how to kill Japanese Beetles

Is there something I can spray on my plants to prevent the Japanese Beetles from eating them up? They were really bad last year and they are starting to show up again. I have 2 small children who like to help me in the garden. I would prefer to not hand pick (I HATE touching them)
Julie

They are bad over here. I have a purple leafed plum tree and when you go by it, it's like a dark cloud and they seem to go after you. They also bite/sting and I think it hurts. I think they come from grubs.?. I'm going to check into this this week and if I find anything I'll let you know. Tonia ( Liberty, IN )
P.S. did you guys get hit by the storm Sunday night? we lost power for almost 20 hours then four hours later we lost phone for 24 hours. What fun.

Yes we got the storm! (it's nice to see someone from Indiana here, LOL). We lost our power for about 10 hours from the 2nd storm. Trees down but not as bad here as in Indy (I was at K-Mart with my mom waiting on the storm to pass before we left).

The beetles are just starting (don't seem to be as many as last year yet!) I just keep knocking them off my plants with a stick (I don't like to touch them!) They have even come in on my laundry and they won't shake off.

So far I have come across a coulpe of thing to do. One is to knock them off into a pan of dish water and let them set for 24 hours or there is a trap you can get for like $25 that will hold upto 400 of them. I'm going to check out Lowe's and wal-mart this weekend to see if they have one so I don't have to pay the postage and wait for the mail. LOL talk to you later. Tonia

Hey Tonia and Julie,

Don't use the traps unless they can hold thousands of JB's as that is what you will attract. It is about impossible to control adult JB's organically or otherwise. The trick is to get the larva with beneficial Nemetodes or Milky Spore. Tonia, do you Use the Richmond Wal-Mart? I hate the place-it's too big!
Tonia, you should come up to the Richmond Farmer's market some saturday so we can meet. I am there just about every Saturday it is open selling organic produce.

Just show me the way and I'll come!
I only go into that wal-mart when I have to or can not find what I need at the Oxford, OH wal-mart. I have herd that the Nemetodes only last for three months and the Milky Spore can take a couple of years to start to work. I have been so depresed latly I started to look for some kind of CHEMICAL to get rid of them. Bad bad girl. Then there is hubby who is trying to be a Round up King. Uhg. I still have hope for him as long as I can remain faithful. Well I had better be going for tonight. Talk to you all later. Tonia
Just read in another site to try this. put about 3-6 inches (depending on the size of yours) of very soapy dish water in the bottom of a shop vac and start to clean up. When done shake it up, remove the vac part, and cover the can up for 24 hours. I'm going to try this this weekend and I'll let you all know how it works. If it does not hubby wants to get a gallon of bug b gone. untill later Tonia



This message was edited Friday, Jul 20th 10:45 AM

Well I finally did it. The neighbors are ready to call the funny farm to come and get me. This weekend I was using a shop vac on my roses, plum tree and anything else that had a Jap. beetle on it. GUESS WHAT it really works. All I did was take the filter off and put 6 inches of very soapy water in the bottom and start to vaccum. Have fun everyone. I am now He He HE He. LOL Tonia

Driving in the country the other day I saw a great solution to two problems-JB's and what to do with all the AOL CD-ROMs. A person had festooned their trees with the discs which are reflective and that was keeping the JB's outta their trees.

You see when the JB's see reflective discs (or pie pans or shiny silver tape etc) they think it's water and will not land on the shiny object.

Tonia, they use vacuums on the big organic farms out west to get the cuke beetles etc. I have often wondered if a shop vac would work, now I know

We had them BAD here 3 years ago & I used a combination of things to get them under control. I hand-picked every morning & at noontime each day, knocking them into a container of soapy water (amazing how GOOD you get at it!). I also turned up the sod in a large area of my lawn when it became obvious that the skunks were visiting nightly to eat all the Japanese Beetle grubs that live at the roots of the sod & were destroying my lawn anyway. The birds then ate the grubs by day, & the skunks by night. That did WONDERS for the following year's populations, practically NONE. & I used the sex-lure traps made for Japanese Beetles, but advise that you ONLY use these if you have a VERY big yard (as the trap must be WELL away from any plants you care about at all) & only if you are truly infested. Better yet, hang the traps on a vacant lot several doors down from you to be extra safe. But consider the religious hand-picking & the assistance of your birds & skunks. Worked for me, even 2 years later, I have VERY few JB's.