After making a morning walk around my fruit trees zapping aphids with neem oil I rounded the corner to see my knockout rose bushes loaded with Japanese beetles. What is a guy suppose to do? Turn the other cheek. I think not. While I unloaded the half container of neem oil on the roses the beetles were noticeably agitated and several boiled out. I don’t know the outcome for the beetles but dang it felt good. Bill
Gosh, this is one thing I can say I’m glad to have left behind in Indiana. Those horrid, horrid Japanese beetles. Wonder how long it will be until they finally make it out here to S. California. I am sure that is inevitable.
2 Likes
I have a new weapon this year. A new bacteria that kills adult Japanese beetles. A BT strain. You spray it on plants. I have enough for 6 applications.
1 Like
And the name of this new product …
And where to get it…
Because although they have not yet arrived this year I feeeeel the them coming.
Mike
1 Like
It’s expensive price has gone up. i had a coupon code got it for 1/2 price.
I heard an interview on the radio with a university horticulturalist who was testing product and he was impressed, how I found out about it.
He said it worked well. So I thought I would try it.
Hope you never have to deal with the beetles again.
1 Like
Let us know how well it works.
I hate those Japanese Beetles.
1 Like
I started seeing them here a couple days ago. I remember when we didn’t have them here and I would hear people talk about how bad they were. I had no idea until I experienced it first hand. They are the closest thing I have ever seen to a plague.
Awful creatures. Good for you! 
I use the pool during the summer as a big light trap…float a light in it at night and the damned things drown themselves by the hundreds. MUHWAHAAAHAAA!!!
2 Likes
LMAO Brethil! I do the same. hahaha.
Well Patty…I am here to say they have arrived and I hate them. I wack’em with the pool net then feed’em to the chickens! Great Saturday fun!
Also dig those suckers up in winter/spring (Larva as big as my pinky finger) and watch the chickens fling’em all around…more Saturday fun!
3 Likes
Heehee! Great!! I’m glad they make good chicken food - they found their calling at your place!
They are hit and miss here…one year they were thick, one year there was just a few…i believe last year it was pretty light. Knock on wood…but Rose Chafers have been few and far this year…in the past they were thick.
1 Like
They are so thick on my two rose bushes the new ones arriving have to circle a few times to find a runway. I’m going out again shortly with more neem oil mixed and ready to fire. My mars grape is being attacked also but to a lesser degree.
They eat my ripe peaches. They will cover the entire peach until it looks like a wiggling ball of bugs and eat it until all that is left is the pit.
I have a small lawn but it’s a JB’s breeding ground. I’ve tried to treat the lawn with Milky spores. I think where I am, it could be a bit too cold for milky spores to be fully effective.
When I have had enough, I’ve treated my lawn with Grub Ex. These past 2-3 years, the # of JB have been low. In my yard, cherry leaves are their favorite in addition to roses. I’ve seen pics of swamp of them on plants. It made my skin crawls.
Since I don’t have many, I just take a 16 fl oz bottle of water, put some water and dish soap in it. I walk around flicking them off my plants into the bottle. They can’t get back up. Drowned. I should have felt bad about killing them that way. I don’t.
1 Like
OH CRAP. That is NOT GOOD. We were the last bastion of freedom from Japanese Beetles. Crap double crap. I see big green beetles here on occasion, but they’re not the same thing as what we had in Indiana. I used to apply grub control religiously on our large 1/2 acre lawn. It helped some, but of course, if your neighbors don’t, then they just fly over to your yard anyways. Wish I could have chickens.
I spray my roses at the same time I spray my fruit trees. I use Triaz/. Immunox and a sticker. No Japanese beetles. Roses are related to ,many fruits!
I’ve been crunching these fiends between my fingers for the last 2 weeks. I think the wooly aphids, mealy bugs, and leaf hoppers that have been gorging themselves here decided it was time to invite the JB’s to join the party. There are SO many more than in previous years. They turn my grapevines and cherry leaves to lace over night., but they munch on a lot more. As of last night I saw a variety of grasshoppers joining them in the garden.
At this point, I feel like I need to give up and treat plants that I’ve avoided treating this year. One reason I avoid this is because my yard abounds with a variety of reptiles and amphibians and birds. The nightly symphony of frog songs accompanies the light show of the fireflies. Just last night, when I was in the garden a little after midnight, I found a new to me variety of frog sitting in a corn leaf. It was adorable! Just under half inch long, almost translucent with a bright spring green tint. He was almost invisible on that leaf. The daytime offers colorful strutting and posing lizards, and the occasional snake. They calm me and bring me happiness. I feel a responsibility to avoid, as much as possible, harming them.
The pest pressure is now getting too heavy and includes growing numbers of the JB’s and grasshoppers that do major damage quickly. It’s time for me to start at least treating their favorite food sources.
Patty, a map that I was looking at showed that JBs had been found in San Diego since 2009 or before. Maybe their numbers there will stay low enough that you never see one again.
1 Like
Try the product I listed, it is safe for those animals to consume. It is only a bacteria.