The traps drew in tons more, and my yard is too small to position them strategically. They were attacking plants near the traps they would probably not have bothered that badly otherwise. I did empty them once a week and change the bag. But I finally took them down, and things got a little better within a few days. They say the whole neighborhood needs to put up traps for them to really work. Plus we are within distance of a park where they were hellish this year on mulberry trees.
There is a house a couple blocks from me that has tons of roses in their front yard. I see there are two traps there still hung right on top of the roses, but I went to ask about the roses and didn't notice any leaf damage. The beetles finally left for this year.
I was waiting for them, noticed them first June 27th. I quit picking but still found a couple Aug 26th, then I quit looking. That is almost 2 months. They are only supposed to last 6 weeks, first appeared here about 4 years ago.
Thanks for the suggestion :-).
I know (1) I can't rely on traps alone, and (2) I can't be picking bugs 3X a day for that long every summer. But if I use that spray again, it will only be during the worst of it. I think next year I will cut off all buds and cover all the roses with netting. That's how some dealt with it. They got into my clump of birches really bad, never like that before, dead leaves w/the typical damage all over, but they were too high to deal with using anything.
I forget to share that there are some really potent garlic sprays that work too. We have tons of humming birds so I am very careful of what I use.
Also...I would never allow the traps to get close to plants I don’t want the beetles on.