A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion The Plants and Flowers Forum Japanese beetles are eating everything!!!

Help! They are eating everything, literally! A rose that opened this morning was decimated by lunchtime! My cannas look like brown lace and they have started in on my tomatoes! What do I do?! I've sprayed them with like three different kinds of bug killer, set out the bag-type traps, nothing has helped! My poor roses are trying so hard to be pretty, they are blooming very well, but the blooms only last a few hours because of the beetles!

I hate beetles.

put the bag traps up somewhere that is away from what the beetles are eating. that will help a little bit by drawing them away from the plants.

not much you can do about them - they're not native here and whatever is their natural preditor isn't here, so they tend to run rampant.

we had a bad infestation a couple of years ago, so i feel for you!!

you can make a solution of water and dish soap - just put a few drops in a cup of water - and then drop the bugs into it.

you can also treat your lawn with milky spore - that takes a few years to really see a difference, though. it kills the grubs when they are in the ground over the winter. the spores take a couple of years to multiply enough in the soil to really do any damage to the larvae.

whenever i'm digging in the soil (whether just turning it over or digging to transplant something) i always kill the larvae when i find one.

Hang traps at least 25-30 feet AWAY from where the plants are you want to protect. In sun preferably.
I caught 5 quart sized jars full last year. It was a REALLY bad year for JBs....