Hi,

Just found this board and wondered if anyone can be of help. We have a terrible Japanese Beetle problem here. They pretty much destroy anything we have in the garden, apple trees, flowers, etc. Though I've tried to avoid it, I've had to resort to drenching them with chemicals. Not something I want to do, but nothing else I've tried even slows them down. Traps just seem to attract more. With a new season starting, how can I save my garden but avoid chemicals? Any ideas? Thanks.

If you catch them early enough, you can spray them with GOBS of insecticidal soap and that'll kill 'em, or drown 'em. :^O There are also some really effective traps on the market that attract them with color and pheremones, then dump them in either a sticky trap or one filled with water.

How about providing living quarters for garter snakes or toads? Get enough of an army, they'll soon strike a balance in your yard, and in your favour.

Yep, that to. I've got an old, broken clay pot next to my waterbarrel. Don't know when a toad might move in, but his bungalow is ready. :8}

Hi TNFF,

http://organicgardening.com/feature/0,7518,s1-2-9-267,00.html

Organic methods take a bit more vigilance, but you feel good about the chem-free food you eat, feed to your family, and share.

Good Luck!...and Welcome!

purplebean

Those "traps" do attract more and they were designed to do that. Originally those "traps" were meant to monitor the population, not eliminate it. Don't use them unless you place them 1,000 feet away form your garden.
Getting your soil into a good, healthy condition will help your plants grow in a good, healthy state that is not attractive to these buggers. They are principally attracted to plants in stress and a good, healthy soil will help your plants grow without that stress. If you do find them you can knock them off the plants into a bucket of soapy water and they drown, but healthy, unstressed plants just will not be atractive to them.

You have to be diligent but this method works. Get up early in the morning while things are still cool. The beetles are more active in the heat, but MUCH less so in the cool of the morning. I would fill a wide mouth canning jar with a few inches of gasoline (maybe soapy water would work) and go collecting. The beetles will drop straight down to the ground and burrow in so you want to hold your jar under the leaf they're on and nudge them with your finger into the jar. If they land on the ground I don't bother; it's too hard to find them in the grass or mulch or whatever. Do this regularly and in a week or 10 days you'll see the differnce. It would take me about 10 or 15 minutes to do the round of my garden before I left for work in the morning. You get extra points if you find two mating and you can knock them to their death together before they have babies. ] I've gathered hundreds of the buggers this way. If you do this more diligently early in the season it really makes a big difference.

Chickens work great too but then you have to take care of the chickens. I got rid of the traps; they just attracted more.

Best Wishes!

Walk thru' the garden at sunset with an empty jar, brush all beetles into the jar, dump contents into feed trough, get out of the ducks' (or chickens) way.

My ducks were kept in a fencded in mini orchard--couldn't reach the bugs over 2' from the ground, but would eagerly follow me thru' on my evening walks.