On 7/15/2015 8:07 AM, Brooklyn1 wrote:
On Tue, 14 Jul 2015 12:10:24 -0500, Moe DeLoughan
wrote:

On 7/13/2015 8:44 PM, passerby wrote:
This year the Japanese beetle situation in my backyard here in SE PA is
simply dire - I have just disposed of the nine's bag, which probably gets
the total close to 12-15 pounds of bugs so far, and they keep coming! The
usual amount is perhaps 3-4 bags a season, and usually I don't dispose of
them because they are overflowing like this year, only because they start
smelling awful. This year I've also sprayed heavily, so the amount of
bugs
killed is staggering, yet they keep coming.
It just so happened that I put the first two traps up maybe a week in
advance of actually seeing the first bug. This got me thinking that
perhaps I have brought this on myself by attracting the first bugs by the
lure of the traps?

I have a plum tree and hollyhocks, both of which are very attractive
to Japanese beetles, so for several years I used traps on my property.
I got so fed up with the beetle invasion (they very nearly killed the
tree), I just. . . gave up.

Since I quit using the traps, the number of beetles afflicting my plum
tree and hollyhocks is but a small fraction of what I had when the
traps were in place. Live and learn.

The traps are made explicitly for luring Japanese beetles so they work
well if you have a large enough yard to place them more than 100' from
the plants you want to protect... they are of no value on the typical
suburban lot, but you'll be doing your neighbors a favor.


No longer a problem with me. Maybe spread of milky spore disease got
them or natural predators.

I remember the days of a gypsy moth problem but that has also disappeared.

In the last couple of years, it was stink bugs but now I seldom see one.

In these three cases, I did not do anything but balance of nature must
have taken over.