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Argh! Japanese Beetles!

1647 Views 5 Replies 4 Participants Last post by  brooksbeefarm
Any ideas on how to control these things? I am completely infested. I have stomped thousands, and they keep coming. They are now in my apple tree.

I found a website with this recipe for a trap:
1 cup water
1/4 cup sugar
1 mashed banana
1 pkg yeast

Do you think this would also attract the bees? Don't want that. Or would the fermenting odor repel them?
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For the smaller bushes, you can use 1 tablespoon Dawn dish soap to a cup of cooking oil. Add 1 teaspoon of this mixture to a cup of water and spray the flowers and leaves. It won't hurt the bees, but will deter many insects and aphids.
This is what i use inside my electric fence (sweet corn field ). I buy those alum. foil pans at the dollar store 2 to 3 in. deep by 8 by 10 in. or what ever size you want, i mix Golden Marlan fly spray (granules) with milk and pour it into the pan and place it on the ground in my corn field. When the milk starts to sour it draws the beetles by the hundreds and they will fill the pans up. A WORD OF CAUTION don't put it where your dog or cat can get into it, it will kill them, i have 20 hives within 100 ft. of my corn field and have never seen a dead bee in the pan. I also put this mixture on top of the brace post in my tame blackberry patch ( i make a box to set the pan in and nail it to the top of the post). The bad part is you have to empty the pans and refill every 3 or 4 days and boy do they stink.I've filled five gallon buckets full of dead beetles. :mrgreen: Jack
could you not put the mixture in pop bottles and then just toss them into the trash instead of pouring out the pans every other day?

Sounds like a good mix for them little rascals.

G3
I would say a tablespoon to a pint of milk. I have not put the mixture in a pop bottle it might work but i think the wind blowing the sent around ( sour milk smell) is what attract's them. I have also put Sevin powder in watermelon rine ( after you eat the melon) :p and placed them on the ground under my blackberry plants ( when tthe berries are turning black) and this works much the same way. A friend told me about doing this and i was afraid it would kill my bees, so i tried one rine under my plants to see and have yet to see a dead bee in any of the rine's. If you try this go slow your bees may be different but i haven't had a problem. Good luck. Jack
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