Did you know that with just a few simple tips, you can all but eliminate Japanese beetles and get rid of them for good?
As June comes to an end and July approaches – Japanese beetles begin to appear. What can start out with just a few scattered sightings of the green metallic and brown winged creatures can within just a day or two turn into hundreds of the pests visiting the plants in your landscape. And from there, it only gets worse!
Unfortunately, the visits aren’t friendly in nature. Once the beetles find a plant or plants to their liking, they can quickly chew holes in the foliage. And as more and more beetles congregate on the plants, the damage can be fast and severe.
Here on our farm, beetles love to search out our grape vines, clematis and rose bushes. But their appetite for perennials, shrubs and bushes doesn’t end there. They also love forsythia, hibiscus, holly, fruit trees, lilacs, pine trees and a long, long list of additional plants.
So how do we keep them away? As you will see below, with just a few simple tips, keeping beetles from devouring your plant’s foliage doesn’t have to be a nightmare. But it all starts by making sure you are not attracting more than your fair share!
How To Get Rid Of Japanese Beetles With Ease
Skip The Beetle Traps!
One of the first big keys to stopping Japanese beetles is to avoid using beetle traps. Unfortunately, if you are using beetle bags or beetle traps in your yard, they most likely are causing more harm than good. Especially if your property is a few acres or less.
Japanese beetle traps work by emitting a scent that attracts beetles into an area. Although the traps do lure in large numbers of beetles into the bag, they unfortunately bring even more beetles to your yard. Ones that are heading to your plants and not the trap!
To properly protect plants, traps need to be placed far away from the plants you are trying to help. If not, they simply attract your neighbor’s beetles into your space as well. To be effective, beetle bags need to be placed at the edge of a property, acres away from where you are trying to lure them away from.
Unfortunately, in most cases, the average yard is just not big enough. The result? The bags actually attract even more beetles that can then mate, and lay more larvae in your soil to become an even bigger problem next year! Quite simply, for most situations – they are better to avoid.
So how do you get rid of the ones that do show up? That all starts with hand picking – and you won’t believe how effective it can be!
Getting Rid Of Beetles With Hand Picking
Hand picking beetles from plants may sound like such a tedious and hard task – but you might be surprised at just how easy, and more importantly, effective it is to get Japanese beetles under control – and help get rid of them for good!
The more beetles you eliminate, the less long-term issues you will have. Beetles come out to dine, then bury down into the soil to lay the grub larva that becomes next year’s beetles. But the more you control now, the less that can make it into the soil to lay larva.
Although it may sound like a lot of work, it is actually quite easy to do. Simply fill a small pail with water and a few drops of dish soap. Then, walk around your plants and brush the beetles into the liquid. For us, doing this twice a day for about two weeks nearly eliminated the population.
We like to hand pick in the late morning and again in the afternoon when the beetles are most active. We have a lot of ground to cover, but even so, it still only took about 15 to 30 minutes for the first few days. After that, the population began to slow a bit and we could walk and pick in about ten minutes.
Without a doubt, hand picking is simply the easiest and most effective way to both protect your plants and eliminate the beetle population. Not just for the short term – but more importantly, for the long term!
In the years after hand picking – our total population has declined dramatically. It certainly makes it easier and easier with each passing year.
Using Cedar Oil To Keep Beetle Damage Under Control
So what if the beetles are simply out of control and damaging plants quickly? That is where using an all-natural beetle spray made from cedar oil or wood can amazingly help protect your plants and keep damage to a minimum while you work to get the population under control.
Japanese beetles do not like the scent of cedar. And although it does not kill the beetles, it will make them leave the plants. Even better, it will keep them off for a while too! See: Homemade Japanese Beetle Spray – The Perfect Way To Stop Beetles And Protect Plants.
The mixture is simple to make and can be applied to plants as a natural barrier to Japanese beetles. You can make it either with pure Eastern Red Cedar oil, or chunks or small pieces of Eastern Red Cedar wood if you are lucky enough to live where it grows. We have found that the pure oil is the easiest to use – you just simply mix it up and spray!
Spraying To Get Rid Of Japanese Beetles
The resulting cedar and water spray is easy to use in a hand held or backpack sprayer. Apply the spray liberally to the leaves of plants and watch the beetles fly away! Be sure to spray as much of the foliage as possible.
Not only will it make the current beetles leave, but the spray residue will also keep them from coming back. As for the oil we like to use – we have good success with the Fox Creek Naturals brand. Affiliate Link: 8oz Cedar Oil Can – Essential Eastern Red Cedar Wood Oil
Remember that this is a great short term solution to protect plants. This will be effective for a few days if it does not rain or there is not a heavy dew. If the mixture is washed off, simply reapply to once again create an effective deterrent.
The real key to success to get rid of Japanese beetles is to get out there and remove them. By keeping the balance of nature in check by not spraying non-discriminatory insecticides, you will be amazed at how major infestations will become a thing of the past! Happy Gardening – Jim & Mary.
Old World Garden Farms
Jim and Mary Competti have been writing gardening, DIY and recipe articles and books for over 15 years from their 46 acre Ohio farm. The two are frequent speakers on all things gardening and love to travel in their spare time.
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