I have a live and let live attitude toward insects and other creepy crawly things. We all have to make a living, so I am willing to share to a point. Have a snack, nibble around the edges…I am OK with that. But, start destroying my stuff or come into my house - we have a problem.My occasional posts on this blog are typically headier topics, but there is nothing like a hoard of Japanese Beetles to get the synapses firing.
We have had a few Japanese Beetles in years past and they particularly like the green bean plants in my garden. In years past, they have not been an issue. This year; however, they are ransacking my green beans to the point that if I did not do something fast they would kill the plants. This year they are attacking beyond a little “lacing” here and there – they are methodically stripping the leaves down to the veins.
I saw no other choice other than to approach the buggers in a strategic and aggressive fashion. A multi-prong war plan was needed and needed quickly. This is what I am doing and if you have additional ideas or things that have worked for you, please share.
1. Spectracide Bag-A-Bug Japanese Beetle Trap
The trap has a disc of scented material that the beetles are attracted to. The beetle land on the lure and fall in the bag. The scented discs are not classified non-toxic, but the material
is not being sprayed on the plants and it is not in the confines of your home – so I am relatively OK with it. I do not use spray pesticides or non-organic fertilizers, so I am pretty hesitant when it comes to these types of solutions. But desperate times call for desperate measures and for the reasons listed above I decided to go ahead and use them. This approach is not a solution in and of itself, but I have one trap on either end of the garden and they have been trapping 100-200 beetles a day per trap as long as I change the bags every other day or so.2. In the mornings and evenings when the beetles are lethargic a garden blogger suggested knocking the beetles into a bucket with water and dish soap. This seems to be helping and it is pretty easy to do. In the morning in particular they fall right into the bucket by knocking them off of the plant leaves and they drown right away.
3. Another garden blog suggest spraying a mixture of garlic powder and cayenne pepper powder dissolved in water on the plants the beetles are attacking. I just did this tonight, so I will let you know if it helps. 8/1/2011 update - this seems to be working. There were still a few beetles on the green bean plants this morning, but only a handful not the dozens and dozens of previous mornings.
4. Japanese Beetles do not like garlic (hence the solution above), so a number of garden bloggers recommend planting garlic around the perimeter of the plants the beetles most love – they love green bean plants, roses, they eat my zucchini plants a bit and there are several other plants they like. It is too late to use planting garlic as part of my solution this year, but I am definitely going to plant it next year.
5. Japanese Beetles like and tend to breed in piles of dead wood. We had a couple of piles of logs not fit to bring indoors that we burn outside in the fire pit in the fall. Some of that wood was on the nappy side so I got rid of it.
6. Japanese Beetles send scouts the beginning of June or so to survey for feeding grounds. A number of garden bloggers recommend being very vigilant during this period in terms of having your garlic planted and going, spraying the plants the beetles most love with the garlic and Cheyenne pepper solution and knocking the beetles in to soapy water and leaving the bucket with the dead beetles in out in the middle of the plants Japanese Beetles tend to like. These actions will cause the scouts to look for feeding grounds other than your garden. I did not know this beetle behavior, so will have to be on top of this in June next year.
7. 8/1/2011 Update - a friend reported that she had a problem with Japanese Beetles in past years and she sprayed water with dish soap on the affected plants and it worked. I think I am going to stick with the garlic/pepper mixture more one more evening, then try the soapy water approach. 8/3/2011 Update - I have tried spraying the plants with soapy water and I think it works. Seems to have the same level of effectiveness as the garlic/cayenne mixture. The nice thing about the soapy water mixture is that it is a little easier to deal will than the garlic/cayenne.
Any other ideas or things that have worked for you please let me know. I am willing to try it all. The only thing that is off the table are spray pesticides as if I am going to all of the trouble to garden in order not to eat pesticide coated vegetables, using toxic spray pesticides is fairly pointless.
Whatever it takes, these darn beetles are mine!
