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?
I’m with you Margaret.. the Japanese Beetles are just out of control. Shouldn’t they be gone by now?! I’ve had my ‘beetle soup’ going for some time. They’ve practically destroyed my Wisteria (it looks like leafy lace) and have even taken to some Geraniums. Short of the ‘shake into soap’ method, I’m not sure what else to do. Right now, I’m just trying to keep them off my roses and that alone is a struggle! Death to the Japanese Beetle!
I used Milky Spore treatment consistently for several years, and my Japanese Beetle population is much reduced. And I agree — the drowning in soapy water is the most effective method. I’m firmly convinced that traps just pull in all your neighbors beetles — which then have a good munch before settling down in the yellow bag.
If you want a sacrificial plant as a lure, the beetles love soy beans. Must remind them of home….
I’ve become very ambivalent about deer. Yes, they are absolutely lovely, and very peaceful to watch, but must they eat anything and everything not fenced?? We live adjacent to 55 acres of woods. You’d think they could find something to eat besides ALL the day lilies and most of the hostas!
I’m trying to work myself up to drown some tomato hornworms. I spotted one last night as I wandered through the garden after being away for a week. NASTY!!! I can at least use the 105 degree weather as an excuse for being squeamish, right?
I use an organic spray made by Espoma to kill an occasional Japanese beetle.
I am having the worst aphid problem on my nasturtiums. The Espoma spray is supposed to work on aphids as well, which it does. But then more aphids arrive. I think I am in need of some lady bugs, because I am having to spray so much that the leaves have stains from the spray.
@Kenn: Mine seem to think they are staying indefinitely, too. No signs of departure (except into the soapy drink).
@Amy: Was just talking re: soybeans and how they are also a great aphid magnet last night w/garden pals at dinner (nice topic of dinner conversation, huh?). As for deer, I invested in an 8-foot wire fence maybe 8 or 9 years ago, thank goodness. I don’t think anything but serious fencing is an antidote to deer.
@Melinda: OK, I will confess: They freak me out, too. My sister and my niece routinely go hunting for theirs and drown them, but I always get squeamish. So prehistoric, so giant!
@Fern: With the aphids, I just hose things down with the sprayer nozzle over and over and over. Usually I win, but sometimes (like on a honeysuckle last year)…forget it.
Nothing freaking me out this side of the world at the moment as its winter and my garden is safe except for the possums that like to visit and check out if signs of spring growth are on their way so the can start oa nibble on!
They are protected so you cannot kill them or catch and remove them and to tell the truth – they are so cute I couldn’t hurt them at all but I wish my two dogs could scare them off! Nuh!
I don’t have Japanese Beatles here (knock on wood) but am overrun with snails and pillbugs which are also being given a soapy bath. Why are snails and pillbugs soooooo prolific, while lady bugs and other good guys are few and far between?
Margaret, I know you are a proponent of mulching, but because of these two fiends I tend to shy away from mulching. Any thoughts?
Welcome, Melinda, from the quiet side of “town” where nobody’s munching anything right now. Haven’t dealt w/possum damage, though have them here for sure. Visit again soon.
@Tammy: So your “soup” has different ingredients? Sounds very savory. As for mulching, I use fine-textured composted stable bedding (bits of wood somewhere between shavings and small chips that have been used in stalls and then mucked out and aged). I don’t think I have any more slugs than without, and definitely have healthier soil, fewer weeds, more moisture retention. I think someday I will remember to put out traps of beer for the slugs, too…good thing you reminded me.
We’ve had “The Beetle Bucket of Doom” going for almost two months at this point, mostly for the Japanese beetles, but also for the Green June beetles. I’m planning to start milky spore this fall. We used to use the beetle traps, but my 80-something gardening neighbor talked me out of them a couple of years ago. And she’s right, I don’t hand pick any more without the traps than I did when we used them.
I followed your suggestion Margaret and went out each Saturday and Sunday morning (I am a ‘weekender’) with a bucket of soapy water to drown the Japanese Beetles; never ending task. I used the traps last year and this year I didn’t. The fact is that the beetles love my rosa rugosa bushes; what can I say, except that I love them as well. We are in this to the death!
Amy, my propery also ajoins a large wooded track, but the deer used to stop by for breakfast and lunch on a regular basis. For the past two years, I’ve not had a visitor although they come right up to the edge and look longingly at my daylilies and hosta. My defense is Milorganite fertilizer; I don’t own stock in this company but I should get some as I buy enough of it. I broadcast it every two weeks; some folks don’t like the aroma, maybe, I’ve just gotten used to it. Check it out and see if you can as well..
I am in Australia so our possums are different to yours. We have two species that visit – ringtails and brushtails. Both , sadly love to eat and their fav in my garden is roses! I have over 60 rose bushes here and they love to get the climbers the most – easy. So, as its winter they are checking out if my birches are sprouting – then it will be on ! If only I could get those dogs to chase them out but …… they are spoilt .LOL
I knock the Japanese beetles into the soapy water too – I find it especially rewarding when they’re too busy you-know-whatting to notice me sneaking up & then plop! into the drink… My kids used to enjoy stomping on the hornworms (gross, eh?), a good additional use of the mud boots – but they just do so much damage, so quickly (the hornworms, not – usually – the kids) that I’ve taken to using Dipel (only pesticide-ish product I use) on the tomatoes/peppers and have gotten a lot more to harvest since…
Welcome, Christina. Is THAT what he beetles are doing piled on top of each other all the time? :) Oh, my. Yes, Dipel is one of the great inventions. Good tip! Good for all caterpillar issues.
@Bob: Milorganite is another good idea, thanks for mentioning. It does smell funky, but hey, it seems to repel unwanted herbivores like deer. Thanks.
@Melinda: I will go look up your possums vs. ours. So interesting, isn’t it? And 60 rose bushes…wow. You would be inundated with Japanese beetles were you here with those 60 right now.
We live in what was a woods and still wants to be. The homesteaders hunted the deer, but almost no one has as our 55 square mile island (roughly twice the size of Manhattan) has reached a population of 4500. There are so many deer now that I only garden on our second story decks in huge pots. The deer are so voracious, eating almost everything they aren’t supposed to eat, that I sometimes fantasize they’ll find their way onto the decks – can deer fly?
@islandexile: yes. they can. face it.
I feel the same way about the deer.
They are keeping me from my usual ardor and intimacy of my gardens. I’m even letting my vegetable gardens run amouk with weeds this year. Where I garden, in Columbia County,
Deer=Ticks.
I had lymes again this year and though I love my 100 acres laden with patches of my lovely gardens, I am staying away this year.
How do you all deal with the ticks?
Oh for a close glimpse of a Japanese Beetle—-this year I am walking my dirt roads and sticking closer to the concrete of Hudson.
@Deborah: So far no Lyme here, but have had plenty of short-term bites before finding them (and ticks running around on me not yet embedded). I keep my (cheap) and handy Tick Twister at my side.
I have not seen a Japanese beetle here in Austin yet, but the agave snout-nosed weevil has given me fits in recent months. Evil weevils!
I am trying to hunt down every last japanese beetle ( love to crush ‘em – what can I say) however, the constant screaming, shrieking noise of what must be hundreds of thousands of crickets is too much! Where did they come from all of a sudden? Five adjoining acres of wood’s were purchased and mowed down ;( perhaps they have taken over since nothing has yet to be built. Any thoughts on cricketocide?
Margaret, I get this black beetle called a hibiscus beetle. I am not sure they do much to the roses.
What do those Japanese beetles do damage wise?
I live in Provence where there is a major snail infestation. Every plant everywhere is covered with small white snails. Snail poison works pretty well for a short time but I am out every morning picking them off my plants, putting them in a plastic bag which I toss in the garbage. I would need a gallon sized container of beer or salt to even make a dent in the snail population. I am thinking of taking a blow torch out when we cut back a lot of plants and torching the earth around everything that I can.
But back to the rabbits you mentioned ever so briefly…what do you do about them? Trap them and then what? They had a tasty treat of my beautiful baby beet greens yesterday.
@Pam: Weevils are really destructive…we have black vine weevil and Taxus weevil in the region, and they are voracious.
@Andrea: I have not taken to cricket-ocide, but do know friends who have tired of all the munching (and clamor).
@Melinda: Apparently (according to Ohio State U.) Japanese beetles are one of the most major of landscape pests, affecting more than 300 plants and also turf in a big way. Have a read.
@Linda: I like the extreme violence of your proposed approach. Sounds very satisfying: a blow torch!
@Anna: Do you like hassenpfeffer? (Actually, I am a vegetarian, but I don’t think local farmers in my town who trap rabbits and woodchucks keep them as pets or anything.) Their populations are very cyclical; this is a bad year after a relatively mild winter and so they are out of control. The coyotes are happy about it, and I am not.
Thankfully, I haven’t had very many pests this year. Shhh…should I even be saying that?…However, I did find the BIGGEST UGLIEST hornworm on one of my Yellow Pear heirloom tomato plants, but you would have been proud of me – I plucked that ugly sucker right off and did a dance all over him!! I’m sure if anyone saw me they would have thought there was some kind of maniac in the yard – homicidal for sure.
Ahh, rabbits. My garden was eaten down to a nub a few weeks ago. Yesterday, my daughter was back there and saw a full-sized bunny squeeze its way thru our inch by two-inch wire mesh fencing. Hard to believe…how’d he get his head thru there is what I’d like to know.
So…after building the fence seven feet high to deter the deer (which took us about four years), we’re now buying even smaller mesh and putting that up. I call it “defensive gardening” (I also call it a pain.)
My husband tells me he read about someone who set up a BB gun in the garden with a camera attached to his computer. He then shoots at invaders remotely. (Doesn’t kill them…just sends them scattering for the hills.)
I am, sadly, sympathetic.
By the way…it has been a bad Japanese beetle season…but what’s worse is that apparently in three or so years, it’s the 17-year locusts’ turn to eat everything in sight.
Can’t wait.
Welcome, Louise. So you are besieged on all fronts…and the locusts are coming. I am heading under the bed now, I think. Eek.
After gardening in New York for 25 years I am making over a garden in my new home in CT. So many Japanese beetles! I’ve never seen anything like it. In NY I applied milky spore a couple years in a row about a decade ago and that was pretty much the end of my beetle problem. I’m hoping I’ll have the same luck in the new location. As for hornworms, I’ll just add that if they already have little white eggs adhered to their backs, they are doomed anyway because when the wasp eggs hatch, those worms are lunch! When you kill a hornworm with wasp eggs on it, you are also killing the parasite that will protect your garden from future hornworms. Better to relocate the hornworm to a distant part of the yard and let nature take its course. On the other hand, if no eggs are present, then stomp away!
Thanks, Nancy. Good reminder to look for the parasitic braconid wasp eggs and not destroy them. I found a photo from Univ of MN in case people haven’t seen this before. (Scroll down a bit once you get there.)
I also lve to get a bunch of them having an orgy- I use the soapy water too.
Do you know what the name is of the beautiful perrenial blooming now- very old fashioned- single bloom- almost like a giant rose of sharon flower- the greens are almost bush like- but dies down completely in the winter. The flowers are enormous and the colors – hot pink and red – is spectacular.I’d love to buy more but can’t remember the name and they are a little hard to find.
PS I cant elieve that horrible looking hornworm comes from hummingbird moths- I have so many of those moths right now. That must be why my potatoe that Ive been growing in a tire has been dessimated- in what seems like overnight!
@Kass: I wonder if the perennial you’re thinking of is a Hibiscus? Ask at your garden center…but first see if it looks anything like this.
Thank you so much Margaret- its the swamp rose mallow- so beautiful- I always think I need to plant more- they arent easy to find
Rabbits and chipmunks in record numbers thanks to an extended hunting season on coyote last year. Hunters took 600 coyotes on Cape Cod according to the local paper. One man killed 14 in our town alone. The house cats may be safer this year, but the hostas are not. Our neighbor terminates the visiting rabbits with a pellet gun. So, we encourage our dog to chase the rabbits into his yard!
I have a plant ID question too. Driving to work down the West Side Highway in NYC there is a public garden that admirably seems to always be in bloom all summer long. Right now among other floral offerings, there are several lilac-sized shrubs covered in pink pyramid shaped blossoms (much like lilacs, in fact). What shrub blooms like that in August?
Also, I forgot to mention in my earlier post that I have spent a couple of sessions peeling scale from the magnolia tree in my yard in CT. Magnolias are new to me. I wonder if I should be spraying them with horticultural oil or something to prevent scale, and when?
@Donna: And I thought the Cape was a restful, bucolic spot for quiet vacationing. Nope, it’s ‘Call of the Wild’ combined with a shoot-em-up Western! I have to say I love to hear the young coyote broods all singing across the road from me.
@Nancy: I know the garden you are talking about. I suspect those are crape myrtles. As for your magnolia scale, safest route will be horticultural oil application coming up pretty soon (see info from Ohio State as a reference).
A recent arrival in Ottawa is the emerald ash borer. The city has ‘innoculated’ dozens of ash, but they’re so persistent.
@Andrew: And you may recall what other types of borers did to 2 of my crabapples this year. RIP. Uh-oh, now my blood is starting to boil again.
Very strange, but I haven’t seen any Japanese Beetles this year, and this is Baltimore where we have every pest known to man.(Tomorrow the garden will probably be overrun because I just said that).
However, this is the first year my phlox have been so decimated by what appears to be a red-orange beetle that starts out looking like an aphid that runs around at warp speed, then grows to the size of a small lightning bug with tall mosquito legs. NOTHING kills it. I’ve tried so much stuff on it its a wonder I haven’t expired.
Can someone help me please?????
Margaret,
The wild east perhaps but the 600 is the percent increase in coyotes killed on the cape this year not the number of coyotes. My mistake. “Across Cape Cod, coyote killings also jumped, with 144 pelts checked in this year compared to 86 during the 2006-07 season.” The details are here.
@Joyce: Is it the phlox plant bug?
For me it is the gnats and mosquitos that drive me mad, especially the former whose little bites cause a rather uncomfortably intense sensation.
It’s totally bonkers–in order for me to spend even five minutes in my New York City garden, I have to seriously douse myself in deep woods Off! Who’d have guessed NYC could be so wild?
I’ve got the bugs all right but it’s the squirrels and chipmunks that make me homicidal! The dirty little things eat squash and pumpkin blossoms… Grrr!!! I have the must gorgeous pumpkin vine with tons of blossoms but nary a fruit, just a bunch of bitten off stems. Of course, now it’s too late in the season anyhow. And they also eat tomatoes. Who knew? I’m totally for gun control but give me an air rifle and my neighbors consent (those pesky neighbors!) and I would happily go hunting. I’m really at the brink.
Margaret, they are indeed the phlox plant bugs!!!!! Thank you so much for the ID.
What will eliminate them?
Joyce again here — I’ve learned a lot about Phlox Plant bugs in the last day or so…
They have 2 generations per summer (joy), and they are difficult to get rid of. I will be off to the store soon to look for a systemic poison.
Also learned that the reason there aren’t Japanese Beetles here this year is last year’s drought.
Squirrels are always an issue with the vegetable garden, but squirrel netting does the trick.
Other then that, I have, what I believe, is the world’s smartest gopher trenching my lawn. I, truly believe, it is the same gopher from the Caddyshack movie. I’m thinking plastic explosives next.
@Joyce: Good info that drought reduces beetle populations. Interesting.
@Turling: Now we’re talkin’! Love your zeal…but the plastic explosives failed here against those damn large rodents. I am thinking heat-seeking missiles next; contracting with the military for some appropriate devices. I have woodchucks, not gophers per se, but the experience is very Caddyshack, yes.
I confess; I’m a beetle-crusher too, from a long line of pest destroyers. Melinda, my father once attacked the tomato hornworms with a blow torch. I myself have trapped as many as five woodchucks in one season, but didn’t succeed in getting rid of them until I discovered industrial-strength smoke bombs. For bigger pests, nothing beats predators: cats will take care of the squirrel population, dogs deter woodchucks, and coyotes keep down the deer, at least in my neighborhood.
Two questions about milky spore–when should it be applied? And what does one do about stinkbugs?–every year they invade my snapdragons.
@ nancy (and margaret)
that west side highway garden is at the 79th street entrance, which i use most every weekend on my way to the taconic…it is cared for by the same people, volunteers, who maintain a great garden in riverside park, jujst north of there…if you are city bound one weekend, do have a looksee
re japanese bettle eradication, i have looked at the roots of certain brownish areas of my lawn for grubs and have found none, yet my edamame (which wasn’t intended as a decoy) betrays their presence…while i do shake and drown, i am looking for something a little more systematic…
should i put nematodes and milky spore down just in and around the garden (500 sq ft) or do i have to apply to lawn (a couple of acres, some parts more heavily tended than others)…i was thinking the latter since i read that beetles like to lay their eggs in turf, but if anyone knows better please chime in
Thanks, Margaret for the info about Crape Myrtles (sigh) Guess I won’t be growing any of those on a hill in northern CT! Thanks to Chris, too for info about that garden. Funny, I used to live in that neighborhood back in the Dark Ages, until I moved to the burbs so I could garden.
And thanks, Margaret, for your great photos of frogs. They’re so beautiful!
Welcome, Chris. I used to know some of the people who gardened that plot, but not anymore. Thanks for the info. As for grub-fighting, I got my nematodes to fight grubs at Gardens Alive (apply above 55 degrees, the info says; they won’t mail them to you unless it’s the right time) and as for Milky Spore, they have some thoughts about it there, too. I have heard good things and then “so-what” things about Milky Spore, so I am not certain what helped me reduce my grub situation (I used both). A very interesting topic, really (if it weren’t so gross).