On Saturday, August 16, 2014 7:25:00 AM UTC-4, songbird wrote:
hand picking has reduced the japanese beetle

population by quite a bit, but the infestation

continues.



i suspect the numbers of beetles letting out

attractive scents is pulling in the beetles

from the entire area (depending upon the wind

direction).



the trend in picking and counts depends a lot

upon the amount of wind and what the temperature

is like when i get out to pick.



if it is cooler the beetles are not as active

and i can often reach them before they let go and

fall to the ground. if i'm able to get the

container under the clump of beetles then most of

them will fall in and be drowned. otherwise they

escape until i get another chance at them.



if it is windy then they don't notice me getting

nearby clumps of beetles and thus also more get

into the container.



with that all said, the past few days i've been

getting about 20 from the bean patches and between

50 and 100 off the wild grape vines. the peak last

week was around 300 beetles one day.



as i'm seeing new growth on the wild grape vines

that hasn't been getting shredded it has made a

difference. mostly i'm doing this hand picking to

keep them from shredding the beans too badly that

they won't have a decent crop. so far not too much

damage to the beans because i have been catching

them early.





songbird

The beetles leave a pheromone once they start feeding. You can kill every beetle on a leaf and the next day there will be more on that same leaf.