Figured out a new way to handle Japanese beetles
@3SnuggleBunnies (16374)
United States
July 18, 2010 11:58am CST
So these lil buggers are starting to come around alot again. I'm still not sure how to prevent them exactly but all I've heard is to kill them when you see them.... wich sounds easy til you realize they fly off when you try to knock them into a container ect. So I was just out there inspecting my plants and I was wearing flip flops. I took the flip flops onto my hands like mittens and put one flop on one side of the leaf one was on and the other on top, gently pulled it off the leaf then I rolled the bug in between my flip flops until squished.
I dunno many ways to combat them w/o pesticides but this way I can catch & kill more of them. Here's a pic of these lil vermin for those unfamiliar http://www.ent.iastate.edu/imagegal/coleoptera/scarabaeidae/japanese_beetle_corn.html
4 people like this
5 responses
@scarlet_woman (23463)
• United States
18 Jul 10
omg i HATE those bugs.
as much as i dislike killing things,in 1980 my whole town was overrun with them-everybody was having a problem.no matter what you did,they still got in.
i was killing 15 to 20 per night.
3 people like this
@3SnuggleBunnies (16374)
• United States
18 Jul 10
I know every trip outside today I take off my flip flops and start squishing the lil buggers. I wish there was a good way to get rid of them. I imagine the farmers are none to happy with them either. I was reading they say that the corpses of their rellow beetle will deter them but how do you keep birds and other scavenger insects like ants from taking the remains away?
1 person likes this
@scarlet_woman (23463)
• United States
24 Jul 10
i guess you could crush them up in water and sprinkle it..
the scent would still be there..
@3SnuggleBunnies (16374)
• United States
18 Jul 10
They've only been around here the past few years. That's why I'm killing them as I see them because they do swarm all over my beans and eat up the leaves. I saw my first grouping today trying to do what "rabbits do best" .... CRUNCH! They went!
Sounds like they are super bad by your Sister's place!
@GardenGerty (169489)
• United States
19 Jul 10
I do not think I have had a big problem with them. I will keep this happy method in mind though.
1 person likes this
@dragon54u (31633)
• United States
19 Jul 10
I don't kill them. I had to look them up in images to be sure you were talking about the beetles I so enjoy looking at! They are probably the ones munching on my green beans but they are so pretty and don't bite, I leave them alone and share my vegetables with them. 
1 person likes this
@Hatley (163772)
• Garden Grove, California
18 Jul 10
3snugglebunnies this brings back memories I was fifteen and had a broad
slat and a can of kerosene, so when ever I found a japanese bettle swat
off into the kerosene where it suffocated, onto the next one, I wore cotton gloves and a straw hat as it was a hot July day in South Dakota
them. I soon had a can full and the garden was clean of them. My grandpa
would then set the kerosene on fire, guess he wanted to make them even
deader,lol lollol. the odor of the kerosene soon got to me. I let my grandpa takeover on the corn patch. lol.
1 person likes this
