Are you plagued with these horrid pests? This is the third year they have been here. First year only saw a few. Last year a few more. This year they are bad. They are ruining my Bluebird hibiscus. They decimated my few roses. One day the roses were OK & the next time I looked they were leafless.
Any tips on dealing with them ?

Doris

Hi Doris, we had them for maybe 5 years in a row. Thick on the side of the house. The last two years we have not seen much of them...not sure why!

Theses links provide excellent information on Japaneese Beetles. DO NOT USE TRAPS AS YOU WILL ATTRACT MORE BEETLES. It also provides of list of plants which attract Japanees Beetles so you can avoid them when adding new plants to your garden. http://ppp.missouri.edu/newsle...
http://www.ca.uky.edu/entomolo...
http://extension.entm.purdue.e...
http://home.insightbb.com/~bgr...
http://www.mplsmirror.com/mpls...

They don't seem to like to be around garlic so plant just a couple near each rose or other bothered plant. Also spray some hot pepper and garlic solution on the plants. I've heard that jewel weed(black nightshade)is toxic to them but they love it. I have some that seems to be eaten eagerly by someone, often blister beetles, but I don't see the J. beetles so maybe it works.

Leaflady,can you give the botanical name for jewel weed (black nightshade)...I don't know that plant.

In doing a Google for both of them I see I have been misinformed for many years. They are 2 very different plants. Jewel Weed is an impatient or balsam. Black Nightshade is in the same family in family as tomatoes, eggplant, etc. and is called Solanum Nigrum. The plant I have been told is Blk. Nightshade that is often devoured by blister beetles and I suppose Japanese beetles. I let it grow in limited number and don't see any Japanese beetles. I don't know if it kills the b.b.s because there are so many of them that hundreds could go off and die or be eaten by birds of many kinds & I wouldn't know it. I also spray b.b. when I see them just to be sure they die. They will strip potato plants in no time.

I hope this helps you.

I went to a demonstration on making a compost tea from worm castings. The recipe can be found on this link http://www.windsweptwormfarm.c... The speaker said that she noticed if she applied the tea every two weeks during japaneese beetle season (spray on plants and beetles), the beetles left her garden. I think it is worth a try.

Note, however - the site says:

"This mixture is only viable for about 24 hours. After that the population of microorganisms begins to diminish rapidly.

This solution will kill virtually all insects including white fly, aphids, squash bugs, ants, fleas, ticks, mosquitoes, termites, flies to name a few.

Worm tea is nondiscriminatory. It will kill beneficial bugs as well.

Reapplication will be necessary after rain or watering as well as periodically to eliminate eggs that have hatched since last spray application."

Well - they harvested the bean field next to us on Monday -- the beetles flew all over the place -- had to walk around with my mouth shut for fear of swallowing one of the nasty buggers. Now they all seem to be gone! Yippee -- hopefully they went to another bean field far far away!!!

Has anyone here tried the worm tea? interested to see how it turned out.