Looking 4 organic japanese beetle eradication success stories! Traps?
rubysees
5 years ago
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safe/organic prevention for japanese beetles
Comments (16)"Natural Controls Many kinds of birds such as bobwhites, eastern kingbirds, crows, European starlings, redwinged blackbirds, catbirds, songsparrows, robins and grackles eat Japanese beetles. European starlings, common grackles and crows eat large numbers of grubs in heavily infested areas. When grubs are close to the surface, flocks of starlings may be seen on lawns and pastures digging up grubs with their long, pointed bills. Crows frequently pull up small pieces of turf and scatter them over a lawn as they dig. Moles, shrews and skunks also feed on white grubs. These animals can damage lawns as they search for grubs. Predaceous insects such as wheel bugs, robber flies and praying mantids occasionally feed on adult beetles. A few native wasps and flies also feed on beetle adults or grubs, but they appear to play only a minor part in beetle control. Several parasitic wasps, flies and beetles have been imported from the Orient in an attempt to control the beetle in the United States with only limited success. Milky Spore Disease Milky spore disease is a bacterial disease that kills Japanese beetle grubs. Spores of this bacterium are produced commercially and sold under the names of Doom,, Japidemic, and Milky Spore. The application of milky spore may reduce the numbers of Japanese beetle grubs in lawns but beetles will fly in from other areas to damage plants and crops. Research trials using this approach to reduce grub numbers in turf have given very erratic results. The disease does not kill other types of grubs that damage turf. See ENT-10, Controlling White Grubs for additional information. Collecting Beetles Hand collecting obviously is not the most effective method of control, but can be used to protect valuable plants when beetle activity is relatively low. The presence of beetles on a plant attracts more beetles. When you remove beetles daily by hand from a plant, only about half as many are attracted to that plant compared to those on which beetles are allowed to accumulate. One of the easiest ways to remove beetles from small plants is to shake the plants early in the morning (about 7 a.m.) when temperatures are low and the beetles sluggish. The beetles may be killed by shaking them into a bucket of soapy water. Trapping Beetles In recent years commercial or homemade traps have become a popular means of trying to reduce beetle numbers. Commercially available traps attract the beetles with two types of baits. One mimics the scent of virgin female beetles and is highly attractive to males. The other bait is a sweet-smelling food-type lure that attracts both males and females. This combination is such a powerful and effective attractant that traps can draw in thousands of beetles in a day. Only a portion of the beetles attracted to traps are caught in them. Small number of traps in a home landscape can actually increase Japanese beetle problems rather than reduce them." "Traps may be effective in reducing Japanese beetle problems if used throughout a neighborhood or in open areas well away from valuable plantings or vulnerable crops. In most home landscape situations, using 1 or 2 traps probably will do more harm than good." http://www2.ca.uky.edu/entomology/entfacts/entfactpdf/ef409.pdf H.Kuska comment: I grew about 1000 roses in a no spray garden. I used milkey spore, beneficial nematodes, and birdhouses / bird feeders. I did not eliminate Japanese beetles, but the population did reach an equilibrium that I could live with. Here is a link that might be useful: link to above information...See MoreOrganic solutions for Japanese Beetle control?
Comments (25)Japanese Beetles' rely heavy on scent, and you can use that as a weapon against them. Here's how: Kill the first Japanese beetles you see in your garden. It's important that you catch them early, so keep a close watch. They regularly appear during the second week of June in my area. You may be a few weeks ahead or behind that schedule. When you see a few beetles, get to work: Fill a bucket about half full of water. Add a quarter of a cup of dish soap. (The amount of soap isn't that critical as long as it's present.) Snag beetles with you gloved hands and place them in the bucket. If touching them doesn't appeal to you, you can knock them into the bucket by giving the branch they're on a quick shake. This could take some practice. Leave the beetles in the bucket. They'll die and begin decomposing. The smell will deter other beetles, and the presence of soap will discourage or kill mosquitoes. (The bucket will only smell nasty to beetles.) Set the bucket in an area where you've had bad infestations before, or select a spot that gets good airflow. In doing this, you're letting new beetles know that the area is off limits. Think of it as the beetle equivalent of razor wire. Leave the bucket in place for at least a two to three weeks, adding to it every couple of days. You'll see beetle activity slowly diminish over that time. If you start this procedure too late in spring, it won't work nearly as well -- if at all. _____________ The soapy water works. My method is a little different. I half-way fill a plastic bowl (soft spread margarine or whipped topping) with water and a few drops of dish soap. I also fill a spray bottle with the same solution. Shaking the branches over the bowl often causes the Japanese beetles to escape, so I spray them first with the spray bottle. With soap in their eyes and on their wings they don't immediately fly away, giving you time to knock them into the soapy water solution in the bowl or to pick them off before they fly away. Using several bowls allows you to spread them out increasing the effectiveness of the dead bug scent as a deterrent. http://forums.gardenweb.com/discussions/1710432/organic-solutions-for-japanese-beetle-control hope this helps...I just did this, I hand picked them, added them to boiling hot water and dishwaching liquid, instant death, now hoping the scent will deter others. don't want to use any poison even milk or tobacco spray kills any soft-bodied insect and I love my ladybugs and their larvae :-) Fortunately I have many wild insect-eating birds. this is how Japanese beetle larvae looks like...See MoreEffective protection against Japanese Beetles?
Comments (19)Here is some interesting information about Japanese Beetle control from Prof. Daniel A. Potter of the University of Kentucky Department of Agriculture. I have corresponded with this professor, after finding one of his earlier articles about Japanese Beetles on the web, and he has been kind enough to summarize some research results that will probably be published within the next year. I mentioned to Prof. Potter that I would forward his comments to Gardenweb.com. First, here is my summary: several different "conventional" and organic insecticides and repellents, which are advertised to reduce JB damage to plants, were tested by applying the products to linden tree foliage (one of JB's most favorite foods), "weathering" the treated foliage outdoors for varying time intervals of 1,3,7,14,19 days (to test durability of each product when exposed to the elements including rain), and then offering the treated and "weathered" foliage to JBs. Some of the more effective products, from longest to shortest lasting, were: 1. Synthetic pyrethroids (deltamethrin, bifenthrin, lambda-cyhalothrin, permethrin, and cyfluthrin): all gave effective protection for more than 19 days. (I don't yet have the trade names in these products, or any information about the "inert" ingredients that are mixed with the pyrethroids.) 2. Sevin: protected for about 14 days 3. "Pyola" from Gardens Alive, natural (botanically derived) pyrethrins in a canola oil base, the most effective organic product: protected for about 5 days 4. "Neem-away" from Gardens Alive, neem oil product, protected for about 2 days During the protected time span, JBs will not feed (or will not survive an attempt to feed) even when put right next to the "target" foliage. If, as other research suggests, JBs tend to follow a "feeding trail" marked by the pheromone scent of other JBs, it may be that JBs will not return in force to a protected plant (or garden) for some period of time even after the repellent wears off. Such an after-effect was not tested in the study. Here now is the complete letter from Prof. Potter: ############################################################ Last summer one of my students evaluated a number of "organic" insecticides, as well as known or putative feeding deterrents for repellence or direct control of adult Japanese beetles on linden foliage. We sprayed individual intact linden shoots, allowed the residues to weather outdoors for varying 1, 3, 7, 14, or 19 d, and then harvested those shoots and challenged them in "no-choice tests" with 10 beetles confined with a treated or untreated leaf, or in "choice tests" wherein 10 beetles are offered a treated versus untreated leaf in an arena. We tested five synthetic pyrethroids (active ingredients were deltamethrin, bifenthrin, lambda-cyhalothrin, permethrin, cyfluthrin) and all of them gave at least 19 days residual control from a single application, despite frequent and heavy rains. Sevin gave about 2 wks protection (longer than I would have thought), but did not last as long as the pyrethoids. Among the "homeowner-oriented organic products", the most effective were "Pyola" and "Neem-Away", both from Gardens Alive. Pyola is a combo of natural pyrethrins plus canola oil; it was effective out to 3 days, but not to 7 days post-spray. Pyola also was relatively rain-fast once the residues had dried. Pyola served as a feeding deterrent, and also gave rapid knockdown, although most of the exposed beetles eventually recovered in these lab assays. I think they would dessicate and perish in the field. One day old residues of Neem-Away were highly deterrent and gave good protection, but the effect noticeably was wearing off by 3 days, and the product seemed less rain-fast than Pyola. Surround is a kaolin clay based emulsion that is sprayed on plant material to deter insects. It essentially whitewashes the plant material with a fine film of inert white clay. In our trials, surprisingly it did not deter the beetles from eating the linden foliage. Regardless, I don't think that Surround is well suited to use on roses or other flowering ornamentals because the white coating affects aesthetics. But it does have promise for fruit protection, where the clay residues can be washed from the fruit after harvest. We are also looking at Surround as a borer treatment (i.e., whitewashing tree trunks). Keep in mind that these were one set of experiments on one plant species (linden), so results might differ on other plants. For example, we did not apply them to open rose blooms. But from what we saw, either Pyola or Neem-Away should give short-term residual protection and be effective if re-applied as-needed (every few days) during the period when Japanese beetles are abundant. Of course, neither will protect rose blooms that break bud and open "in between" sprays. Several of the "natural" plant extract-based products that we tested (and that claim efficacy against Japanese beetles) caused severe phytotoxicity (burned the leaves), so growers would be well advised to test such products on one or two plants before treating a whole garden. As I am 100% Research and Teaching, I regret that I'm unable to answer all requests from the many individual gardeners who find me on the Web or telephone. We will be publishing this work in both scientific and popular articles, but probably not until sometime later in 2005. Also, we may be doing additional testing on roses. Feel free to follow up later on. Incidentally, there is a good Fact Sheet on Japanese beetle management that can be downloaded for free from the University of Kentucky Department of Entomology website. Hope that helps. Regards, Dan Potter ############################################################...See MoreJapanese Beetles :(
Comments (66)We were seeing a lot of Japanese beetles in the past. But the last few years, they've been far less numerous for some reason. They're still around, though, that is for sure. I ended up at this site for the ear invasion topic. After doing a web search, it seems that insects crawling into ear canals is more common than one would expect or hope for. I just spent the 4th of July trying to get a creepy-crawly out of my ear canal, an experience I hope never to repeat. It was more disturbing than painful, at least at I was at the park relaxing when something large and dark flew straight at my head and disappeared into my ear within seconds. It was quick and determined. My brother jumped up to help, but it was already out of sight. This isn't the kind of situation one is taught how to deal with. The best course of action available was to jump in the lake. I made sure plenty of water got in there and kept is submersed until I was sure it was dead. Meanwhile, I tried to get it out, but I think I ended up pushing it further in. But it was a comfort just for it no longer to be moving. The lesson I learned is to not directly mess with it, other than wisely killing it as quickly as possible. I'm not so sure about trying to patiently encourage it to leave, as some people online have talked about. It's a disturbing experience to have a bug burrowing into your head. My brother drove me to an urgency care clinic. They couldn't get out and so sent me on to emergency care. The nurse practitioners were of no use, other than causing me pain. They called in the experts who, using a microscope, were able to get it out. It turned out to be a Japanese beetle, a sizeable insect. Not only are they an invasive species but with a hardened spine, specifically designed for burrowing. Having something like that heading in the direction of one's brain is not generally preferred. The medical procedures combined took several hours. It managed to get all the way in, crammed up against my ear drum. In fact, one of it's legs got hooked directly into the ear drum itself. So, I now have a small tear in it, although apparently no damage to my hearing. My method of lake immersion was effective for the immediate problem of getting the thing to stop moving. But experts advise using oil, if possible. If water is all you have, mixing it with salt or hydrogen peroxide can help. Then immediately seek medical attention....See Morerubysees
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