I just went out again and there are no more beetles on any of my plants. Palmolive, which smells so good to me, must be a repellent smell that is making the beetles stay away from my plants. I'm so happy! Remember, if you use this yourself, shake the jug very well before you pour the bubbles, otherwise you'll just have water pouring out. You only want the thick bubbles on the beetles. This stuff actually works faster than the Sevin dust i used to use, and obviously this isn't toxic to plants or people.

Do you think you could just spray with your solution?

No, because I don't think you'd get enough bubbles on them to do any good. I pour a thick amount on them, about 2 tablespoons, and it's a thick glob. I think if you sprayed it, it would be tiny bubbles here and there, not getting enough concentration of the soap on them.

But hey, who knows. If you want to do it that way, you can certainly try, but if it doesn't work, do it the way I do, because I know for sure it works perfectly.

I wanted to add that I am not putting the bubbles all over my plants; I'm only pouring it on the beetles that are on the leaves. I'm going out every 15 minutes checking the plants because each plant gets 15 min of watering and I've been checking for beetles each time I go out. The last few times Ive checked there's been no more beetles.

Palmolive has a strong smell, that is attractive to me, but obviously not to them, because they haven't been back on the plants, but i know they're still around because one landed on my arm the last time i was out there.

I just tried this and although I was excited to be rid of the beetles at first, I'm feeling a little worried now. How are you able to pour the bubbles on them without any of the liquid? Getting the bubbles on just the beetles has been very difficult to say the least. The area where I got the beetles with the bubbles has turned a brighter green on my pine tree. I've been trying to rinse any soap residue off of it since then. It seems like a cool trick but I think maybe some plants are more sensitive to the palmolive.

When we were kids in NJ and wanted to earn some spending money, my mother would give us a jar full of soapy water and we would pick/scrape jbs into it. We killed thousands. Didn't make a dent.

Good morning. Allison. To get just the bubbles onto the leaves, I have to repeatedly shake the gallon jug to make the bubbles. It's kind of a pain I guess, but it works and it's not toxic to the environment and bees. Also, I don't have much water in the jug. I use a lot of detergent and a small amount of water, to make those bubbles. Sure, sometimes when I pour some water comes out, so I just reshake it and pour again.

This hasn't damaged my lilacs or forsythias at all. I have no experience with other plants, but I know it hasn't burned my leaves or anything.

You must have a very quick 'draw' with those bubbles and no spray. I find those things are VERY fast when they just drop and fly.

I'd say anything that anyone does to reduce JB on their stuff is worth the effort. The unfortunate fact of the matter is, adult JBs are strong flyers, able to cruise up to a mile at a time, so even if one were to somehow completely eliminate them from their yard, more will just come in. Yet, ilovemy's idea falls exactly in line with something I've been thinking about-some sort of anti-feedent, repellent sort of thing. Maybe she's got it!

Not to belabor my point about using Palmolive, but i just used it a different way, and it was so much easier. I was outside today watering the shrubs, and since I hadn't seen any JB in a few days I figured this year's saga was over. Wrong!

I didn't have my water jug around with the water/Palmolive mix, but the Palmolive bottle was close by, so I just poured a little bit directly on the beetles and they died instantly, and the other JB's quickly flew away. Like I said before, there is no doubt they despise the scent of this dish-washing liquid. Anyway, I then rinsed the shrub off with the hose. So much easier. I'm done making bubbles!

I haven't had any this year, but, good to know, cheaper than "Milky spore".

I'd be interested in knowing if the eggs inside them die when they die, or if they go into the ground and complete the life cycle.

I cut about half of the top of a plastic gallon milk jug off with a sharp knife (a quarter of the entire jug, keeping the handle), fill what's left about half full of water, squirt 2-3 squirts of hand soap into it, and using a small stick knock the beetles into the jug. The soap makes their wings too heavy to fly. Since I don't put much soap in, they struggle around a bit and then die. I usually slosh the soapy water around a few times to help the process along.

I double bag and tie the jug in the bags each week and put it upright in the trash--it's pretty smelly by then. I don't want to take a chance that those eggs are gonna live on.

Anne

I support any and all efforts to reduce the Japanese beetles numbers, cursed things that they are. But again, the problem is that adult beetles are strong flyers. One could literally kill each and every Japanese beetle on their property and still have accomplished essentially nothing. More can and will simply fly in to eat the smorgasbord of tasty treats in your yard. I'm having a heck of a time with them this year, on, of all things, annual plantings-things like Sunpatiens, Colocasia, and others. #(%*&@ things!

My efforts are only to keep my plants alive, not to kill each and every JB in my yard. If I save the leaves on my plants, during these annoying 6 weeks that they hang around, then I have accomplished essentially everything I wanted.

Right--I get that-but what I'm saying is, different J. beetles can and will simply replace the ones you've dispatched. Nevertheless, you are at least slightly reducing the number of offspring, so there's that. But again, you have not really ridden your property of J. beetles. Adults can and do fly for a mile or more at a time when they have reason to. There's no way to prevent this.

I'm not worried about that though. For the last few years now, I know that from July 1st to mid August I have to add killing JB to my watering schedule. It's not a big deal to me because I'm a stay at home mom and I am home to be able to manage it. If I worked out of the home, I would be using Sevin powder and not enjoy doing it at all. I don't worry about the big picture of more beetles coming etc, just because I have enough on my plate to be concerned with. I may next year get beetle traps.

I have dozens of roses, which the J beetles love, as well as a few other things they will also chew on that are not so obvious. The first year I planted the roses and the swarms of beetles came in, I was so depressed that I was ready to dig all the bushes up.

I went out morning, noon, and before dusk to knock dozens of beetles into my soapy water every day. Finally, I got them under control enough so that for the past few years I only go out once a day, either in the early morning or late afternoon, and there are only a few. I start looking for them just before July 4th before they have a chance to multiply too much.

I had never noticed the beetles on my Group 2 clematis, since they were done blooming before the beetles appeared. But I got some Group 3s a month ago, and I've noticed one being nibbled at, but not swarmed. It'll be interesting to see what the beetles do to the ones that will eventually have hundreds of blooms higher than I can reach as they twine through the lilacs.

Now, if I could only figure out how to get rid of the horsetail . . .

Anne

I believe the soap acts as a wetting agent, making the insects unable to breath. Without the soap the water just beads up and falls away.

Mike

I have used dawn dish detergent mixed with water, spray it on and it kills them in their tracks.

No personal experience, but I've heard that dishwashing detergents may cause damage to some plants. I'd try it in small doses until you're confident that it won't harm the plant you're using it on. Apparently for ilovemytrees, there's been no damage to lilac and forsythia.

"there is no doubt they despise the scent of this dish-washing liquid" - if this deterrent effect lasts for more than a few days, that's a significant discovery. But it still seems more likely to me that some of the more conventional insecticides would probably have a longer-lasting deterrent effect.

My casual observations have been that JB numbers have been down in my area for the last 2-3 years, probably due to a couple very cold winters plus dry mid-late summer weather which can cause significant mortality to JB eggs and young larvae. Anne in MI - it's possible that your JB decline is more a result of these factors rather than control efforts in your own yard. I'd agree with Form and Foliage that when JB numbers are high, my best efforts don't seem to put a dent in the onslaught.

I have used my method on: tropical hibiscus, tomato plants, crepe myrtle, redbud, forsythia, japanese azalea, squash, camelia, rose of sharon, multiflora rose, knockout roses, and pink multiflora rambing rose.

arbordave, I agree with your analysis of the effect of our recent weather reducing the numbers, so I should add to my previous comments by saying that without the weather helping out, I would be out twice a day instead of once, and I'd be getting 2 or 3 times the number of JBs. But they definitely have been under control since 2008 when I began knocking them into the soapy water and bundling them into the trash. It helps to have figured out which plants are their favorites at various times, and to start watching for them at the beginning of July.

Anne

WARNING! Oh my god! Don't be a dumbass like me and put straight up Palmolive onto your plant's leaves. Uugh. On the Lilac leaves that I did it, those leaves look severely burnt.

Luckily, only a couple leaves on each lilac got burnt. They're really healthy plants, having already grown 3 feet this year, so I think they're robust enough to handle my dish-washing shenanigans. I also appear to be done with JB's, since I haven't seen any today and I've been outside a lot.

From now on, in the future, I'm going to dilute the Palmolive in water and spray it.

One of the reasons that insecticidal soap-actual products intended for horticulture-are sold and used is that these products are consistent from batch to batch. If you're Mr. Dawn Liquid, all you care about is bottom line, so if supplier X has some chemical cheaper on production run, then in the mix it goes. Meanwhile, the folks making Safers and other such insecticidal soap use exactly the same ingredients each time....and then take another step...they place a label with directions for use on the container!

There is nothing like directions and tested consistency in the product for reliable results.

As an aside, it just takes a little soap to make the water wetter to kill the bugs. I used just a few drops in a gallon to kill aphids when I used to do veggie gardening......... Less soap per gallon than if I were doing the dishes.

Ya know I haven't had problems with them for a while...knock on wood.

I don't think we'll have much problem with them next year. There were much less of them this year than in years past. And this year, we're SEVEN inches below what we should be for rain. It's just awful. So I don't think many JB eggs are going to make it down to the soil this summer. We'll see.