Our ‘local’ gardening guru (although he’s known nationally) Andre Viet & his son, have a radio program on Saturday morning. In the past, I’ve heard them talk about Japanese Beetle traps.
You do not want to put the traps close to your tree - the traps actually attract the beetles & not all are going to end up in the trap! The traps should be on a “perimeter” around what you want to protect, but some distance away. Most people put them right next to whatever plant the beetles are munching on and that is not a good thing, per the Viets. I’ve been to his place - really neat.
Here’s a link that says the same thing about beetle traps:
https://oldworldgardenfarms.com/2021/07/01/get-rid-of-japanese-beetles/
#1 Avoid Using Beetle Traps – How To Keep Japanese Beetles Away Naturally
“First and foremost, it’s important to realize that if you are using beetle bags or beetle traps in your yard, they most likely are causing more harm than good. Especially if your property is a few acres or less.
Japanese beetle traps work by emitting a scent that attracts beetles into an area. Although the traps do lure in large numbers of beetles into the bag, they unfortunately bring even more beetles to your yard.
To properly protect plants, traps need to be placed far away from the plants you are trying to help. If not, they simply attract your neighbor’s beetles into your space as well.
To be effective, beetle bags need to be placed at the edge of a property, acres away from where you are trying to lure them away from. Unfortunately, in most cases, the average yard is just not big enough.
The result? The bags actually attract even more beetles that can then mate, and lay more larva in your soil to become an even bigger problem next year! Quite simply, for most situations – they are better to avoid.”
*** Japanese beetle traps work by emitting a scent that attracts beetles into an area.***
It’s a pheromone. They are super attracted to it.
Oh, maybe I won’t be using it. I didn’t know the bait is that strong and my yard is large, but not that large. Spraying with neem oil seems to help. Thanks
I used to know a guy whose chickens loved to eat Japanese Beetles so much, he was able to cut his feed costs in half during the summer. He set up the traps so they funneled beetles into the coop, and the chickens would line up waiting for the next beetle to drop through.
Mine don’t care for the adult beetles, but they go nuts over the grubs. I haven’t seen a beetle in the back yard in several years now, and I’m pretty sure it’s because they keep getting eaten in the larval stage.
This year my chickens aren’t allowed to roam the yard because of the bird flu risk, so I’m expecting the beetles to make a comeback next year.
re: trapping Japanese beetles - the biggest problem I see with the hardware store pheromone traps is that they don’t have enough space to hold a lot of beetles.
I found that in years when there are a lot of them around, even a five gallon bucket isn’t adequate to go a single day before it’s full. A 30 gallon plastic trash can makes a perfect catchment system. You just have to cut a small hole in the lid and hang the trap above that opening. It helps to rig up a little tent from cardboard or whatever between the trap and the trash can lid. Doesn’t have to be fancy, just needs to close the gap and help funnel the bugs into the opening in the trash can lid.
At the end of the day after the beetles have stopped flying around, put a few drops of Dawn dish soap down the hole followed by the garden hose. It only takes enough water to get them all wet so they can’t fly back out. Let them stew for 30 minutes and almost all of them will be dead.
Dump the trash can (compost heap, fish pond, etc.) and set it back up for the next day.
I trapped on that scale for three summers and got rid of pretty much every beetle in the county. I’ve hardly noticed any of the nasty things the past two summers. If their numbers start going up again I’m going to suspend a couple traps over the pond and see if I can skip the fill up the bucket/can part of the exercize.