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  • From: Scott Vlaun <scott@moosepondarts.com>
  • To: gardenwriters-on-gardening <gwl-g@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [gwl-g] Japanese Beetles
  • Date: Mon, 2 Jul 2007 23:02:31 -0400

We've had good success with pheromone traps around the perimeter and trap cropping,in the margins, although we are in a very rural area and mostly isolated from suburban lawn culture.  Midwest Evening primrose has worked really well as a trap.  It conveniently starts flowering here right about when the first beetles arrive. We've let it naturalize in the margins and I can shake whole plants into a bucket in the early morning and trap most of the population in the garden in a few minutes. The chickens absolutely love them for breakfast. I even tried pheromone traps with the bottoms of the bags cut off and taped to a piece of pipe that drops into pie tin. The chickens hear them hit the trap and race to catch them as they come out the bottom. Zinnias have also seemed to work as trap crops.

I agree with Jo Ellen on planting for diversity, especially including lots of fragrant flowers in the garden and looking for resistant varieties. We did an edamame trial two years ago and found a variety called "Velvet" that had pubescent leaves that almost completely resisted attack while the other 6 varieties suffered enough damage to affect yield, even with hand picking. Yacon is another crop that is unaffected due to to fuzzy leaves. We're completely organic so haven't found any spray that seems to have much affect unless you spray something like Earth Juice Escential (sic) Spray with a strong citrus aroma every day as a deterrent. 

Let us know what else you come up with.

Good luck,


Scott Vlaun
Moose Pond Arts+Ecology
Design Solutions for a Sustainable Future

450 Main St. Studio 2
Norway, Maine 04270
207-739-2409 Studio
207-890-4099 Cell



On Jul 2, 2007, at 10:04 PM, jo ellen meyers sharp wrote:

Hi, Nancy -- insecticidal soaps work (see link below)

It's not necessarily recommended that people treat for grubs because they have Japanese beetles. The beetles can fly quite a distance (2+ miles), so the ones munching on the plants may not come from the  homeowner's landscape. One should only treat for grubs this year if you saw grub damage last year.

Also, the traps can be quite effective when used on the perimeter of the property, such as the edge of the woods....any where that's a distance from the plants you are trying to protect, such as the neighbor's yard ;-).

Whenever this comes up among my readers, I take the opportunity to emphasize the importance of diverse plantings and reduced reliance on pesticides. I do not use pesticides in my landscape and rarely have any Japanese beetle damage. I know it's a hard sell, but allowing Mother Nature's insecticides (birds, hover flies, wasps, mantis) to do the job really works.

jems
-- 
Jo Ellen Meyers Sharp
Garden writer, author, photographer
Region III Director Garden Writers Association
Phone: (317) 251.3261
Fax: (317) 251.8545
E-mail: hoosiergardener@sbcglobal.net
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