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Japanese beetles are hugely damaging pests. They munch ravenously on foliage leaving only the skeletal remains. During big breakouts of the beasts my entire collection of Hardy Hibiscus can be decimated within weeks. They gobble up Oak and Sweet gum tree leaves like it was candy. They completely cover the Wisteria vine and congregate on the Rosa Rugosa hedge (they are unfortunately attracted by the lovely scent of the flowers) to mate. Needless to say the Japanese beetle makes a hideous sight in the garden and being rid of them is most desirable.
Oh, but I haven’t told you what happens when they mate. The Japanese beetle burrows under the ground, preferably the lawn, and makes a nice home for its family. After mating they lay thousands, possibly millions of eggs that in turn grow into another devastating pest for the lawn, the grub. Yuck!
These grubs are equally destructive in their own right feeding on plant roots and ruining your lawn. If they become too prevalent which is very likely at the rate of eggs deposited by only one beetle let alone several hundred, they cause yellowing and eventually brown spots on the lawn and yes, it kills the grass. And if that's not bad enough grubs are a favorite food for none other than the mole, yet another gardener’s nightmare. Too many grubs attract moles and voles to your yard. This wouldn’t be so bad if they could actually eat all of them so you’d have less Japanese beetles but it never works out that way. Any good the mole does in feasting on the grubs is swiftly negated with the damage they do to your yard. Moles burrow under the grass and in and around flower beds causing heaps of soil to be pushed up making your yard quite messy and unattractive.
Knowing all this can you blame me for wanting to be rid of this atrocious monster insect? But how do we do this? Let me count the ways.
Insecticides are the obvious choice and I’m certain you can find several that work great. Insecticidal soaps, rotenone and pyrethrum can be effective on the adult beetle. But being I like to do things organically so as not to cause more harm than good I’m reticent to tell you to use them. The soaps work well on small insects and mites and are the least toxic to people and therefore can be used around edibles but they can injure some plants. Supposedly they will not kill beneficial insect once dry but what about when wet? That’s what worries me. Your choice entirely.
As for the other two, rotenone I would never use as it is pretty darn toxic to mammals and deadly to fish. Do not ,what ever you do, use it around a Koi pond. The pyrethrum is good at knocking down flying insects like the Japanese beetle but only lasts for 2 or 3 hours after exposure to the sun. Synthetic forms last longer but are also more toxic. I’d just as soon not use them at all.
Any good garden center can direct you to other possibilities if you so choose but I would like you to think twice before leading down that path. Do remember that most insecticides are indiscriminate and will kill anything and everything that crawls, flies and buzzes. That includes pretty butterflies, night flying moths, honeybees and the elusive and sought after Praying Mantis and Ladybug among so many others. I don’t like that idea and I urge you to reconsider especially if you grow vegetables requiring pollinating. You may not think you care but you might if you realize that with all insects gone so too will birds who feed on many bad bugs. Just thought I’d let you know that the circle of life once interrupted may have consequences even we can’t imagine. And with kids and pets roaming the yard I just feel better using nothing remotely toxic.
Going organic doesn’t mean you will get less productive results. It only means you care a bit about your surroundings and want to do right by it. In that vein, we go to the non-toxic Japanese beetle traps available almost anywhere during the growing season. They come in reusable plastic container form or disposable bags both with a funnel-type attachment. These contraptions include two kinds of lures, one to trigger their appetite and a sex hormone (think of it as the Channel #5 of the insect world). These two used in combination attract the bugs and send them into a sexual frenzy that knocks them into the trap which they don’t seem to want to leave. My guess it’s like they’ve stumbled across a brothel but what do I know?
You can collect a boat load of these bugs with these traps but there is the possibility that you may be attracting more to your yard with the lures so don’t put them out unless you have Japanese beetles already munching your leaves. Placing the traps at least 200 feet down-wind of their favorite feeding spots should help. Now this does reduce significantly the beetles who will be able to reproduce but it can only do so much as one sole little bug can produce millions all by itself. The key is to attack it at the source, the grub before it turns into a beetle.
Beneficial or parasitic nematodes work in this way. These are microscopic creatures that bore into the grubs feeding on and killing them. These nematodes can be easily found in garden supply catalogues. They arrive imbedded onto a sponge-like cloth which you immerse in water to wake them up and release them from the cloth. This can then be diluted with more water to be spread throughout your garden with a watering can, especially where you see evidence of grub activity. To simplify things and depending on the size of the area, a hose-end feeder may be better. The nematodes really help reduce numbers of the Japanese Beetle. They multiply on their own and continue for several seasons. I tried it and got far fewer Japanese Beetles the next year.
You can also use Milky spore, Bacillus thuringiensis, which is consumed by the grub and then it attacks the grub from within killing it. This eliminates the grub so the moles don’t have a ready meal waiting for them and then there are less grubs turning into the adult eating machines, the Japanese Beetle. Now if we can only convince all our neighbors to do the same we might not get anymore Japanese beetles at all. Spread the word!
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Author Bio Box: Glory Lennon
 For more garden talk, funny short stories and romantic novel excerpts visit http://www.helium.com/users/32782
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