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Re: Japanese Beetles

Obviously, some parts of the country are getting more Japanese Beetles than others!
I'm typing in an article written last July by the president of the local Master Gardeners, John Gissell (local meaning northcentral Alabama).  I thought it was very interesting.
Linda Schaffner
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The Japanese beetles are here in force.  This is the third year for us, the first year they were a curiosity not attacking much more than our one rose bush.  Last year they were here with a vengeance, attacking everything.  This year, we decided to fight it out with them.  What came to mind was to use an Integrated Pest Management (IPM) plan involving hand gathering, traps and chemical control.
 
Hand gathering works well in the early days of infestation.  There are only a few scouts that show up first.  You can easily pick them off and squish them between your fingers.  I use gloves but the purists among you probably prefer bare hands.  Hand gathering is also effective when the masses show up.  If you have heavily infested areas you can gather thousands each morning by simply placing a sheet or some other flat material like black plastic under the tree and shaking it.  The little devils are very sluggish in the morning before the sun warms them up and are easily collected.  You can control your lightly infested plants by hand picking them twice a day, once in the early morning and one or more times during the day.  We use this method on our brambles, muscadines and young fruit trees with good results.
 
Traps work well but there are a couple of things you need to understand about them.  They will bring more beetles into the area. If you are only going to ue one or two traps it may be more of a detriment.  Traps should be placed away from the areas you are trying to protect and spaced around the perimeter of your property (one of the manufacturers states every 200 feet).  Perhaps convincing your neighbor that placing them on their property might be the best strategy if using a few traps.
 
I knew that we had two very attractive targets in our yard.  We have a large flowering plum in the front and a plum tree in the back.  We bought the plum tree, advertised as a peach tree, at a flea market.  The plums are small, and we don't care about them.  These two trees were going to be the battleground.  I placed two traps under each tree soon after we noticed the beetles. Remember that they have tendency to start at the top of trees and work their way down; you may not notice them in the beginning.  The sign of heavy infestation, other than picking them out of your hair (if you have enough hair) after walking near a heavily infested area, is to fill a bag in a day.  Let me tell you, we have a heavy infestation.
 
We haven't had much success with chemical control.  Using a chemical compound, permethrin, recommended by a local farm supply house and an organic compound, pyrethrin, recommended in a garden supply catalog seemed to be mainly ineffective and we've stopped using those methods.  However, I intend to use a chemical, carbaryl, on select areas to kill Neem-oil products early in the season next year.  (I tried this.  Don't bother.  LS)
 
One method mentioned in my research that should be part of the IPM system is birds.  Supposedly, starlings, crackles and crows love to eat these little green monsters and blackbirds, sparrows and robins occasionally snack on them.  Evidently, the ones around our house haven't been told about this delicacy flying all around them I have yet to see a bird eat one of these critters.
 
We're having some success.  The two apple trees near the plum tree were denuded last year.  We're starting to see some beetles on them but nothing like last year.  I'm sure that the 60+ pounds of beetles that we've collected from our trees, plants and weeds have something to do with that.
 
Speaking of weeds, an interesting point is that one of the first places I noticed the beetles was on a fine stand of mature ragweed I had been cultivating.  Thinking that this is a good thing, them eating weeds keeps them from eating something else, I thought we should just leave the ragweed forest there.  However, my lovely wife said something about aesthetics and the strategic landscaping plan as she brought out the loppers and started cutting down all that lovely ragweed.
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