![]() On top of that, the chemicals tend to be indiscriminate in their range of damage, doing harm to beneficial pollinators like honeybees and the friendly aphid-destroying ladybug. The homeowner needs to spray everything the beetles eat or apply granules to the lawn over large areas including trees, roses and other types of perennials, and fruits and vegetables.Įven the pheromone traps often seen for sale tend to do more harm than good, by attracting the beetles to a new area. A Pound of Cureīecause of the mobility of these pests, it’s difficult to truly control them without applying nasty chemicals. We have an excellent feature on xeriscaping that explains this process very well. Take care and be aware that there’s a difference between letting your yard go dead, and minimizing your water use. By allowing our lawns to go dry we are minimizing our water usage, and making the landscape far less attractive to Japanese beetles.įor those who simply don’t want to let their lawn go dry, consider letting it go high instead! Mike McGrath of the You Bet Your Garden radio show suggests that allowing your lawn to stay at a height of about three inches, coupled with no watering during dry spells, can prevent the female beetles from laying eggs in the soil. Many areas in California and Washington state are promoting the slogan “Brown is the new green” in an effort to minimize water use in drought-stricken areas. When amassed and in the morning hours, simply pick up or shake the beetles into soapy water. One of the most effective methods for limiting future generations of the pest is to limit how often you water your lawn. ![]() As touched upon earlier, America’s obsession with a vibrantly green and thick lawn has provided the perfect nursery for these invasive pests. In addition to selecting plants that are generally avoided by the bugs, we can help to make our lawns unappealing and inhospitable during the grub stage of their life cycle.įemale beetles are drawn to well-irrigated turf to deposit their eggs, and the grubs happily chew up the roots of our nice, green lawns. But what can we do to limit their damage, short of altering the entire landscape? An Ounce of Preventionįortunately, there are a few easy, low-impact methods we can employ to protect our gardens. So, some of our favorite and most useful plants are also highly favored by Japanese beetles – sounds like they’ve got good taste. Every stage in the lives of these insects is destructive. So, my trick for minimizing their dinner visits is to revisit my favorite Central American recipes and cook up a spicy meal so hot it’ll make their heads spin.Īs for turf, the grubs will tear apart the roots of your lawn and leave vast swaths of brown and dead turf to repair. They’ve got bland taste buds boiled potatoes and cabbage with a sprinkle of pepper is the limit for what they will tolerate. I’ve got some in-laws I don’t care for (who doesn’t?). Read our guide on grub identification and control here. They’ll emerge from the soil and start the life cycle all over again. They cause no small amount of damage to turf at this point, as they prepare themselves for their change to adulthood. When the weather warms up, these babies will perk right up and burrow their way to the roots of your lawn, munching away. They don’t do much damage throughout this brief stage, but just you wait until spring. They’ve been observed to dig themselves as far as a foot into the soil during these cold spells. Mite Problems Are A Thing of the Past, Unless.The grub phase as seen in its incubatory soil.ĭuring the winter months, the grubs will typically dig themselves into the soil to wait out the cold.Frost Cloth – What do the Numbers Mean?.Famous Faces of the Desert – Tarantulas.Japanese Beetles, Milky Spore and Soil Inoculation. ![]() One of the great benefits of bio-rational controls in the garden or crop is that they target one family or species of pest and leave all the others – particularly the beneficial insects – alone. In the world of bio-rational controls, this is especially remarkable. Even more amazing is that many natural enemies are specific to their targeted prey. One of the great (and scary) things in nature is that every living thing on the planet has a natural enemy – or two. The adult beetles damage the leaves of more than 300 different kinds of plants, while their larvae love the roots of turf grasses, vegetables and ornamental plants as they move up through the soil and pupate into adulthood. Since that time, these voracious pests have steadily moved south and westward leaving a swath of damage in their wake. It is believed that they were accidentally imported in Japanese iris bulbs and found their way to a nursery in New Jersey. Japanese Beetles ( Popillia japonica) were first spotted in the US in 1916.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |