while out wandering the place the other
day i noticed that the japanese beetles
have absolutely shredded the wild grape
vine leaves and are quite heavily infested
in them, which is why i'll have to keep
hand picking them off the bean plants for
quite some time. today, i'm going to go
out with a large bucket with a little soapy
water in it and see if i can knock the
population back a bit.

usually i've been hand picking them off
the plants and squishing them and leaving
them for the birds to eat. so i will
probably squish a few back there too and
see how many get eaten.

the wild grape vines should be removed
anyways as they are growing on a fence and
will weigh it down too much again. we cut
them back this past spring, but they've
certainly bounced back. it's not an easy
edge/fence to maintain as it is right along
the bank of the large drainage ditch... in
the longer term plan i'll probably remove
it entirely as i think it is more work to
keep up than the benefit it provides in
rerouting deer to one side or the other.


songbird

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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

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.

Steve Peek wrote:
....
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.

i can believe it...

the orgies they have too in the process. i
dunno if they actually have multiple partners
or not, but they sure do pile on at times. the
other day there was a pile of 7 of them i got
with a single grab.


songbird

On 8/16/2014 11:22 AM, songbird wrote:
Steve Peek wrote:
...
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.

i can believe it...

the orgies they have too in the process. i
dunno if they actually have multiple partners
or not, but they sure do pile on at times. the
other day there was a pile of 7 of them i got
with a single grab.


songbird


The pheromone baited traps will get them but don't make the mistake of
putting them near the grapes as it attracts them to the area.

Japanese beetles have ceased to be a problem in my neighborhood and we
are in an infested area but maybe milky spore disease has abated them
although I don't think anyone here put it down.