invasion of the flower snatchers

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Japanese beetles are here…..grrrrr. I found a recipe for a trap to catch them that doesn’t involve pheromones. It’s organic , so what the heck, I am going to try it:

Japanese Beetle Trap and Bait
The following bait and trap method is to be used during the height of the Japanese Beetle season.

Ingredients:
1 cup water
1/4 cup sugar
1 mashed banana
1 pkg yeast

Dissolve sugar and yeast in the water. Mix the well maxhed banana into the sugar water. Put all ingredients in a gallon milk jug. Place the jug (with the top off) in an area where Japanese Beetles gather. The fermentation and odor of the bait attracts the beetles which get in but not out.

I figure it can’t hurt.

Japanese Beetles arrived in this country around 1916 in Japanese Irises or something. They were first spotted in New Jersey.

I don’t feel like having my plants shredded and I know the commercial traps basically send out and “open house” signal to beetles, so I will try the organic version above. I also use Neem oil but they seem to not be deterred by that very much this year.

Repellent plants are supposed to be catnip, chives, garlic, tansy and rue. And a surprise use for a bird not a lot of people like: starlings apparently view Japanese Beetles in grub form as a delicacy.

Japanese beetles feed on a huge host of plants, not just roses.

Basically if you like flowers, they like flowers. And when all else fails, stomp on them.

5 thoughts on “invasion of the flower snatchers”

  1. Google “milky spore disease”. Innoculate your property according to the directions. In a year or two, you will have NO MORE BEETLES! And it doesn’t harm anything else. You will also no longer have moles or skunks digging up you yard to get at the grubs.

  2. excited to try this! Jap beetles are on the bean plants this year….and the blueberries. Yard is too large to do the milky spore but have heard it works well if you stick with it. We tried the commercial traps, ugh,

  3. I can’t fault the “rambling” lady as this recipe can be found in numerous places on the web. In my case, it doesn’t seem to work although the jug is just a few feet from some red hot pokers that are covered with beetles. At least the roses will likely enjoy the banana peels!

    • This is the first year I am trying this trap too and it has worked with some of the beetles because I have made a second batch up- I had caught a lot of them the first go round . There are so many of them this year. I am going to have to do the milky spore stuff and or actually use chemicals like that Sevin insecticide

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