Getting Rid of Japanese Beetles

Japanese beetles can wreak havoc in your yard by devouring flowers and stripping the leaves off of plants. The grubs will also destroy grass by eating the roots. This is a guide about getting rid of Japanese beetles.

Solutions: Getting Rid of Japanese Beetles

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Garden Insects: Japanese Beetles

Identification

Look for metallic blue-green, long-legged beetles with coppery-colored wing covers. Adults lay eggs from June through August. Eggs hatch into fat white, comma-shaped grubs with brownish-orange heads. Grubs overwinter in the soil and pupate in June.

Favorite Plants

Adult beetles will eat most garden crops and grubs feed on grass

Damage

Adult beetles eat flowers and strip off the leaves of plants. Like all white grubs, Japanese beetle grubs prefer to feed on the tender roots of grass. Lawns develop large areas of dead brown grass that will peel back like a rug when pulled.

Organic Methods of Control:

Cultural or Mechanical

Shake beetles onto tarps placed beneath plants in the early morning.
Hand pick beetles from plants.
Cover plants with floating row covers or screens.
Interplant garlic, larkspur, tansy, rue and geranium.
Use spiked sandals on lawns to kill grubs as they feed near the surface in the late spring.
Kill eggs by allowing lawn to dry out between watering and allowing it to go dormant in the summer.

Biological

Japanese Beetle Grub. Photo by David Cappaert (www.insectimages.org)

Apply parasitic nematodes as a top dressing to plants and lawn in spring.
Apply milky spore disease (Bacillus popilliae) to grassy areas.
Attract birds to your yard and garden.

Chemical

Spray a mixture of garlic, onion and pepper to deter adult beetles from feeding on plants.
Spray soap and lime directly onto adult beetles to irritate them.
As a last resort, spray beetles with pyrethrins or rotenone.

By Ellen Brown

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Questions

Here are questions related to Getting Rid of Japanese Beetles.

Getting Rid of Japanese Beetles

I would like to know how to kill Japanese beetles.

By joannedesimone

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Most Recent Answer

By Laniegirl 01/07/2013

I really hate to use "Sevin" product but it did help go get rid of them when I had them last year. The one thing I can tell you not to do is buy one of those traps. They just attract the beetles!

Getting Rid of Japanese Beetles

It's once again Japanese beetle season in SW Michigan. I used to use the traps and now have been told the traps attract the beetles as well as trap them. We were also told there is no insect repellent that will kill them. What do I do to rid our outside plants and trees of these little killers before my outdoor plants are destroyed?
Thank you.

By Mary from Zeeland, MI

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Most Recent Answer

By Laniegirl 07/12/2011

Check your yard for grubs. They are white thick worms and they eat the roots of your grass. A few in your yard will not hurt but if you have a lot, they will decimate the grass. This is where Japanese beetles come from. They lay their eggs and then hatch. The first year I was at my place, I had them in droves. I put in a flower bed and every time I saw a grub I I drowned it. You can also use Neem oil. But you will always have a problem if you don't get rid of the grubs.

Japanese Beetles on Rose Bushes

Can anyone tell me how to get rid of the Japanese beetles that are eating my roses? I don't know where they are coming from. I remove many every day and the next day there are just as many back again. They eat the roses and some of the leaves.

Help!

By Bev D

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Getting Rid of Japanese Beetles

How do I get rid of Japanese Beetles/Asian Beetles. They are swarming us in the bathroom and kitchen windows. There are dead carcasses all over the counters. I was hoping someone could help!

Mary Ann from Center Junction, IA

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Most Recent Answer

By Cantate 02/26/2007

Take a milk jug (narrow neck and big body) and half fill with water. Add a squirt of dish detergent, a tablespoon or so of vinegar and the same of sugar. The beetles will go for the sweet smell, get trapped in the soapy water and die inside the bottle, and you can pour it out and start over. Cheap and easy.

Cantate in Japan (where we don't have Japanese beetles; my mom has done this for years.)

Getting Rid of Japanese Beetles on Basil Plants

How do you keep Japanese beetles off of basil plants? They are eating holes in mine.

By Tina

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