Peaches going to the beetles fast

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daisyavenue Long Beach, CA(Zone 10b) Aug 02, 2004

Okay- I enjoyed watching these eat our over-ripe peaches that came up while we were away but we have another tree getting ready to ripen-

How do I get these flashy guys to just GO AWAY?

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Post #980959
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cherishlife Pocola, OK(Zone 7a) Aug 03, 2004

Well, if you don't use pesticides, you might be in for a really long battle. I've never dealt with them so I don't know.

Post #982584
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daisyavenue Long Beach, CA(Zone 10b) Aug 03, 2004

Yeah- I only use DE and I don't think that it will cut this.

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sojourner Tanner, AL Aug 04, 2004

I live in northern Alabama and this is my first run-in with Japanese beetles. I'm learning fast. My little 80 yr. old neighbor tells me sevin dust does a marvelous job--makes them drop like stones. (She stressed not the liquid, but the dust.) Seven dust is one of the more innocuous pesticides. We just moved here and our peach trees are diseased. We haven't had a chance to work on them yet, but the beetles ate every little green peach on the trees and then moved on to the crape myrtle blossoms. I'm learning fast as I can and we are putting milky spore disease into the soil.

If you want organic measures to control, the only thing you can do is pick them off. I read that you can put a sheet under the tree and then shake it and they will fall into the sheet and then you pick them up and dump them in soapy water or something. I tried that on the crape myrtles, and they just lauched in a million directions and flew into my face and on my clothes. I've since learned that you do it early in the morning or late in the evening or on a rainy day. Then they just drop. I have some small crape myrtles. When they started getting on them, I went out once a day with a pan of soapy water and knocked off the ones I found on the limbs into the pan of water. After about five times of that they were gone.

The good news is they aren't like this EVERY year. It is when there is a warm wet late summer and spring that they are worst---optimum conditions for the grubs development in the soil. If we were to have a hot dry autumn, chances are the following year there would be few of the rascals. I also learned that each female during the course of the summer lays between 60 and 90 eggs--so I would deduce that attacking the adults would also be very beneficial.

As I learn more, I'll post again. I have to go do my ironing now.

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daisyavenue Long Beach, CA(Zone 10b) Aug 04, 2004

Thanks! Now if only we had a wet summer!

I am going to try some soapy water.

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