Son had a handful of them that he found…of course he likes to let them go and i want them all dead. They get a “bath” in a bucket of water.
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Yep, I’d guess most of them survive the ride into the vacuum. I don’t know if they would find their way out, so I kill them to make sure.
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I was very diligent last year about killing them by just grabbing off the tree in the morning and evening and drowning in soapy water.
3 days after my first siting this year and I’m seeing very few. Maybe 8 in 3 days over 4 plums and 3 sweet cherries. I had hundreds or thousands last year.
Here’s to hoping I’m reeping some benefits of last year’s work.
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My traps have finally started getting some beetles in western PA this week. Haven’t seen any on the trees yet. They love my plum tree more than anything else so it’s really the only tree I have to spray for them.
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Too stinky! I have splashed the stuff in the jar on ME more than a few times!
We always have some really crummy liquor hanging around - I don’t mind cleaning out the cabinet.
@JImIn7a and @Kellogg_Hill_Farms . . . really? Water kills them? The alcohol does it almost instantly. No escaping and flying back out. And not that I really care . . . but ‘no torture’. Instant death.
Got over a hundred last night. (We are counting, now!) - a little crazy, in Virginia
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Its water mixed with dawn dish soap.
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I use insecticidal soap
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What do you spray them with? Thanks
I saw one on Monday eating the leaves of my grapevine. Picked it off and stepped on it. I hope any others get eaten by spiders or birds.
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Sprayed with Spinosad (Captain Jacks Dead Bug Brew) and it seemed to help. Still A good many on the plums, Asian persimmons and a honey crisp and cortland apple. But a lot less than before spraying. Dusted with permethrin (Eight) yesterday. Hopefully that helps and I won’t have to use something stronger. The trees are still small so that was feasible, but when they get bigger I will need to find something in bulk. This is my first year growing fruit trees, so I still don’t know what I’m doing.
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I have found that Sevin works really well. I buy the concentrated liquid and mix with water and spray. Usually knocks out the population quickly if there is no rain to wash the spray off. They do need to ingest it, so some vegetation losss happens, but no where near the amount that would happen if no spray was used.
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I went out yesterday and shook the cherry tree. No cloud of JBs flew out, so it’s still early.
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@shein33 This is what we are hoping our ‘hands on’ method will accomplish. If we can interrupt their cycle . . . maybe we can decrease their numbers next year, significantly.
I don’t want to use sprays right now, that are not bee-friendly, because I have so many plants which are in bloom and still attracting bees. I am seeing a lot of bees this summer, compared to the past few years . . . and I’d like to keep it that way.
I’m trying Organicide’s 3-in-1 on everything - and copper on pomegranate fruit, to try to control fungus. But the 3-in-1 will not take care of the Japanese Beetles. Only soft-bodied insects.
I like @BerryGuy idea - using the ShopVac. It keeps the toxic spray away from the plants. Only problem is lack of electricity out in the orchard, where most of the JBs are.
Of course, many of these methods are only practical for those of us with smaller trees. And smaller orchards!
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So far, so good for me. I go out every morning and get only a few this year after a total mess last year. We’ll see in the next few weeks. I have traps but I think they’ll just attract more beetles from farther away.
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I’m going to trade my JB Extra Dry Martini solution for you Dawn one, tonight . . . and see if I like it as well. 
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Here in 7A northern VA, we’ve been seeing them for a bit. We pay our kids a nickel a bug to capture them, and into a big cup of soapy water the bugs go!
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A nickel each? You’re going to go broke lol 
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I have 2 traps out on the edges of my ‘orchard’ area. And I wondered the same thing! But, our plums, roses and cannas seem to be the biggest attraction.
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Went to deadhead some roses yesterday, no JBs on them yet
This is my second year but feels like my first one since I didn’t knew a thing about it the first year! Still don’t know much about it but thanks to everyone’s posts I’m getting there.
Zone 8a Eastern shore VA, just spotted a few JBs but one thing I have seen even through winter a lots of stinky bugs on my shed or even on the attic, now they are getting to the plants.
One other thing I have noticed is the wasps hung around the blackberries! Do anybody knows why?