i live in saratoga springs and i killed a few a couple of days ago.

I don't know about cucumber beetles but the japanese beetles are trying to win. I've used Ortho Sevin with little results. I'm going to try Bayer next. They are distroying my roses.

Hi All!

I have several raised beds and one has Canna and Four O'clocks. When the Jap' beetles arrived just over a week ago I began picking them off. At first first there were only 5 or 10. Then last weekend the amounts began to grow slightly.

It was the first real beetle infestation I've had since we moved here 4 years ago. I had a metal Jap' beetle catcher from way back, along with a can of scent. I hung it in the middle of the bed on Monday eve.

On Tuesday morning before leaving for out of town, I went to check to see if it was catching. I couldn't believe it. Without to much exaggeration there must have been 500 in the small 4 X 8 area.

The pungent scent on Tuesdas hot humid morning must have drawn them to the catcher, with a quick stopover to the plants, from all of my neighborhood, and there was only 1 or 2 inside the catcher. Boy what a screw up that was.

Well it's taken me almost a week of picking and drowning to get it under control. I began culling off all the hundreds of leaves they destroyed over the weekend.

I had 1 beautiful Hollyhock in the bed that I left that came up from seed. All that's left are the Maroon blooms. I'm going to leave it to see how resilient a plant can be.

Last year we had a Maple tree that was infested with the small inch caterpillar and I swear I was going to cut the tree down as we couldn't even use the hot-tub because of the droppings.

I'm not that heartless so I'm leaving the Hollyhock as is because I swear the tree has come back stronger than ever. Of course the Holly won't have that chance for next year.

But isn't Nature amazing?

Jim

I was just in my Lowes today and they have a product called Milk Spore that is suppose to kill Japanese beetles once applied for the next 20 years. It's not harmful to pets or other living things. Only catch is you have to wait till next spring to apply it. The price was pretty high too. @# dollars for a can of it....but if it does what it claims it might be worth it.
I've never heard of it....anybody here have any idea if it's any good?

I planted radish seeds along with cucumbers etc. Haven't seen cucumber beetles... But the Japs are TERRIBLE. I don't remember a worse invansion. Roses, Ferns, Holly Hocks, Queen of the Prarie all under attack. I've just set out a trap and been picking them off. Any once else think this is a bumper year ?

Japanese beetles are terrible this year!!

Milky spore is the only thing that really works, but it is not a quick fix. If you apply it to your soil, the little buggers will increase yearly and feast on the JB grubs. Still, it's horribly expensive and will take a few years for them to grow their numbers large enough to affect them. If you plan on being in the same place for a long time I think it's worth the investment.

Your right! I haven't seen a single cucumber beetle this year. I've had problems with them the past 2 years. The cucumber beetles usually hatch between the beginning of June and mid-July too. I do have Japanese beetles, but not in the numbers I had last year. Strange.

japanese beetles are TERRIBLE here in Western Pa. We were mad when they ate our roses and furious when they attacked the wisteria but when they discovered the pole beans and cucumbers we declared war! We bought a beetle trap which was full in no time then we put up the yellow plastic cups with clove oil for cuke beetles and found that the japanese beetles can't stay away from them! Every day they are disgustingly full of japanese beetles with the occasional cuke beetle for good measure..I won't touch them but Randy strains out the dead beetles , puts the cups back in place and waits for more of the nasty things to kill themselves!

I have the beetles also but I also have a pond near my garden. The water is low and the fish are hungry. Yesterday the grandchildren came down and wanted to fish. I grab a few Jap. beetles and hooked them too their hooks. They caught sunfish and bluegills all day. They put the fish back in the pond and had fun. After a while I couldn't find a beetle anywhere. I always hand pick and get rid of the beetle so the scent will not be in the area.Learn to stick you finger nails in them and kill them. Then I throw them in the pond. All of a sudden...... gone!Just hot water in a bucket will kill them. I didn't want the fish to eat soapy water when I first experimented with them eatting them. I have a little damage but not too bad. I did put a Jap.Beetle trap way away from the garden and it filled right up. I don't like the way I see them coming out of everywhere to get to the scent. I got rid of it yesterday and now I will see what will happen.

The beetles started coming at the start of July... and then I went on vacation for two weeks. I got back Saturday. They have destroyed a couple of roses, eaten a kiss me over the garden gate to shreds, done a number on my hibiscus plants... horrible. And that's after drowning lots of them in soapy water before I left. I thought the worst was over. Apparently, they just kept coming and feasted in my absence. I didn't want to trap because I didn't want to draw them from all over the neighborhood. I adhere to the school of thought that the traps draw more than they catch.

We used Milky Spore about five years ago. Trouble is, the neighbors aren't using it, and so since I live in suburbia it was practically useless. What good is it to not have the grubs when your neighbors do, and then their jap beetles just fly in for a feast on your roses? OK, it helps the lawn, but not the plants.

I used sevin on one rose that they were really into when I left, but it seems it didn't do much. I really hate using chemicals.

I found some strange insects on my grapes that are EATING JAPANESE BEETLES!! I read a lot about how to get rid of japanese beetles last year and didn't see anything about insects like that, only about wasps that like peoni flowers.

I took two pictures today of one of them in the act of eating a japanese beetle. Can anyone identify it? They are not spiders, they're bigger and "armored", not soft like spiders. Maybe there is some way to help these insects multiply so they will kill all the beetles?

http://hradani.org/jbeater1.jpg
http://hradani.org/jbeater2.jpg

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:1327295}}

I spotted the first cucumber beetles yesterday, and I'm disapointed, I thought maybe I was going to get away with it this year.

Here's hoping I don't get the wilt :(