Notes:
-Do not use soapy water, as that is very bad for fish.
-This beetle control method is best performed while the wife is not home. Please, nobody tell her what I did with her food processor.
I have a similar fate for my jap beetles. I have a fairly large flock of free range chickens (25-30) that roam all my property. I sometimes spray soapy water on my bettle filled trees. It doesn’t really kill them very well but usually disorients them enough that they fall to the ground…at which point they are immediately snapped up by my chickens! In fact, my chickens often follow me from tree to tree so they can enjoy the tasty treats! It adds great variety and protein to their diet. I’ve never seen the slightest ill effect from the soapy water. In fact, I first discovered this when I was spraying seven dust liquid and noticed my chickens were lapping up the dead bugs. That kind of concerned me that they were eating bugs that were obviously exposed to the insecticide, but they never seemed to be the least bit affected by that either. But just to be safe, I switched to soapy water.
I have heard that chickens really like them. The permies like to talk about growing grape vines over the chicken coup, and then giving them a shake every morning to provide the chickens with a beetle snack.
Beautiful tank, Tony. How big is your pleco? I swear, mine isn’t nearly as yellow as my poor pictures make it out to be, but it is a natural-style planted tank, so it’s not exactly crystal clear, either.
The pleco is 12 inches long and about 7 yrs old. He ate all the algaes and all the bits sank down the bottom. The tank is 180 gallons so all the fish had plenty of room to grow and roam. I also got an enclosed bucket filtering system under the stand that kept the water clean. I changed the water every 3 months or so.
still laughing!
Come on, just bugs, I heard lobster is a big bug