We moved into our house about 2 months ago. A couple days ago a huge swath of Japanese beetles showed up - they're eating all of my roses. And I think I found another reason our lawn is so patchy (I kep finding grubs when I was digging, must be them).
I read that milky spore is a good organic tool for killing the grubs. It doesn't seem like there are many options for the adults, aside from hand picking them off my roses.
Post by simpsongal on Jun 21, 2012 12:27:15 GMT -5
Thanks, tree dimensional. I'm considering using Bayer or a product like Grubex too b/c I read that it takes years for milky spore to take effect. I read that nematodes are good too.
We put down milky spore last year and have seen a noticeable decrease in the amount of beetles this year.
We have also used the traps (I know everything you read tells you not to use them). I put it on the side of my yard away from all the ornamental plants and it did decrease the amount of damage we saw. Certainly not a cure all, but it helped some.
If you have a lot of beetles, you need to empty out the traps frequently as the smell of dying beetles will overpower the attractant. The first time I used the trap I had to empty it after just a few hours--we were really infested.
Post by treedimensional on Jun 21, 2012 15:15:11 GMT -5
Milky spore worked right away for me. In one season. I applied it in 1996 when I bought my house, and I still don't have Japanese beetles. I got the small canister because my yard is so tiny, and I treated my neighbors yards too with all the leftover product. I'm not sure if it's still working or not, but another thing I did in 1996 was rip out all the rose bushes and the rose-of-sharons (hibiscus) that were attracting them. It was pretty bad, but I never see those buggers now.