They'll go for the cherries. Here, the fruit is gone by the time they s how up, so I use something systemic if they get to the defoliating point - as they usually do.

Not seeing many today...its warm and humid out, but clouds and sprinkles earlier.

I sprayed pure NEEM oil last night (soap/water/oil). I've read some reports that suggest feeding is less, but that you need to get the oil on early so it can soak in (systematic?).

Sevin works. I don't like spraying it, but it does work against JBs.

Seriously though, for you lucky folks who can actually hand pick the #$%^& things, get one of the electric fly swatters. If nothing else, the sizzle, pop, or smell of burning JBs is worth it!

I don't have any on my trees right now. Sevin and triazide keep them off. I picked some wild blackberries a while ago and that's where the JBs are right now. I didn't spray there because the berries were getting ripe. The JBs didn't like me picking and flew around a bit, but there didn't seem to be all that many. One got in my basket and got squished for his trouble. They also don't seem to be on the asparagus ferns, and I didn't spray those....must not be many around right now. It has been hot and dry, so maybe I'll get past the season without another bloom.

I'm glad they don't seem to have found my garden. Last year they hit my pole beans, but so far not this year.

Chuck

Today may have been the worst day so far... They must be coming north with the heat/strong south winds the last few days? All I know is that they've started to get a flavor for peach, apricot and plum leaves... Up until now its been mainly grape and sweet cherry.

They're reaching critical mass here. I found them working on a cherry tree, so I sprayed cherries and plums.

If it weren't for the bees, I'd spray the roses - not for the sake of the roses but to kill the many many JBs they attract.

Yup...insane today

Hard to catch these *(&*&(&ards ...so fast...not dumb like rose chafers. I really don't need to spray since I have almost no fruit anyways and they aren't super heavy, although still the most i've ever seen in my yard. If it gets too bad, I'll have to start think about putting down grub killer.

It's the leaves I'm trying to save, not the fruit.

You must have them really thick then! They've done damage to my sweet cherries, but they need to be pruned back anyways, so no harm there...its more my young trees i worry about.

I have the youngest trees wrapped in tulle. They go for the White Gold tree first, so I shake it every day, and when the swarm flies out it's time to renew the spray.

What you say about the pruning is why I haven't headed back mine yet - the JBs always go for the highest point, so I'd rather they get the branches I want to cut instead of the ones I want to save.

I've noticed that...although on the sweet cherries, they get deep into the tree and its hard to even see them, let along catch them...

I found 7 of them on 2 leaves on my pluot today... Now the ants are eating them.

I don't know. If they get any worse in the future, i'll have to make sure I cut back my sweet cherries to about 8ft at most and use tulle or some other fabric... I'll probably have to spray the plums too.

I'm still shaking my head how hard the plums got hit late by PC...i literally have 10 or less plums on 2 trees that probably had a few 100 in May...argh!

I went to menards and bought 5 spectracide bag a bug on sale for $3 a piece. Normally $6. After 7 hrs the bag was full. This bag really works well.

Tony

I saw those at Menards...that is an awesome price. I'm tempted to just buy a bunch and put out 4 on every corner of my property or better yet, just hide some in the woods down the road!!!!

I've heard you can rig them to a 5 gallon pail?

Someone said that you don't want to compost them because the eggs inside the females will still hatch (or whatever they do)...? For what I have read, they only lay a few eggs at a time and do it over a number of days/weeks/// So i don't know if all the eggs are fertilized at one time?

Well thanks to the advice to use Sevin, I have no JB's on either my Asparagus or my Raspberries now, but....... as was noted above, they will go for the Cherry Trees!

I was all pumped thinking I'd finally gotten rid of the JB's pretty much, and then I noticed my 15+ foot tall mature Early Richmond tree looked to have a brownish/red kinda hue to the canopy, upon closer inspection I could see the leaves had been skeletonized and there were JB's doing the biz on my tree.

I mixed up a dose of Sevin, sprayed the tree and headed off to work. Checked the tree this evening and noticed a ton of dead JB's on the ground.

You guys were right - Sevin DOES WORK!!!!!!!!

Thanks!

The swarm continues... another 30 or 40 this morning...man these things love cherries, both sweet and sour it would seem. Once a tree gets chewed on, they all seem to show up...

I've noticed a few traps in yards... Too bad everyone wouldn't put them up.

I've discovered how to make it rain. Spray all the trees with Sevin. Rain comes instantly to wash it all off.

I never see this much pressure from JB. I empty ten Bag A Bug in 3 days or so. I would say that about ten plus pound of JB. They glue to the bag like bees due to the bait.

Tony

The traps are probably drawing JBs from miles away to your place.

The attractant probably is luring them in from a distance, but man it must feel good to kill so many.

I'm serious when I say these things are tough to catch by hand. Much easier to use a small bucket of water, but even then...some don't fall down they just fly off. They are fast *&(*(&... They can't outrun pesticide, but I still haven't gone to that. Maybe in the future.

They seem to mostly stay off my apricots, peaches, apples and pears.

My BIL that lives just north of here hasn't seen any yet... I told him I'd bag some up for him.

The JBs seem to be fading away at my place in the middle of Missouri. I haven't sprayed my trees for at least a couple weeks, but so far no swarms have returned. They are still on the wild grate and blackberries, but not in such swarms as when I started this thread. We haven't had rain for three weeks either, so it makes me worry that if and when we do get rain there might be another bloom of JBs.

I used the traps last year and emptied many, many pounds into plastic grocery sacks so I could reuse the trap bags. I suspect the traps do indeed draw them from the surrounding area. No traps this year. Instead I have controlled the infestation with Sevin. I have been surprised that I see almost no JBs in the garden. Last year they hit my pole beans hard and even got on the okra a bit. I haven't sprayed anything in the garden but BT for hornhworms and soap for squash beetles (which wasn't enough). All in all it seems the JBs aren't as bad as last year, and that may be partly due to using the traps last year. If I were doing that again I would absolutely place the traps at the very farthest corners of my property.

Chuck

Agree about trap placement. Don't put them near your prized sweet cherry trees.

Still thick here (to me at least). Pick another 30 or so just off the sweet cherries...Hotter then *&^*&^ out today. Real feel must easily be above 100f. Not a day to be walking around picking beetles.

I have been spraying my plums with Neem since early June, and they seem to be only lightly infested (a few), and damage seems to be minimal. I think maybe the flavor isn't too their liking, but cherry is.

No issues in my garden. A couple on the raspberries, but that is about it.

Its just too hot...whole week looks near 100F (actually temp) here in SW Wisconsin.

Frank,

Same miserable heat here. There were pop up showers all around us but none ON us. It did cool off some, but it will be in the 100's or almost for the next several days. Deer, coons, Japanese beetles, hot and dry. AAArrrgggghhhhh.

Chuck

Get the bags the more that die the better for everyone. If you attact a few of your neighbors bugs they won't care and the fewer he has laying eggs the fewer you will have next year(s). If you have chickens the bags are safe so feed the roasted in the sun for two days bag to the chickens. Amazing how fast the bags fill if the get full before they have roasted for a couple days might have to switch bags and rubber band the top of the bag to get them to cook enough to take the fight/flight out of them before feeding to chickens or fish if you got a pond. It's the circle of life.

Sweet cherries looking really rough these days. Removed another 50 or more beetles last night and again this morning.

Most other trees are being left alone (for the most part).

Chuck, Frank,

I think it does attract them to my yard, but that is fine, I want to kill as many of them as I can. My kids have fun help me empty the bag. I modified the bag. I took a bigger nylon bag so I only have to empty it every three days. Around 4 pounds per bag.

Tony

tony-

Do they hit your trees less with a trap up or is it about the same?

The more females you can kill the better... I try to always kill the ones who are mating...there always seems to be some males (i would assume) around the pair waiting/watching.

Frank,

They swarms the bag like bees and leave all my trees alone, I guess the pheromones is like a dog in heat.

Tony

I noticed today, when the temperatures were up around 100, that there were no beetles to be seen, not even on the roses. I found this odd.

Tonight around sunset when it was down to about 90, I went out and there they were, 100s and 100s of them all over the roses, way too many to squish, so I got out the spray bottle of insecticidal soap.

I'm wondering if anyone has studied them to know if they go inactive at high termperatures.

Same thing here... I found a few when it was 103F this afternoon, in the heart of the sweet cherry, but I have no idea where the rest went? I noticed all the flies were by my arbs in the shade...just 100's of them...

This evening they were swarming in to the sweet cherries...i ended up picking maybe 50 or so.

I've noticed 2 flushes...one in around 11Am and another in the evening... but who knows. I just can't believe how many there are this year....there is no way these are locals. They must be coming up from the south in hordes?

I am SO tempted to try using the roses as a trap crop, spraying them with something systemically toxic so the JBs would come, eat them and die. Roses are their favorite thing. If it weren't for the bees.

Well, now you guys have me worried. I haven't seen many JBs for the last week, but then I've been out looking in the heat of the day. I haven't checked my fruit trees for several days now, thinking the swarm was over. Now I'll start looking early and late in the day to see if they are still out there hiding from me.

I like the idea of a modified bag for the traps. Last year I just emptied the bags and put them back on the plastic holder, but eventually some of the holes in the bags where they mount ripped out. The replacement bags add to the cost, and those bags just aren't very sturdy. If someone has come up with a better bag or modified the existing bags so they can be emptied more easily and reused, that would probably cause me to use the traps again next year if I have JB problems then.

Chuck

I finally put out a trap...I'm using one of my plastic rose chafer traps (the bucket screws on)...the lure fits in it pretty well (could be a little bigger, but it works)... They are swarming.

If i did it over...I"d use several beetle traps and spray my trees down with azadirachtin (neem).

Frank,

How many more weeks do you think the JB will move on? I killed thousands in the Bag A Bug and hopefully this will disrupt the cycle a little bit. Cross my finger for next season. I will start hanging the trap a bit earlier next summer when I see just one of them so up.

Tony

I have no idea... Hopefully that let off a little. My sweet cherries are missing a lot of leaves.

I can't believe how they just exploded in population around here.

I looked at all my trees late yesterday and found no JBs. Maybe there's a very thin silver lining to the excessive heat and no rain?

We are supposed to get some rain Sunday....I'll believe it when it hits me in the face. I will be watching for a return of the JBs if we get any rain.

Chuck

Went by my neighbor's house. He has four new fruit trees this year and I saw one of them totally defoliated by the JBs, nothing left but brown lace.

Lots and lots of beetles today... Trap looks pretty full already. Used the hose to spray them out of the cherry trees. They don't like having a bath. Its too much work catching them by had. Next year I'm chopping all the cherries back to bushes and then covering with tulle or some other netting.

I cut all the flowers off their favorite rose bushes and sprayed the leaves.

One thing - they mostly stay out of the vegetable garden as long as they're busy with the stone fruits and their favorite flowers.

I am still changing a new bag each day. I hope someone is working on a virus that destroy them. Wishful thinking.

Tony

every day?

I must not have as many here... Since putting out the trap a few days ago, I've filled up a large zip loc bag full..its still probably 500 of them, but still not what you guys are getting or so it would seem...

Today was the best day yet for my Japanese beetle trap... I almost filled it completely up. Yesterday I hardly caught any. Not sure why. The wind today was out of the north all day so maybe the scent brought in new beetles? Have no clue. They really haven't been hitting my trees lately...I haven't even been checking them much...too lazy :)

Next year I'm going with 4 traps.

Frank,

Remember to save the trap and just buy the replacement bait for $2.00. I will save all my three traps.

Tony

After spraying the trap rose bushes, I see a dramatic decline in JBs, down to tolerable numbers.

I found five JBs on some zinnias while cleaning out a flower bed Sunday. They seemed almost as woozy as I felt in the heat. I squished them all and not a one seemed inclined to try to escape. Haven't seen any on my fruit trees or grapes for weeks now. The heat has finally broken, though we got no rain, and I will be on the lookout for more beetles in case the cooler weather wakes them up.

Chuck

They are thick again today. Have no idea where they are coming from now. Haven't had rain in weeks...grass is crusty brown.

So yesterday had about 1/2 the amt in the trap vs mon/tues... Today looks like even less.

What to do with stinky dead beetles? They smell like rotten fish. I threw them in a bag in the garbage...nasty. The flies were buzzing them.

I think its about over here...

frank,

Once the bag is full and all the bugs died than I burried them.

Tony

My garbage can still smells bad from last year when I filled it every day with grocery sacks of JBs. I always emptied the traps early in the morning so I could get cleaned up afterwards before going to work. A couple of times I used Clorox spray bleach on my hands to get rid of the smell. Ah. Good times.

I do believe the plague is about done here. I see a few here and there, but no swarms. I'll be spreading more milky spore when the weather cools and we get some rain...if the weather cools and we get some rain. It is supposed to be washed into the soil fairly soon after spreading for best effect. There's no way I can water it in everywhere I need to spread it, so I have to wait for rain.

Chuck

The raccoon came last night broke one of the trap's bag and ate all the dead JBs.

Tony

Yum!

I'm seeing a bunch of blue-winged wasps on my flowering herbs. I was reading that they will feed on (the larvae) Japanese beetles...Hopefully the multiply like crazy and kill all the Japanese beetle grubs (not likely).

Not many today. Just a few here and there. I didn't even empty the trap yesterday because there were so few.

I wonder if I refrigerate (freeze?) the lure in a couple of ziplock baggies, if they'll still be good next year?

Only place I'm seeing them in any numbers now is the Virginia Creeper - which I wouldn't mind them eating but I don't want them to breed.

Last year, instead of dying off by August they hung around through September.