Many of you are aware of the basic design of japanese beetle traps but the problem is those traps are quickly overwhelmed with to many beetles. My friend Mike was telling me about lure traps that destroy the Japanese beetles made of trashcans. This is the basic concept https://ipm.missouri.edu/MEG/2018/1/mass_trapping_japanese_beetles/ . Since they feed in groups you can attract them into trash cans the same way.
This year @39thparallel built me a trap
The traps need placed on the perimeter of the orchard which is highly effective! If your wanting to build your own traps you will need this link https://www.greatlakesipm.com/search/Japanese/0/1/1
Those are the dual lures shown on the link
In areas where JB are a problem honeycrisp apples, grapes and other favorites of theirs are challenging to grow. Here are a few in a picture i took attacking honeycrisp in previous years!
Keep in mind Carbyl (sevin)can be effective also but it also kills many insects i dont want killed. Many orchardist are using milky spore with some success. JB_Trap_How_To.pdf (2.6 MB)
Yes, milky spore is very effective. I applied it 4 years ago, and for the last 3 years, I had much less JB damage than before I applied the milky spore.
Okay, I bought the lures and yellow plastic tops for the trash can traps. Then bought a couple metal trash cans before reading the instructions. I am wondering if I should return the metal cans and get the plastic ones? Will it make any difference, other than being harder to cut. And what is the purpose of the screen-covered windows? Do you have to spray water into the can to kill the beetles or do they just die on their own?
Okay, I’ll go get some plastic cans. I needed some metal ones, anyway, so I will use them to store my nets away from the mice. I tried to keep everything mouseproof and keep poison and traps in my garden shed, but the mice got in anyway and built a nest in a lawnmower motor. Aaaarrrrrggggghhhhhh……
For those interested, in the Midwest you can generally catch enough with these traps to feed a large flock for about 6 weeks, plus save some “meat” for the cold season.
I appreciate this information as I just got on to find some way to kill the beetles without using serious poison on trees that will be in proximity of young children. My sister-in-law has several fruit trees in her backyard that have June beetles and stink bugs, but will have a half a dozen young kids playing around them. Thanks.
I put out two plastic garbage can traps today. Wow. I don’t know where all those beetles came from. I had seen a few here and there so far, but nothing like this. Those traps really work!
Im taking heavy losses from a new green beetle that is like the japanese beetle but seems to attack fruit still on the tree that shows no damage! Im assuming its the beetle mentioned on another thread How to kill this kind of beetles? Wish i had lures for them! Im killing lots of japanese beetles! They are drawn to clapps favorite and harrow delight but passing up others. Keep in mind these pears are not ripe! The trap is desimating most of the japanese beetles ( kill rate is in the thousands). These guys no doubt can be killed with carbyl but right now im observing their weaknesses which are few. I think they may be worse than japanese beetles. They dig in pears and cause a rot and bad oder as they eat their was through all the flesh. The left over pear is only brown strings and a stem! At least thry eat the entire pear. Clearly like japanese beetles where one feeds there are others so im thinking that like jb is their weakness to be trapped. @LarryGene any idea why we are seeing drastic increases in their numbers?
Dont worry about my pear crop to much! Trees are loaded with fruit! I needed to thin a few anyway but they mostly are hitting the wrong trees that dont need thinned! The real mystery is why are they not touching my small yellow pear that has some ripe fruit? Very interesting things im observing! @LarryGene thank you for pointing out the differences of these beetles feeding right a long side japanese beetles! All instances where i find one i find the other beetle. These are a new invadar at my farm. If others have the problem i think we should start a new thread on them.
Do you think this would work for rose chafers? They come in really bad every year before the Japanese beetles? I see on the website the make a rose chafer lure.
Thanks, I emailed Great Lakes IPM they said white is better for rose chafers and that Japanese beetles have no preference on color. So, should be able to use the same trap for both, just switch out the lure.
I made one of these trash can traps this year for the first time. Also one that is on a 5 gallon bucket. Last year I used 3 of the traps from Gemplers and at times I had to empty the traps more than once per day or they overflowed.
I can’t tell how successful it has been, because I haven’t dumped it yet, but it sure stinks! Not a fan of that feature. I wonder if the smell of dead beetles is counterproductive to the whole smelly attractant thing.
I may not need to use the huge traps next year, however, since just after one year of using the lures and traps, the numbers of beetles are noticeably lower! Next year I will start with the regular traps and see how that goes.
We have 2.4 acres right next to a country airport with acres of grass, so the first years we lived here I hesitated to use lures for fear of just drawing more. Finally decided they were destroying my roses, muscadines, green bean, kiwi and blackberries anyway so tried at least catching and killing them before they could lay eggs. I had tried hand picking into buckets of soapy water twice a day for several years and they only seemed to increase.
Last year I destroyed gallons of them!
But I also wanted to let you know something else I learned this year. They don’t like Surround - Kaolin Clay. They started out decimating my hazelnut bushes. I decided to see if it would taste yucky to them and sprayed with them Surround mixed with water. The bushes turned whitish from the clay dust, but within a day or so, no more beetles. They had moved on to the muscadines. Sprayed the muscadines. Beetles turned up their noses and left them alone as well. So now I had a non-poison remedy in my arsenal. Couldn’t use it on the blackberries because they were starting to ripen, but the traps are helping so much that the damage was manageable.
Just Japanese beetle tips from my little corner of SE Tennessee!
We tried a couple of those trash can traps last year. This year I put them out much earlier. They do seem to be doing the trick so far. We have materials to make two more traps for good measure, so plan to do that in the next couple days.
I can report now that the 5 gallon bucket and the huge trash can traps did not do that well. I think the awful dead beetle rotting smell takes away from their ability to attract with the lure. Next year I will just use the screw on base from Gemplers and empty it every day. Especially now that their numbers are down. Will see if that trend continues next summer. The season is just about over. Yay!
