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.
My SIL next door is the one with chickens. Only two mature hens survived the fox onslaught this spring & then something climbed in a small opening near the roof & got another one - suspect a ‘coon. BTW, saw an adult fox over at the neighbors a week ago in broad daylight - the neighbor has a couple of pet ducks, but they were safe in their pen. I had a fox kit up on the porch at 11:00 at night, looking in my storm door at me - cute at that stage, but a future poultry killer.
Anyway, the SIL got chicks a couple of weeks ago - I call them the chicklets. So cute and I hope they grow up & lay LOTS of eggs because what she can’t eat, I get. She’ll let them loose in the yard for a while, under supervision. I know when she’s got chickens, you won’t get ticks over there. I’ll tell her about the JB larva & maybe she’ll let them out more often, if she can keep them from tearing up the garden.
I had a customer at Jung’s whose chickens LOVED the Japanese Beetles. As soon as I spotted them, I’d call her and a few days a week I’d let her into the nursery yard before we opened with her bucket (with a hole cut in the cover) and she would pluck them off my nursery stock and take them home and make her chickens very happy!
You should ask if they’ll let you do it, LOL! ;)