JB traps sounds wonderful but alas they aren't. The reason being that the pheromones signal that there is a good time to be had at the trap for all. So even though you may only have a few JBs, when the word gets out that there is a party going on in a person's trap, everyone wants in on the action. But the trap doesn't kill them all. So when the JBs realize they have been duped, they then come over to your garden to fest on the roses or anything else that attracts them.

Lynnette,
Thanks for the response...you're right, that's what we always tell people who ask me why we don't use traps...I tell them that the whole neighborhood would have to use them as well, or put them far away from the property and empty them often. Oh well, I just wondered if we were being ridiculous in our assumptions, or if that might be the reason for our problems this season. We aren't close enough friends for me to try to ask them to stop using the traps. I'm sure all my neighbors think I'm OCD about hand-picking them off, as it takes me a lot of time after work, and they keep on coming!
:0( Phyl

The one year I used traps I had about 10x the number of jbs. And they wouldn't go in the traps! I had to spray, and I also had to spray my neighbors cherry tree which was getting defoliated.

I think I killed so many JBs that year that we haven't had nearly that number since then.

I think traps work if you have a large property and can put them far far away from any roses or other people's yards.

I have mixed feelings about using the traps. There is something fascinating about bagging so many nasty bugs but I have less JB's without the traps. In my garden, the bags made things worse.

My neighbor put 2 traps right near our property lines which backs up right up to my rose garden. I nicely let him know what was going on and he removed them. If the situation gets out of control for you, I see nothing wrong w/ explaining to your neighbors in a kindly way, if the opportunity arises, that actually more JB's will come into the gardens by hanging those traps.

More JB's in or near your property = more eggs laid = more JB's the following year. Just my theory.

Betty:)

Yes. That was also my experience long time ago. The rose garden alone draws many JBs, and with the traps, many many many more JBs from faraway lands heed the call  the effect is amplified many more times. You have better luck if the neighborÂs traps are several miles away, but a few hundred feet away would do you in. Sorry Phyl. Maybe you can try to convince them not to use the traps as Betty did.

At the Spring 2007 ARS National Conv. & Show, the Entomologist that was one of the CR continuing ed. speakers said that JB traps should NOT be used for JB control method. They were only designed as a tool for collecting JB's for research.

Is the JB population higher this year in your part of town or just in your own yard?

From what my sister says of her infestation in the upstate of SC, and the ones I have had here in the middle of the state, we think this year the JB's out number all of the roses and other tender plants combined. They defoliated my cherry tree, moved on to the rose bushes, and have now moved on to the rose of sharon and any other plant in the yard. I use dawn and a bowl of water to dunk and drown and just like the others have said, the next day it seemed as if there were double the number from the day before. Boo them lil buggers!

Well, now I'm wondering if it's really a wasp or bee trap...if it is, does it do the same thing? It is plastic tube with a cone inside and a outside ring on the outside. For all I know, I could be looking at an unusual hummingbird feeder. LOL :0) Phyl

Phyl,
Take a look at Biocontrol's website to see what Japanese Beetle traps look like. They have lots of other traps as well.
And I use traps and have used them for about ten years. And I have thus interrupted tens of thousands of additional beetles being born. Since you don't spray, you can only hope that winter or drought will kill the eggs and or larvae. If nothing else interferes with your Beetles, you ARE going to have twenty times more each year.
Sorry to denigrate an entomologist in Wisconsin (where there have been beetles for less than a decade). I've trapped, caught squished beetles for (heavens help me) six decades, and inaction is the recipe for disaster.
When the beetles start attacking the small fruit and brambles in Wisconsin, are they going to recommend hand picking or pesticides? Traps or Milky Spore are the alternatives and MS takes some time to work.
I guess I should add that skunks will eat the larvae, but they leave grass kind of torn up.

Here is a link that might be useful: What Japanese Beetle Traps look like

When the traps first came out someone from a state agency (I don't remember which, I was just a kid) came to our house and asked my mother if they could place one in our yard. They were doing a study on JB numbers around the state. We had never had a problem with them previously but mom agreed. We had tons that year and I remember mom was livid and called the agency to please come and remove the thing immediately.

Summer before last we put in a small putting green. The grass was green and lush for a while and then suddenly browned out and died. Al checked with a greens keeper at our local golf course and he said it was probably grubs and to use the milky spore on the entire lawn. Worked like a charm. I saw a handful of JB's last year and only 2 this entire summer.

Ann,
Thanks for the link...the traps they feature there look similar, but no more similar, to the ones I've seen in other locations (online, in stores). None of them look exactly like the kind the guy has next door.
I don't know...we plan on putting down grub killer for the grass in the fall.....like GrubEx I think.
We probably should have been doing this all along....
Thanks, Seil, for your input too. Very hard to make a decision for traps when I read what Lynnette and many others have reported about the JB party invites that go out to the JB community that there's a block party at my house!
:0) Phyl

After two years of talking to my neighbor across the street to think about not using the traps anymore to lessen the number of JB's. Finally... she didn't put them up this year and it's incredible how few there are now. Enough to annoy me a bit but at least not to where every rose had at least 5-10 on them before. So next year there will be less to deal with because hopefully less will make it thru the winter as grubs.

Jimmy

That's good to hear, Jimmy.
I found out that the trap the neighbors have is for bees and wasps. I mentioned to them about what JB traps tend to do, just in case they had plans to start using them.

A gardener diagonal to us was telling us yesterday that his roses weren't bothered by JBs, but that his birch tree had them terribly! I assumed he used something like Sevin or something, since his wife is manager of a local nursery, and they always say they aren't bothered with JBs.

Later he was mixing up some fungicide with some kind of Ortho product that he says is a pretty "natural" or "safe" product...that you put on a hose-end applicator. He wanted to know if we'd like him to make up enough for him to apply to our gardens. He says it's a product that gardeners put on vegetables and fruits. He said it didn't hurt if it got on your hands etc.

He is going to give us a bottle of whatever it is...
I finally agreed and he did a very quick spray of everything that attracts those JBs. I was almost surprised that half an hour later I went out and found that every single JB that I prodded to fly away just sat motionless (ie, dead). He said that we most likely wouldn't see any JBs now for at least a few weeks. I am wondering what EXACTLY the product was....he agreed that Sevin was much too deadly to everything else (bees, birds etc.)

The hose-end sprayer thing he was using was something he uses all the time...he said that the name on it didn't indicate the name of what he was using...but said it was something from Ortho or Orthonex.
Maybe we'll FINALLY have some decent roses this week...I am doing arrangements for a co-worker's rehearsal dinner and for another person's annual family reunion this week (small bouquet business I have). :0) Phyl
:0) Phyl

If it is something that actually KEEPS THE JAPANESE BEETLES OFF your roses, it is truly a miracle and we need to get the name of that concoction.

Not crossing my fingers though as even the most toxic of sprays do nothing to "repel" JBs.

Funny thing is my trap is definitely helping me. It was to the point I was not getting to see my roses at all. They were eating entire roses and I saw quite a few JB roses.

I put one in at the opposite corner of my 1/2 acre yard. After a few weeks of doing this and picking my JB population is down to just a few. Maybe 4 or 5 if that per day. I was getting 50-100 so it works for me.

yes Phyl..we really need the name of that concoction!

I have a bed of about 10 roses in my side yard. A few weeks ago as an experiment I put a cup of a bunch of dead japanese beetles in water in the middle of the bed right near my Evelyn rose. (the dead ones really smell bad!) The blooms were so beautiful on Evelyn that I wanted to see if the cup of dead ones would repel them from that area. Well lo and behold I have seen very beetles in that bed over the past few weeks. I knock off 1 or 2 here and there and that's it. Might be a coincidence but is an interesting observation. My roses in other areas have gotten alot more beetles!

four years ago was the first year I had peaches on my tree - it was covered with peaches. They were the size of tennis balls - I was sure I was going to pick peaches on Saturday. On wednesday there were no J Beetles anywhere. On Saturday morning the beetles arrived and devoured all the peaches in a few hours before I got out there to pick some peaches! I DID NOT use that traps that year. I have used traps every year since then. I put them on each corner of my yard. They say all the beetles do not go in the traps, but most do! Last year I filled 24 bags in one week. This year there has been a big reduction in the number of beetles. I have only filled about 10 bags in 4 weeks. I use traps, soapy water, Sevin (which will keep them off the peaches for 2 weeks), and squash them!

If I killed 10,000 beetles and 5000 were females, then that is 200,000 eggs that did not get laid and mature into beetles - since each female can lay up to 40 eggs. Next year if 50% (100,000) had been females, then they could have laid up to 4 million eggs. the third year, 2 million females could have laid up to 80 million eggs! And so on and so on.....think about it!

Well, now I'm very perplexed. My neighbor is very well-meaning, and grows lots of flowers and veggies/herbs. He told me yesterday that the spray he had made up (and asked me if I wanted him to spray my gardens with) was an Ortho product. He said it was pretty innocuous (made of natural ingredients and not toxic to bees etc.) I asked him the name of it, and he kept referring to it as an Ortho product....said it would keep the JBs at bay for a few weeks. He said that it was safe enough that if it got on you it was ok, and that it is sprayed on veggies and fruits too.
Today he stopped by to ask how it was working so far. I told him that there were many dead JBs, but that there were some new ones too (though not anywhere near as many as usual). He said that they would chew on the leaves or buds/blooms and die in a few days etc.

I looked on the Ortho website, and the only concentrate that I see there that says kills JBs as they chew and suck on the plants is Ortho Systemic Insect Killer Concentrate. 8% acephate and .5% fenbutatin oxice, whatever they are. Bottom line is under ENVIRONMENTAL HAZARDS it says that it is toxic to birds, mammals, fish, aquatic invertebrates, etc., and highly toxic to bees! AARGH!!!
I knew it was too good to be true. Phyl

Phyl, if you are planning to apply grub control, the time to do it is now when they are laying their evil spawn. Their eggs hatch within about 2 weeks, and you want the young grubs to feed on the poison. It's most effective on these younger grubs. Any that aren't killed now will burrow their way underground to feed on your grass roots and then go deeper to avoid the killing winter frost. They will emerge the following summer as addult beetles and immediately start laying eggs.

Mike

Thanks, Mike...do you recommend a PARTICULAR product, or should I just go with a couple big bags of the one I saw at Walmart yesterday and SHOULD'VE gotten? Think it was maybe Scott's GRUB CONTROL or something.
Also, do I put it on the grass only, or do is it safe for the roses and other garden plants to put on top of the mulch in the beds around the roses themselves? Do I need to put it on the entire yard? Thanks again. :0) Phyl

PS. I am SO angry at myself for agreeing to his spraying the other day...because I was admiring some incredible butterflies yesterday enjoying my echinaceas and asclepias.
They were absolutely gorgeous. And I remember thinking that there weren't as many bumblebees on my lavender yesterday as there usually were. And we have so many pretty little birds (and a hummingbird once in awhile) visiting and either chattering or singing away. Hope they come back somehow if they've gone due to my ignorance.

Phyl, there was a section on channel 3 news Syracuse last night about the huge number of JB's this year. They stated it is one of the highest years ever and might be due to the extremely wet weather last summer. They showed a beech tree completely engulfed in beetles but had 4 beetle traps on it! I am going to put down some grub control soon. Just waiting for a day when rain is expected so it can get watered in.

Thanks for letting me know, Mary. I rarely watch tv. :0) Phyl

Anyone know when to put down milky spore? We're in the middle of a drought so I assume it shouldn't use it on dry, hard ground right now. I think I'm attracting most of the beetles in the neighborhood so I'd like to try milky spore and see if it works to keep the population down. I'd prefer to use milky spore since I'll only have to do that once and it will only kill the JBs.

Athena, if your lawn is hard and dry throughout JB season, there will be few eggs laid there and few grubs to catch and spread the disease this season.

What you buy at the store is the spore form of Milky Spore bacteria. The spore form is impervious to flood, drought and many chemicals. Once applied, the spores wait for the right condition (water from rain) to carry them deeper into the soil where they begin to work on the grubs that ingest them. The ideal time for the application is shortly before the grubs hatch, rain or shine. The next downpour or watering will commence the grub destroying action before cold weather arrives. Beside the lawn, you can also put MS in flower bed and veggie garden. So when you see JBs arrive, start applying MS. MS also controls June beetle and Oriental beetle.

It is important to note that milky spores can lay dormant w/o harm for years, and the spores only germinate inside the grubs that eat them, if you apply MS in this drought, they will just sit there waiting for the right condition to emerge within the grubs, even into non-drought condition of next year and years later. That means you donÂt have to worry about applying MS again for another 15 years or so. ItÂs better than waiting, IMO.