Japanese Beetles - What they are and How to Get Rid of Them

- Japanese beetles are real garden pests that have a life cycle that is hard to break, but with determination there are a few ways you can work to be rid of them.-

In my last post, I hinted that we had been busy of late working at different projects on our homestead. One of the things keeping us busy was, unfortunately, an ongoing battle with Japanese beetles.

We noticed them the first year we moved in. It was late June and they were swarming all around our decorative bushes in front of our home. We didn't have a garden at that time, and they didn't seem to be hurting the bushes at all, so we lived and let live.

By the next spring, we had had some Saskatoon berry bushes imported by family from Saskatchewan. These "exotic plants" must have seemed like a delicacy to them, and when the beetles emerged, they had devoured all the leaves within a day.

It was the saddest and weirdest thing. The skeleton of the leaves were left, but no green part. We thought they were goners, but they did come back to life with new leaves later in the summer.

This is a leaf that has only been partially eaten.

Last year we were determined to protect them. When the beetle season began, I was out there with a dust brush and bucket of soapy water. I would go out every few hours and brush the bugs into the bucket - those that didn't try to fly away, anyways - to drown them. It was exhausting.

Before I continue, let me give you a little Japanese beetle biology lesson. These pests emerge late in the spring, May or June, and feast and mate for about a week, and lay eggs. The eggs hatch a few weeks later as grubs and destroy your plants from below. They stay in the ground eating away on the roots of your grass and plants. The next spring they show up as full grown beetles ...and everything starts all over again.

This year, we thought we would try the two parts water to one part part dish soap spray method. Since insects breathe through their skin, this mixture suffocates them.

This method definitely worked, and was a lot faster than the brush-and-bucket method. The only issue we came across was that we needed to spray so much that the soap would burn the leaves if we didn't wash it off right away.

Our plan for next summer is is to buy some Japanese beetle traps. They use pheromone and food scents to lure them. The trick is to position them close enough that the beetles pick up the scent, but far enough away that they don't have to make a pit stop in your garden on their way.

Since they are so widespread and numerous now, this sometging we will probably be dealing with and battling for a while. With the addition of our first fruit trees (more on that coming soon), I'm determined to fight these guys to the bitter end.

Do you have these pests too? Have you found a good way of being rid of them? Let me know - I'm more than open to suggestions! And we will let you know how the traps work next year. Stay tuned! ;)