I get Japanese Beetles on my butterfly bush. Have you seen any of those?

That is what earwigs do to my Clematis...

Christie, I did find one Japanese Beetle the other day but this is happening at night. I am wondering more a long the lines of earwigs.

Buyorsell888, I think you hit it on the nail. When I was pulling some weeds along the grass/mulch line I found a mess of earwigs. The one Butterfly Bush that I posted the photo of has been eaten so much if they eat much more there will be nothing left it. Will have to find a way to get rid of them or control them at the least.

Stephanie

There are a lot of organic insect repellents/killers to chose from. A good full service garden center will have a larger selection of organic insecticides than the box stores and good garden centers have competitive prices.

One natural product that comes to mind is diatomaceous earth; made of ground seashells, I believe. It's a white powder, a little messy to apply, but it works especially well for earwigs. It kills the little evil things as they crawl over it on the ground around your plant! I had lots of trouble with earwigs destroying my clematis. I hate those ugly things!

Diatomaceous earth is the main ingredient found under many names, so ask at your store. It also works for slugs and snails as well. Buy a larger quantity and and you'll have it a long time. A good organic concentrate will kill the little buggers also, but ask; not all insecticides will kill every bug. Good luck.

I have the same problem and just bought cutter pest control at Lowes and an applicator. I will let you know if it works. You can also spray with soapy water using an applicator and dawn. I will try that next.

Bayer Advanced 3-in-1 Insect, Disease & Mite Control

Stephanie,

I have several Butterfly Bushes and every year, they are attacked by Earwigs. The first year I noticed it too late and they had eaten the entire bush down to a skeleton. Since I don't use chemicals and the various traps don't seem to do anything, I've resorted to evening killings with soap and water spray. I go out with a headlamp and spray directly on the earwigs. On my bushes, they are easy to spot since they practically cover all the leaves, especially near the top. They seem to flourish with this wet cloudy summer we've been having, so all I can hope is to minimize the numbers with the soap & water.

Also, I've removed all bark mulch from my garden since this is where they also hide and replaced with a layer of compost mulch. Hopefully I'll see better results in the years to come :)

Thanks for all the post everyone. I try hard not to use chemicals. I think I will try laying out wet newspaper rolls and then dropping the earwigs into soapy water.

This evening I found 16 Japanese beetles. Then all went into the soapy water too.
None of them were on my butterfly bushes. They were on my pink swirl hibiscus, my one canna, rose bush, raspberry bush and my cinnamon fern.

Stephanie

Is it the soapy water that kills the Japanese beetles? If so, would it help to pour soapy water around my Butterfly Bush. I want to get rid of these things. They aren't on the leaf, they are on the flower itself.