I have black raspberry bushes and wild grape vines. My neighbor (to the left of my house) also has these two plants. Both my neighbor's and my raspberry bushes and wild grape vines grow at the edge of our property line. The Japanese beetles definitely went crazy for the raspberry bushes. I made a point of picking them off a few times a day. I'm a teacher so I have time to do this during the summer, but others may not. My neighbors on the left made no effort to clear off the Japanese beetles so their raspberry bushes were eaten down. I don't care about the grape vines and wish they would go away. Somehow the Japanese beetles can't manage that for me. I also stuck a bag trap in the middle of my yard away from everything I was growing. My neighbor to the right stuck out two bag traps in the park that borders our property line. It looked ridiculous, but my husband hung the trap bag from a pole in the middle of our yard. The beetles flocked to it and most fell in the bag. I might have shoved a few in the bag too. The only plants I couldn't save were my soy beans. This year the chipmunks are getting to them before Japanese beetles are even out. I am thinking of introducing milky spores in my yard to see if I can help lessen the problem. Because my property borders a park with lots of grass roots for the beetles' grubs to eat, I have my doubts. Maybe I should just dig up my lawn and plant native wildflowers and grasses. Now to convince my husband that's a good idea...

Wow!! I never heard before that the JBs would only be around for a month or less.....usually 2 months or more. Those beetles prefer certain things and tend to focus on those rather than all crops. I saw 8 of those beetles last year and mainly on a lighter colored rose blooms. If I was being indunuated by JBs, I would set up traps about 100 foot upwind of my gardens. The earlier the females can be killed, the better for next year. Milky Spore is an organic solution. I used it once in my daughter's yard and used a bit in mine. I cannot vouch for the results as she has moved away from there. Certainly the last two years here have been 10,000 percent better as I trapped 270,000 in 2003 and killed thousands more. A net would have to be pretty fine to stop them.

I had an army of Japanese Beatles attacking my grape vines. They chew and destroy the leaves. I used Spectracide spray. This thing is great it did not kill them immediately but it took about one hour. Its action is to attack and destroy its nervous system. After they hit with the spray they don't chow on the leaves but they appear like drunk until their demise. My Grape vines did good this season.

I forgot to bookmark the site where I saw it, but one gardener soaked some planks of Red Cedar in water then used the water to spray her roses. Said it worked like a charm. Having checked bottles of various natural bug repellents (for plants or people) I've seen Cedar and other types of essential oils listed so I bought a bottle of Cedar EO to make my own spray. The bottle just arrived today and I have yet to see more than one JB on my property, but when they arrive I will be ready. FYI the gardener said on her site that she thought Cedar oil like the kind you might use to refresh the wood in a Cedar chest or closet inserts would work but my local home improvement stores didn't have them in store, so I just ordered the EO. Figure I can use it for repelling some sort of pest naturally if the JB don't attack.