OK, SO I’M A HOMICIDAL MANIAC AT THE MOMENT. What are you busy offing in your version of Trouble in Paradise?
Besides drowning Japanese beetles in bowls of soapy water, I have my eye on some rabbits who seem to be working their way through the place. Wish my neighbor, Herb, who has a knack for trapping every manner of thing, hadn’t gone to Maine for the summer. Herb? Oh, Herb?
With the Japanese beetles, I’m long past the beetle-bag phase of my gardening career. I think that those lures just attract more beetles, and are just plain ugly. I lure them instead to their death-by-drowning by leaving in some appealing plants I wouldn’t normally grow, like a volunteer hollyhock that just sprouted in the vegetable garden.
The beetles really love it, and it seems to keep them out of the nearby climbing rose. Each day I visit the hollyhock and knock a handful more into the soup, as I do at a particular patch of ferns they really love that look like hell, all rusty-brown and tattered, but act as the trap I desire. (What plants are your beetles feasting on, either unfortunate choices or ones like my lone hollyhock that you’re using as a decoy?)
The way to reduce the beetles population, if it’s possible at all, is to reduce the population of grubs they come from, with natural inoculants like nematodes or Milky Spore. We’ve talked about this a little on the Forums, in a thread about moles (who love the grubs that become the beetles…one big chain of garden havoc).
So tell us now, truthfully: What is in your sight lines for getting real, real gone?
Related posts:
- trouble in paradise: galls, beetles & more woes I NTO EVER
- mole patrol MY FRIEND
- my july garden chores JULY START
- beloved conifer: japanese umbrella pine WHEN I CAM
- your 12 favorites from our first 6 months! THE FROGBO
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I WAS SO BLESSED TO visit and document many of the nation’s finest homemade gardens for 15 years for ‘Martha Stewart Living,’ first as garden editor and then as editorial director. The places we were proud to publish included my own upstate New York home. Take a tour of 
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Hi Margaret,
I read about knocking those japanese beetles into the bucket of soapy water, so out I went into the backyard ready to de-bug my new pussy willow shrub. No one told me, however, that as soon as you start knocking, they start flying! They were bumping into my head! I dropped the bucket and ran in the house, deciding to ride them out for the last couple of weeks. At least while on the pussy willow, they are not on my roses or other more precious things!
Laura
Welcome, Laura. Yes, willows are another favorite of the beetles, so they make a good “lure” away from your roses if you get lucky. I hate when they all start flying, too, but am persevering over here, one bucket at a time.
This is the first year I’ve had so many Japanese beetles. I’ve found that nothing gives me greater satisfaction than squishing them between my bare fingers. As for deer, they are always a problem, but I’ve found that the deer sprays are very effective - except in early spring and late autumn when their choices are less abundant. Actually I wish I could squish them between my bare fingers too!
I’m with Phillip. I’ve started to squish them sans garden gloves. The population has exploded and it’s take no prisoners time.
Welcome, Barbara. Sounds like you and Phillip will be very happy together. :)
Is drowning in soapy water supposed to be humane?
@Phillip: I don’t think it’s humane, but for some reason I always include the soap. The bubbles hide the floating bodies.
Good heavens, such catastrophes. We’ve been so dry here in Austin that I’m not sure any insect life is surviving — I’m certainly not seeing much evidence of it. Fortunately we should have four inches of rain in the next few days. On the down side, that will usher in mosquito season.
My solution for furry varmints is cats . . . lots of them. Mice, rats, vole, moles, rabbits, and squirrels don’t bother us a bit. Our six are so tough they even scare the deer away!
my worst nightmare are the beetles. They come earlier and earlier each year. June’s end on the persicaria first. I get one week of perfet raspberry colored blooms then thousands are out there.
Then next into the rose garden after the first bloom of roses and then I don’t see roses again until end of August or even September. I used milky spore diligently every three years on 2 acres of property dropping it by the spoonful every few inches. It never worked. I had bagged preperations spread twice a season, and it didn’t work. I had systemic spraying done and that also didn’t work. I used traps and left them outside my borders, it seemed to do some good but there are too many. I’m calling in the national guard next spring summer season to rid the property some how some way. I gave my daughter an allowance for every beetle dropped into the soapy mess. There were so many she gave up!
My other lovely friend is the woodchuck eating his way through my vegtable garden. Trapping hasn’t worked yet with my Have a Heart. Yellow apples are all still there. I only caught the stray kittens so far. My 10 foot tall tomatoe plants have all been pulled down, the brussel sprouts never sprouted and the kale and swiss chard is mowed down. I do not have rabbits nor do I have deer. I see them coming across from my neighbors yard, pillaging then leaving to go home….
I just returned from a hort./nursery show.
A fellow there touted praying mantis eggs (put outside in bushes - each on hatches 50-250 ). He says they’ll hatch as soon as there are enough warm days & will be 1-1 1/2 inches long when japanese beetles emerge in June. They will then eat the beetles.
Anyone have any experience…?
Welcome, Kittie. It is true that praying mantis will eat beetles of various kinds (and many other things) but hmmm…how to get the balance of beetles to mantis plus the timing right and insure the mantis eats every last “bad” bug? So it sounds theoretically plausible…but I am no animal trainer who manages to get even her cat to perform on command with precision. Will be interested to hear how you do with them.
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