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Post by Use Less on Jul 18, 2019 22:41:36 GMT
I'm battling Japanese beetles. I'm not using any traps, since I've heard they just draw more bugs. I'm hand-picking and dropping in soapy water. I'm looking into milky spore for another year.
What's puzzling is that they seem to be moving around the garden to different plants. First it was rhubarb and strawberry plants, then a mock orange bush, now the ostrich ferns. They're making a mess of some leaves, but not denuding anything. Except for the mock orange, the other things are declining with the heat, anyway. Is this what you've seen? Thanks.
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Post by Maura on Jul 18, 2019 23:18:10 GMT
Use the traps. Most people make the mistake of putting the traps in the garden. The traps attract the beetles and make things worse. Put the traps out side of the garden. There should be instructions. The traps will lure the beetles out of your garden.
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Post by solargeek on Jul 19, 2019 1:45:15 GMT
Use Less, Mine are also moving around even farther away to my hydrangeas! I use 'Colorado Beetle Killer with Spinosad" on all vegetables and boy, it stops them dead. (haha pun intended!)
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Post by grillbilly on Jul 19, 2019 11:03:51 GMT
We used traps one year and did indeed pull every one of them in for miles around. They laid their eggs in the soil and left us half an acre of bare ground the next spring. Thankfully the grubs do not eat tree roots too.
I ended up putting down milky spore (once) and we've had some but not a ton of them since. I've also worked on improving the nutrient levels in my soil to help my plants become less palatable to them.
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Post by shin on Jul 19, 2019 12:34:19 GMT
I think I'm going to try that spinosad stuff. A lot of my poor sunflowers are pretty ragged. I think the culprits are some red beetles that look like lily leaf beetles, but they're not eating the lilies, they're eating the sunflowers.
The neem oil has worked to a degree, but it seems I have to keep on applying it regularly for it to keep on working, I'd like to not have to spray it all the time.
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Post by conservatvhippy on Jul 19, 2019 15:09:47 GMT
I learned my lesson on traps a few years ago. I bought and used them and I ended up with every JP in the county (or it seemed). I asked my neighbors what his situation was, he said he didn't have any.
I did buy my neighbor one for his birthday the next year.
They start on things and I will use a bit of seven on non productive plants (weeds). If you catch it early, you can minimize the impact.
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Post by willowgirl on Jul 21, 2019 11:02:40 GMT
We used traps and have been happy with the amount of beetles they've caught! I think our plants would have been decimated otherwise. As it is, there is minor leaf damage on my morning glory vines and one of the apple trees, but everything else looks good. I don't know if the traps are pulling in bugs who wouldn't have found us anyway, but at least they're catching them!
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Post by Ken on Jul 22, 2019 14:58:01 GMT
We use the traps and feed them to the chickens.
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Post by Use Less on Jul 30, 2019 21:33:42 GMT
I had a number of errands to do Monday, and one took me right past Country Max, so I bought a beetle trap. So of course, I handpicked 6 or 7 this morning, and maybe 10 just now. I'm not putting that trap out if I don't see the them in similar numbers as when I started this post
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Post by solargeek on Jul 30, 2019 21:56:00 GMT
Mine are out of control. Orchard and garden.
And something is eating circle holes in my brassicas at night.
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Post by feather on Jul 30, 2019 22:33:16 GMT
solargeek, Hm, you're not hanging them on the line to dry are you? My kale is taking a little bit of a beating but when I wash it, there are some green worms, so I'm thinking it is the green worms.
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Post by Use Less on Jul 31, 2019 22:08:49 GMT
And then there were two That's all I found this afternoon. Doesn't mean there won't be a bunch more hatch. I may set the trap out somewhere before I go away later this month.
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Post by vickilynn on Jul 31, 2019 22:33:49 GMT
And something is eating circle holes in my brassicas at night. Cabbage worms? I had to spray Bt because of them.
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Post by horseyrider on Aug 14, 2019 13:18:15 GMT
I tried the traps a few years back. First year I filled the traps in a week or so. Next year the bags provided filled in a day. I attached kitchen trash bags to the trap, and emptied those in a week or so. The old Hefty bags worked best; they were less likely to eat through them, or tear from the weight.
But they did no good for my plants.
They simply brought the beetles out of the soybean fields all around me to my place. And yes, they go through certain plants and totally denude them, skeletonizing the leaves. They usually go after my Honeycrisp apple and grapes, but also attack other apples and a pussy willow bush, go figure. My raspberries are a mess now, and I've lost them for this year due to incessant rains damaging the roots, and the darn beetles. I normally use Pyganic on anything the beetles want to bother. They've munched my asparagus and hollyhocks too, but not with the enthusiasm they've shown on the apples and raspberries.
How can such a pretty bug be so darned destructive???
And yes, I gave up the traps some years back. It actually seems to be a bit better than when I used them.
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