Our yard has tons of Japanese beetles crawling over it. The apple and cherry trees were taking the brunt of the attack. I got fed up with the beetle invasion and bought a Bag-A-Bug beetle trap. The trap seems to work, drawing plenty of beetles into the bag, where they get trapped and die. If you’re lazy like me, though, the bag can begin to smell with ammonia from dead beetles.
The directions for the Bag-A-Bug say to change the bag frequently as the smell of rotting beetles is repellant to other beetles. That suggests the question: why not make the plants you want to protect smell like dead beetles? I mean, if this smell is what keeps beetles away, it seems to me the best way to protect your plants is to make them smell like ammonia.
I wonder if hanging a bag of dead beetles (with no pheromone bait) on the trees I wish to protect will keep the beetles away?
I thought Japanese beetle traps and bag all just attracted more beetles? I’ve always heard that the easiest way to rid your yard of beetles is to give a beetle trap as a gift to a neighbor 100 yards away.
Yeah, some people say that. They do catch 3 out of 4 beetles they attract, though. And its so darn satisfying seeing a whole bag full of ’em.
The Sevin dust I’ve been sprinking on the trees has been the most effective thing by far, though. I just wish it wasn’t so harmful to the bees (the typical bees, that is. I’m hoping the carpenter bees which are boring into our porch pig out on Sevin dust and croak).
We’ve coated our yard with sevin duster too. It worked wonders for the beetles. Now I have to figure out how to keep deer from eating the buds of all of my flowers.
You can cover your flowers with a really fine netting. That’s probably the most effective deer countermeasure.
Are there others? Anyone? Anyone?
Also, note that Sevin dust kills bees, too. So if you want those flowers to stay healthy, you should avoid putting the dust anywhere near them.