

{{gwi:228687}}

I did a search for garden worms. I found a site that sells a 5 lb 3 variety of worms that say they eat grubs. I hope it works. They haven't arrived yet, should be here this week. I don't really see to many beetles but when I was planting I saw lots of grubs so I know they are there.

Harry, may I be the first to say "ICK!"?

That's a fine crop of Japanese Beetles you're growing there. :-)

Harry--you are an evil, evil man. I love it.

Did I mention that, while I'm teaching the JB's to swim, I imagine their little voices crying for help?

melanie

I'll tell you what I do, I just let the white and yellow spent blooms stay on the bush. The beetles will devour those spent blooms and leave the new blooms alone! I do not spray insecticide. I have already applied merit granules to my beds for midge control and kill the grubs I see in the soil. Now I didn't check to see if it was a jb grub or not, but the Merit will take care of them!

Instead of spraying poisons that don't work, except to damage the eco-system, has anyone tried getting a small flock of Bantam chickens?

Little Rhode Island Reds are voracious forages, I hear they eat both the grubs and the adult beetles. And they are great fun and garden friendly.

Anything has got to be better than spraying toxics.

Bill in (where else?) California!

If you feed the darned things,
do the math, please.
And figure out if your and your neighbors' JB problems will be greater or less in five years for your feeding them.
Unless you apply merit to the entire neighborhood, you've got a pest problem that's going to get exponentially worse.
Your busines.
Shouldn't have commented.

JBs are not natural or friendly, so why should I be?

William, we used to keep a few hens. They completely ignored the JBs but made a mess of my garden with all the scratching. Most birds won't eat JBs because they have a bad taste. That is one of the reasons why their population is out of control.

Being in CA, you have no idea what it's like to have a JB infestation. We are all not a bunch of toxic spray-grabbing, eco-unfriendly bugkillers. Until you've experienced what we have out here in the East, please refrain from admonishing us.

That they only eat light colored roses is a myth--at least in my garden. My Francis Dubreuil blooms were the worst attacked last year--they looked just like Harry's. You can't get much darker than Francis. I *will* be spraying his buds, you can be sure.

Barbara

Has anyone tried the soil drench stuff? I have not used it on roses (since I new to rose gardening this year), but I have had great success with it on Japenese maples, crepe myrtles, and a magnolia. Those used to be devoured by JBs, but now I use that stuff once in the Spring and barely see a JB at all.

Harry-- what is that flower with the jewel-like irridescent bronze tones?

Barbara-- they are attracted visually to light-colored blooms, but also they track rose fragrance on the air. Non-fragrant dark roses get the leasst attention. I'm sure having fragrant roses in bloom draws extra beetles to the rose patch.

Veilchen, I'm not suggesting Japanese Beetles aren't a serious pest. And you are quite right, living in California, it is not a pest I've encountered.

That's not to say we are "pest-free" out here in Paradise. Several weeks back the buds of many of my roses got hit by aphids. I hand-squished a few (knowing this was somewhat "futile"). Many of the flowers were at a stage where a strong spray of water would have knocked off a lot of blooms along with the aphids. Now I guess I could have rushed out and sprayed them...but trusting I have a very healthy eco-system...waited a few days, and the ladybugs swarmed in and took care of the problem.

Now, I understand the Japanese Beetle (being a "foreign" pest is such a problem in large part because native predators are few. And I realize thay are much more of a threat that aphids.

Still, (and claiming no expertise here) there must be a more "nature friendly" ways to reduce Japanese Beetle infestations. Milky Spore is one possibility, another which shows promise is O. popilliae (a bacterial pathogen). Together with traps, bird predators, benefical nematode, ants, etc.

But what clearly does not work, is spraying adult beetles with toxic pesticides. Even the people who've used sprays say it is no more effective than knocking them into soapy water. So why not use the more benign solution?

The pesticide you all are using is very deadly to bees. And, as you do doubt are aware bee populations are in serious crisis. So while I don't want to appear unfriendly (tone is very difficult to convey sometimes) I do feel compelled to quetion the seemingly inapporpriate advocacy of pesticide usage in a public forum on gardening.

"Sterlizing" ones property with fumigants, herbicides, synthetic chemicals, and pesticides is a sure fire way to insure you garden will be devistated by pests (not just Beetles) for years to come.

Respectfully.
Bill

Bill - I don't experience any infestations except aphids and sawfly larvae both of which I squish. So I too don't really know what it's like. But I agree - if toxic and nontoxic get the same results, then go nontoxic. But I'm not sure if there's enough time in the day to stand out there and get them all by hand. :) More comments? :)

Carol

To shake them off into a pot of water takes less time than spraying for my size garden, but it needs to be done every day, because beetles attract beetles. Spray lasts longer, but I wouldn't myself apply insecticide to open flowers, unless it were Harry's 'Bronze Fantasia.'

Unfortunately picking doesn't work for me. During peak season my blooms look exactly like Harry's "Bronze Fantasia". Try picking that off one by one. Hint - you get one and the other 30 fly away.

The only thing I can do is bloom shots of Sevin when they congregate. Yes, I use the drench but to be honest not sure that does a darned thing on the pests.

Oh, and just cut off blooms (before they open!) and bring them inside. Hate to say it but it's an unwinnable battle.

"Still, (and claiming no expertise here) there must be a more "nature friendly" ways to reduce Japanese Beetle infestations. Milky Spore is one possibility, another which shows promise is O. popilliae (a bacterial pathogen). Together with traps, bird predators, benefical nematode, ants, etc."

Bill, if there were more "nature friendly" ways to kill JBs, we'd all be jumping on it. Milky spore is not very effective here in the north--the bacteria is killed by the cold in the winter. And both milky spore and ben. nematodes are extremely expensive, not just for your own yard but for the neighborhood you'll have to treat in order to make a difference (if it works). Traps attract more JBs to your garden. I told you there are no bird predators. Nematodes haven't been proven to work here. Ants??

You are preaching to the choir. I am organic in my garden in every which way (I don't even use chemical fertilizers and I compost like mad), but when it comes to JBs I draw the line. And yes, in the past two years I have seen a drop in the populationin my garden, because I am more effectively killing them rather than trying to drop them into a bucket of soapy water like I used to do for hours on end every summer (while the other 30 fly away, like violet stated).

I get aphids too, and they are so benign compared to JBs I would call them a non-pest. I go around squishing and occasionally spray soapy water on them if there's a lot. They are so easily controllable not only by me but by their natural predators, I wouldn't even begin to compare an aphid infestation to a JB infestation.

Again, don't assume we're all running for the spray bottle of toxic chemicals every time we see a bug. We are rose growers, and roses are a somewhat challenging plant to grow, requiring a fair amount of knowledge in order to obtain success. Those of us who use chemicals have done so only after carefully considering the consequences, and then only as a last resort.

Face it gang, at this point the beetles are winning. The last 3 years the numbers have increased tenfold or more. I kill thousands. I used to use a coffee can, now its a bucket of soapy water. I also use traps which fill every day.

Spraying makes little difference because the beetle will go straight to the bud and one bite ruins the bloom. You can paint on Sevin or Merit with a paint brush, the beetles still land and munch for awhile before they deep six. I do spot spray when the clusters get really big, but the bucket is a better alternative. I also spread grub control each July.

I do believe that you should kill every one you can. Since I have the only rose bed in the neighborhood, I know my yard is the congregation point. Kill'em, kill'em all!

If you haven't tried the traps and emptying the bags often, maybe it would be worth your time.
What attracts beetles is sex. The trap lures are pheromones, the same that the beetles leave on your roses. Just growing roses is a beetle attractant. Why not try to intercept them with traps before they get to your roses?

And one other thing about Milky Spore Drought can kill it and that isn't great for our part of the country where deep drought happens on a minimum several times a decade.

Harry,

Population cycles are related to rainfall in the period after egg-laying. The baby grubs can't cope with dry soil. Brown turf is our ally!

However, in subdivisions where everyone irrigates, or near golf courses, they may just get worse and worse.

Violet,

I wouldn't recommend picking them one by one. Istead, you tip or shake them off the flower and 95% or more will dive into the bucket. It's a reflex for avoiding birds.

Veilchen, please understand I'm not trying to single you out as some kind of "eco-terrorist". You make it more than plain that you not only wish to be as natural as possible in the way you grow your roses, you also are doing your best to minimize your pesticide use. I respect that.

But I don't think it is fair to say that many, many posters on this forum don't reach for extremly toxic chemicals at the first signs of "problems". We have people suiting up with resporators spraying some pretty nasty stuff. Black spot...spray toxics. Powdery mildew...spray toxics. Thrips...spray toxics. On and on. And these people (not you) seem to delight in their chemical warfare. I seriously believe there are people who would use DDT on their JBs if given the chance (and delight in doing so).

Why be friendly, when nature's not friendly?

Again, I understand that's not you.

And, as to spraying directly, you obviously have more experience than I (heck I have NONE...ZERO...ZIP...NADA) but most folks who do seem to, say shaking them into soapy water works just as well (if not better) than toxics. You say otherwise. I'd hope people who only read these threads would at least give the non-toxic method a shot first.

I understand it may bring satisfaction to go NUC-U-LUR on a pest as agressive as this one, but from what I'm able to gleen spraying them with toxics is pretty futile. And it is bad for the environment. No doubts about that!

If you had a serious pest (like Japanese Beetles) and you really could bring them under control using a moderately pesticide once or twice..problem gone...then maybe a reward/risk analysis might just justify such a thing. But spraying every day with no real hope of eraticating them, I still can't figure how that makes sense.

Like I said I wasn't comparing a minor pest like aphids with JBs. I understand they are not at all in the same class. But lots of folks spray for these too, and thrids, and all kinds of things.

As to birds. From what I read (that's all I know...what I read...let me make this clear) these are bids that eat both the beetles and the grubs, especially the dreaded Starling. I have also seen a number of blogs where people claim their chickens do eat both the grubs (the form that really needs to be controlled if there is hope against JBs, I'm guessing) and the beetles. I've kept Rhode Island Red bantams for years. They've never upset my garden in any way and are voracious bug eating machines. A full size chicken is too big for my gardens..but a little flock of bantams is perfect.

Also note on chickens: one does need to avoid "production birds" as the agricultural industry, to maximize their profits, has bread the "natural" qualities out of "production" chickens. So they are not good foragers, they don't tend to "go broody" and hatch out chicks, etc. If you want bug-killers you need to seek out breeders keeping old-fashioned breeds alive and use those. I digress.

I hope a solution is found soon for you, and all the others whose gardens are being ravaged by this pest. It looks like it's going to take some creative thinking to find a solution.

I wish you all peace of mind and healthy gardens,

Bill

Thank you Bill for understanding my point.

I may come across as a little cranky when the subject of JBs comes up, because I still find the situation to be absolutely incredible and horrendous the destruction they cause and the sheer volume of their population (which is gradually spreading westward).

I hand-picked (or tipped clusters of) the JBs into buckets of soapy water every evening (you have to do it when the sun is down while they're sluggish or else they fly off) for 5 years. My husband would use the leaf vac and literally suck them off of our hazlenut and cherry trees (which we no longer have). When hand-picking I would miss a lot that would fall outside the bucket or fly away before I could catch them. With spot-spraying, I can sneak up on them and kill groups of them quickly and efficiently. And it is far less time-consuming than hand-picking, a factor that is important for me as not only do I manage a rose garden, large vegetable garden, and several perennial gardens at home, and also work in several public and private gardens in the community (who also have their own JB problems). I have found a drop in population around my garden of JBs since I started consistently spraying them on contact rather than hand-picking. Hopefully this year the numbers will be even less. I am not even hoping for eradication (although that would be cause for celebration), I am only hoping for a bit of control--that I can somewhat enjoy my roses between the end of June and mid-Aug. without them being coated with JBs and the flowers completely ruined. A bit of destruction is fine with me, it's when things get out of control I find I need to take action.

I have heard of one or two posters claim they saw starlings eat JBs, but this is obviously not consistent, because if starlings were eating JBs everywhere, we would have seen a noticeable reduction in population. What I have observed is occasionally a bird will sample a JB, but then quickly lose interest in them, likely because of their taste. If birds like to eat JBs, they'd be flocking over all of our rose gardens in the East from June to August. Maybe the bantams have different tastes in bugs than my laying hens. We did feed our hens any grubs we found while digging, and they seemed to relish them. But the grubs live in the soil underneath the lawn (they feed on grass roots) and a chicken or bird would have to do a lot of digging and tearing up of lawn to get to the grubs. The beetles we threw our hens were completely ignored.

As I understand it, the soil drench is more eco-friendly. I know it's still a toxic chemcial, but it only affects the soil in the immediate area of the plant and the plant itself. Any bug that doesn't try to eat my plant won't be affected. Is this true?

I love the idea of chickens eating them, but somehow I don't think a herd of chickens is going to be approved by my HOA...

I used the Bayer 2 in 1 granules last year and it did not stop the japanese beatles. They were still munching away happily when I came up and sprayed them with the Bayer Insecticide which did work. I did not have many beatles last year so I felt using a bit of insecticide to keep down the population of the ones I had was a good idea. I was not spraying very much or very often and I only sprayed directly onto the beatles I saw.

I had amazing success last year with my 200+ roses. I bought Merit 0.5g. I put it down now because it is a systemic. The JB's were horrible in my area and did not bother my roses! I kept waiting for my luck to run out but they were not a problem. I would see the beetles fly in and they just fly away. I understand they do not like the taste of it. It is expensive. It is about $100. a bag but it is worth it for me. I just put it down again yesterday.

" But what clearly does not work, is spraying adult beetles with toxic pesticides. Even the people who've used sprays say it is no more effective than knocking them into soapy water. So why not use the more benign solution? "

You've already admitted you don't know anything about JBs, so why comment? They are not aphids, which only neophytes spray. When you have swarms of hundreds if not a thousand munching away (they can defoliate a small tree in one day), you'll do what you have to do.

And no, picking them off is not as efficient. As soon as you do one or two, the rest fly away. Not just on roses, but crepe myrtle foliage, apple trees, canna lillies, magnolias, cherry trees, etc.

If more people did spray there would likely be less to mate and less bugs next year. They make easy targets.

I live in upstate NY in a very wooded area. I have never in my life experienced these awful pests. I know they have them in the midwest where I am originally from but not to this extent. We are surrounded by wild berries and other beetle desserts here in NY.
I planted 12 roses bushes, a lilac bush, a butterfly bush
and heirloom tomatoes. I FEEL LIKE I AM AT WAR. I started with garlic oil, then garlic powder which seemed to work as they emerged from the ground. Then a whole aray of organic and non organic sprays. I decided to try to put netting over
everything. I bought bridal veil ( stiff one works best).
It is the best solution as you can capture hundreds of the little beasts all at once and kill them with whatever torture of choice. I spray with Bayer Advanced. They get caught in the netting too. Even if some get under the netting they seem to get confused and end up on the netting upsidedown. I still trim any dead foliage and pick the rose buds as they start to bloom. The netting makes them soooo... mad. This forum has been the best info anywhere on the internet for Japanese Beetle information. Thank you!
Does anyone have suggestions for control for about and acre
of wild berries where the JBs seem to start? I want to clear out the area in the late fall. Try to pull out by the roots. Will this help?

Part of the secret is to empty the traps daily, as JBs will start to avoid the traps when the body count piles up.

I've found this to be true as well. It makes me wonder though ... if beetles avoid places with dead beetles (this is gonna be gross) would it make sense to scatter dead beetles all over & around roses?

I'll do ANYTHING. We just had 2 glorious days of rain, and my garden is a wall of swarming beetles.

BTW I've been seeing plenty that are just bronze color, no green on them. DH seems to think this is a female JB. I fear it may be a different kind of beetle all together. I will say that even though it a destructive $#&* that's gonna die, it's a beautiful shade of bronze.

I think the plain bronze are June bugs, which apparently are different than JBs. And I'm not sure they eat roses. But who has time to check?

Hello, Mehearty. Love the name...it reminds me of National Talk Like A Pirate Day. :-)

I don't know about scattering beetle cadavers about, aside from getting a ghoulish satisfaction from enjoying a JB death ceremony (I'm all for it). When it comes to JBs, it's certainly fun to think about desecrating their remains. :-)

Actually, it's my understanding that the decomposing dead emit ammonia and other compounds, which repel other beetles. Yuck. Even when you want to celebrate their deaths they make you want to wretch. From cradle to grave they are evil incarnate.

I hope you discover the Final Solution for JBs. You'll be rich and we'll all owe you a huge debt of gratitude.

All the best,

Deb

I have found that I have two choices once the JBs arrive:

1. Remove all buds until they leave.

2. Spray every week with BAYER ADVANCED DUAL ACTION ROSE AND FLOWER INSECT KILLER. It is the only stuff that has worked, but you have to spray it religiously.

Honestly, neither option is very attractive. I hate Japanese Beetles.

The beetle population in my area is way down this year. I saw my first beetle in mid June, two weeks earlier than normal for us, and thought this was going to be a bad year. Since then I only seen a few more which I squished.
Perhaps they got tired of being ignored. I pay no attention to them except to squash some once in awhile.
Perhaps that late freeze we had caught the grubs coming up and froze the little buggers.
I did note the absence of grubs while working in the beds this spring. Hope this trend lasts!

mehearty, the bronze beetle MIGHT be this new bug I've heard about in an email from the Master Gardeners list. I'm not sure if it even has a name yet. OR it could be the Asiatic beetle, which is a dull coppery color and slightly smaller than JBs. Asiatic beetles, however, usually come out at night and are attracted to lights like the typical "June bugs", which is a common name for several different scarab beetles throughout the country.

The bronze beetles are not female JBs.

I know this is gross, but dead JBs have a distinct smell, as anyone knows who empties out the traps or dumps a bucket of them that's been sitting around for a while. The smell of dead beetles does not deter JBs--I have often had a bucket of soapy water/smelly decomposing beetles lying around my roses but the JBs munch away happily in the vicinity. But as far as the traps, the smell of dead JBs may be masking the pheremone scent.

Oh yes I can recall that distinctive decomposing beetle stench from years past. It smells like pungent garbage. Dang, I was hoping to avoid spraying.

VC, thanks for the ID on the bronze beetles. I'll tell my dh.

Lionheart, thank you. My son was in a pirate phase when I registered and since we were calling each other "mehearty," I just typed it in. lol BTW you have a nice way with words when it comes to beetles. =)

Dear Deb (mhearty)

I'm sure you didn't mean it, but using the term "Final Solution" even in relation to Japanese Beetles is very disturbing to those of us whose families were lost in a previous "Final Solution."

Rinah

Rinah,
I'm sure Deb didn't mean it, but thank you for reminding us that language resonates outside the world of roses. We do get carried away sometimes with our rose rhetoric, don't we!

Kate

Fascinating, all this discussion. I hope participants aren't too tired to continue, because I have questions.

First question: what are the names of the beetles that are devouring my garden (in Italy). There are two kinds: a large (2cm) green-gold beetle, very handsome, and a smaller (1/2") kind, black dusted with white, that eats the stamens of the roses.

Okay, we have the same kinds of problems everyone on this thread has been describing. Beetle infestations that go on and on. I don't spray or do any kinds of biological controls, hoping to see predators arrive that will deal with the beetles, but, so far at least, in the five years since we started our garden, it's not happening. We're in farm country, surrounded by fields, woods, scrub, so any possible difficulties caused by a suburban environment don't come into question. We have an abundant insect population: bees, flies, wasps, butterflies, praying mantises, and, of course, beetles good and evil. We also have lizards, though the numerous farm cats like to dine on them, and starlings and other birds. Still, the beetles keep coming, and I see that no one on this thread has a pesticide-free solution for them.

However, I do want to cite a letter to Mother Earth News, printed in the June/July 2006 issue. The writer, Milt Fusselman, described how he had dealt with Japanese beetles when he lived in an area that suffered infestations. The pheromone trap he bought filled up immediately. So he took the pheromone trap, cut a hole in one bottom corner, ran a length of 1 1/2" PVC pipe down from the bag, attaching it with duct tape, and hung the whole shebang in his hen house, with a plate underneath the pipe. He wrote that the JBs emerged from the pipe onto the plate and made a meal for the enthusiastic chickens. Mr. Fusselman said that it worked very well. So, I pass it along, and hope that I haven't violated any copyright laws and that author and magazine will approve of my reporting his solution.

I'm interested in the bantams for pest (specifically, beetle) control: anybody have any more to offer on the subject?

The main question on my mind is: why the ecological imbalance? Why do no predators appear to feed off this abundant food supply? I grow a mixed garden--no monocultures--in an environment free, as far as I can tell, of pesticides, and with woods and brushy areas close by that can shelter birds, and yet the beetles multiply with impunity. Why?

Melissa

Melissa, bantams and in general, poultry also love to eat young vegetative growths so you must take care that they have no access to the roses.

JBs have natural predators in Japan, where they originate. Over there, its not so much of a nuisance. The ecological balance takes time, donÂt know how long, to achieve in non-native environment when a foreign pest has been imported. So often time, you have to intervene before that happens. In the U.S., the assassin bugs love to eat JBs, but there are not as many assassin bugs as JBs. At least I see birds in my garden have developed a taste for them. There are also experiments and researches on releasing predatory and parasitic wasps, along with the use of milky spore, etc...The main problem in the U.S. is that there are abundant of pasture and green turf to insure a continuous baby boom of JBs, while in high density population and mountainous Japan, land is such precious commodity that JBs are simply just crowed out.

Thanks, Roseleaf. The point about the abundance of turf in the U.S. is a very good one.

When I know what kinds of beetles I have I'll be able to inform myself about their life cycles, and better able to consider solutions, or at least have a clearer idea of what's happening. Do my beetles also hatch in grass? We have plenty of fields around. We also have quail and pheasants: are they omnivores?

We have a rich wasp population, some kind of non-aggressive paper wasp, and I welcome them because they eat caterpillars and various larvae. I don't know if they tackle beetle grubs, though. They build little nests right on the rose bushes.

Questions and questions.

Melissa

Japanese beetles are born by grubs in your lawn if you buy a grub control insecticide then youll destroy the majority of your bettles. But theyll still come from different neighborhoods and will be attracted to your roses the latest and greatest thing which i use is the bag a bug. Its a bag with a stand and has a scent soap it attracts the bettles to the bag and they fly into it, japanese beetles are vicious so when they all get in the bag they eat each other. I used them around my veggies and burning bush and never saw one again, but my bags are pretty full :)

Melissa, Gertrude Jekyll, writing about English gardens on the Riviera, spoke of "the fatal Rose beetles that tear the petals to ribbons in May."

One strategy for insect survival is periodic abundance that overwhelms predators. If the JBs emerged in equal numbers from April to October, there would be species of birds etc. that semi-specialized in eating them and populations of these predators big enough to keep the JBs in check. But the JBs are safe underground for most of the year, and then for a while there are more of them than anybody can eat.

Dear Deb (mhearty)

I'm sure you didn't mean it, but using the term "Final Solution" even in relation to Japanese Beetles is very disturbing to those of us whose families were lost in a previous "Final Solution."

Rinah

Rinah, it wasn't me who used the expression. I'm Jewish & just can't bring that kind of humor into anything. I didn't take offense to it, though. But I can understand those who did. I am very sorry about your family, Rinah. I honestly cannot think of anything in the world more atrocious.

God bless.

Dear Deb---mhearty,

Excuse me! My eyes skipped to the first line of the other Deb's post. I realize that I should have addressed "Deb--Lionheart."

Rinah

That's OK Rinah. =) My name isn't Deb either. lol

Hugs to you. I know this is a very sensitive subject. I've been out picking beetles, so I'm seeing spots anyway. =)

~MH

Melissa, I ask myself why a lot too when I see the JB infestation year after year.

Re: hens--as I've stated on previous posts about JBs--we kept four hens for several years. We fed them JBs and they refused to eat them. They loved the grubs, however.

Does anyone know about the release of moths last year or the year before by the dept of agriculture (I assume) to help control Japanese Beetles in large ares??? I think it was around Phoenicia NY as the JBs destroyed acres of trees there.
Hint from my sister in Midwest. They like her white pansies and not the colored ones. Same with the coleus.