They certainly eat apple and hazelnut leaves both here… Apple:
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30 gallon traps have been working quite well. I have placed 3-4 softball sized and larger stone to keep them from blowing over. Only one blew over and I zip tied it to a fence. The other ones feel quite heavy and now have some rain in them too. Thinking of using some soapy water with pyrethrins as a “treatment” before I empty soon.
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Instead of the pyrethrins treatment I am loving tossing them into the pond. Even the turtles are in on the feast.
Those whiite dots on the water are whats left of the bugs. 2" deep in a 5 gal
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You know the trick the old timers taught me of having a light near the water to feed the fish at night with light seeking insects. Solar light duct taped to a fence post about 2 feet from the water works great. On the beetles lure them down to the pond and leave a 5 gallon bucket cut open at the bottom they fall into. Then duct tape the bucket to the post with a scent lure on top. It might work pretty good!
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You know I thought of you. Thsts a great qay to go too. Gotta get out there to stake some steel down abd set up a light
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The year of the 17 year locus some of my fish gained double the weight they should have.
It is all worth doing!
https://growingfruit.org/t/ponds-are-a-great-investment/7033
Some fish readily eat plants like duckweed as well eg. Bluegill and tilapia
https://growingfruit.org/t/raising-fish-or-crayfish-for-food-growing-duckweed/40911
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Brother… a cicadas mighty good eating for a bass:) My sunfish and bluegill love to sip these jb right off the surface without making a ripple.
Some break the surface and splash
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I did the same thing yesterday morning. Mostly just bluegill and catfish in my pond.
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Try mixing in about a table spoon of citric acid and a teaspoon of detergent. The acid will preserve the bodies and the detergent will make it easier to rinse off the trash can.
I just wonder if anyone has succeeded in controlling them by trapping. I’ve long assumed it didn’t work for J. beetles based on my experience with small commercial traps, but maybe the more industrial approach would work.
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I’ve wondered the same. I just have a few bag ones out for free chicken and fish food. I keep them far away from my plants so they want draw them in.
This year I’ve tried dusting them with diatomaceous earth but I had been getting the feeling that it wasn’t having an impact. I then started capturing them in a container full of diatomaceous earth and checking in on them to see how long it takes for them to die when they are literally swimming in DE. They are still alive after 12 hours but dead at 24 so I don’t believe applying DE on them directly has a very good kill rate.
They drop off the leaves and try to burrow in the ground and I think that rubs off enough of the DE that it makes it a poor option. Certainly less effective than what you will read online about it…
If you are looking for something cheap to dump them into though, it could be a good option. They don’t seem to decompose in it either
The traps built into a rubber trash can have been effective for us. A trash can is a bit overkill for size, but it works.
It helped for me on a small scale. They were eating my echinacea flowers. I put up a trap with lure scent about 30 ft away. They went to the trap instead of the flowers. The infestation was not as extreme as some people are facing.
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I only face them for my clients. They used to be bad on my own property but early on I spread some Milky Spore. That was almost 30 years ago and they haven’t been bad since, but I don’t know it it’s coincidence or not. Maybe at my site it worked because there aren’t so many lawns in my neighborhood so my problem was very local. Maybe.
For my clients I spray them with anything that kills them and only have to spray growing tips so it really requires a tiny amount of poison. Same deal with OFM. I wonder why Cornell never recommends that. Some pests only go after the growing tips. Leaf hoppers and many species of aphids as well.
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Hi Alan,
Regarding efficacy of trashcan jb trap, In my larger area I probably get as many jb on my walks with the bucket with water. So if I were to depend on the trash cans during the peak, like now after the rains i would be very disappointed. The problem I think is that once they congregate on plant their pheromone drive… to get to trash cans is diminished, leading to the mass skeletonizing seen on a few trees.
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So I just got done with my 2nd round today with the 5gal, got tons more. If it werent for my huge ladybug population id spray
Even wood duck was wondering about the surface action,.but was wary of me
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2/3 thru July and finally a few JBs have shown up, tho not enough to bother with. I still credit the drought.
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Im with you on drought impact on the bugs. When it rains they will come. Thats what happened here. As soon as soaking rains came, they swarmed. I walked the hazelnuts today and only got an inch in my bucket, after walking 2x yesterday because there were so many. If I wouldnt have they would have stripped a couple dozen trees.
After last walk the fish were a bit burned out on jbs
VT manual labor traps also. It is fairly easy first thing in the AM and they fall in a jar of water with some detergent. Great minds…
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I found this interesting… this guy has a raspberry patch and he has great success with cayenne pepper spray… cheap at the dollar store.
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