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Preventative measures wise for Japanese Beetles???

17 years ago

I just saw my first JB last night. Considering I've just purchased some young Japanese Maples, should I be pro-active and use a systemic or simply wait and react to any possible infestation? Can systemic insecticides like Orthene be tolerated well by young trees?

bkfisher

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Comments (6)

myersphcf
17 years ago
you can try traps ...they do work on limited infestations but I think they are expensive unless all your stuff is clustered and you can rely on one or two traps and as I said infestation is small .I would recommend seven ...as far as pesticides are concerned it is relativly safe and is tolerated well by jm's...it must be used repeatedly if it rains and I suggest the liquid spay so your plants don't look like snow trees (white)... And YES if you see one more will likely be not far behind ....the JB's are picky some JM cultivars will be effected others not ...but periodic light spritzing as a preventative ONCE you actually see ther evil beetles will help in catching it before any denudeing takes place . I just noticed them yesterday eating on my rasberries and grapes but just south of here reports are the they have become as plague of biblical proportions this year YIKES!!!!!...David
jonijumpup, Mich Z5
17 years ago
Jap beetles have never bothered my Jap maple, but maybe that is because they go for my plum tree and sassafras first
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Wow! Lot's of great ideas, but most won't work...don't waste your sanity or household funding on traps and chemicals. You have to know the insect's vulnerability and have the willingness to go to town on them a few days a week when they come out to breed...usually in the month of July...the little buggers bee-line straight for anything resembling roses, vining plants and assorted fruiting trees...treating you garden like government cheese. Here's the trick. The Japanese beetle's vulnerabilty is temperature and it's innate tuck & roll defense strategy. When the sun goes down and the temperature drops the beetles do not fly. Simply put your non-dominant hand under the leaf of the plant and then lightly tap the leaf with the other and they will fall directly into your palm...they don't bite, sting or scratch...no worries. You can humanely crush them between your digits or if you're a wimp you can put them in a jar at the end of your raiding mission...cap the jar and let the sun bake them the next day...empty jar of baked beetles in the trash, rinse and repeat the following evening. I guarantee they will get the hint and you can have your garden back.
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This has been the same discussion for over a decade on here. I have tried, rejected and retried items dozens of times. When you are surronded by hundreds of acres of woods (as most who live in rural maine are) spraying your little patch of yard isnt all that effective) I too for years did the soap can, but frankly after one weekend where my family and friends helped me pick over 10k JBs and I finally relized its impossible to really put a dent in them, Ive given up. There are members here that DO spray and they were pretty much forced away from the Forums at that time. Weve had some back and forth battles here, with sadly knowledge people have left becuase of it. There is nothing you can do except spray with heavily toxic substances every 2-3 days to keep a rose garden in bloom. I fail to see where putting cheesecloth down would help, you couldnt see anything under them! I choose not to spray (other then remove infastations early in the season (red asian beetles and rose slugs, pre flower forming invasive, and 1-2 applications is enough to knock them out) so I have forgone repeating roses. I think its the best choice all around. I still have a couple and every once in awhile will get a small fall rose flush. When I first started (more north from here and a decade and half ago) growing roses, the season wasnt as bad, you could basically pick the JBS off, but now, it is worse, I can tell, you cannot keep up on a rose garden without spraying, especially if you have roses in any numbers
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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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If you kill thousands this year, you are preventing millions that would be hatched in a few years..10 females laying 40 eggs each this year can result in 80,000 in two years and so on. You may kill the ones from the neighborhood, but you also kill the ones you have. Several years ago I killed thousands (20 of the beetle bags in 5 days) and have seen few each year since. I use a coffee can with a bait and soapy water in it to catch them, but next year will try the trap above. Do they come to it during the day?
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myersphcf
17 years ago
this is true ..in 'plague' situations they go from one 'soft" leaf tree /plant to another .....So far the only jm's I've found them on are ( knock on wood) japanese sunshine ...edgewood golden dissectum, and abagaail rose but I've been spraying all as a protection... since I've had to spray about everything else ..now they seem to love my convoluted almond and my pa pas ...as i said all larger soft leafed stuff and yes they did a job on my plums and cherries too...Oh if you use seven and it rains it is useless so it's best if you buy spreader sticker and mix it with it ...then it should withstand all but severe downpours david
dsb_22
17 years ago
I've sprayed my small, container JMs with a Bayer insect spray. The couple of japanese beetles that I've found on one of my trees (an orangeola) were very sluggish if not half-dead. It didn't look like they'd done any damage. This year doesn't seem to be nearly as bad as last, when we had massive orgies of the awful things. And last year they definitely preferred my roses to the jms. But in any case, I wouldn't do the trap thing. From what I've read, that just attracts more of them to your yard. What you really want is for a neighbor to have a trap :-).
jerry_br
17 years ago
I would be careful about using seven. I lightly sprayed my Aka Shitatsu sawa about a week ago, tonight when I went out and looked it, there is a lot of leaves that are dead / dying. They are curling and turning brown. I hope I have not killed it.

Anyone else ever have this experience?
myersphcf
17 years ago
Are you sure you used seven and didn't pick up the round up bottle or maybe used a sprayer that wasn't cleaned properly or was it from a bottle ....I have sprayed seven on my aka several times ...no problema...and on bushes and trees too numerous to name and ...no problema ...It may just be a coincidence...My nightmare every time I spray chemicals ( which BTW I hate doing but have to with an orchard grapes etc that are worthless unless i do ) of any type is spacing out and using a hebacide uinstead of a pesticide ...YIKES I always check about 6 times ....may my nightmare NEVER come true ;>) David

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