Japanese beetle traps - do they attract more bugs to your garden?

This year the Japanese beetle situation in my backyard here in SE PA is simply dire - I have just disposed of the nine's bag, which probably gets the total close to 12-15 pounds of bugs so far, and they keep coming! The usual amount is perhaps 3-4 bags a season, and usually I don't dispose of them because they are overflowing like this year, only because they start smelling awful. This year I've also sprayed heavily, so the amount of bugs killed is staggering, yet they keep coming.

It just so happened that I put the first two traps up maybe a week in advance of actually seeing the first bug. This got me thinking that perhaps I have brought this on myself by attracting the first bugs by the lure of the traps? And then the consequent waves of bugs are just attracted by the previous ones? Has anyone seen use of Japanese beetle traps to actually increase the amount of bugs?

I should add that I don't really have a place to put them 30 feet away from the yard, like the description on the trap calls for, I have some oak trees about

10 feet or so from the property line, and that's the farthest I can put the traps. Regardless, the leaves are destroyed in close proximity to the traps as well as some 30-40 ft away.

So, what's the word on usefulness of the traps in the gardening community?

Reply to
passerby
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I have a plum tree and hollyhocks, both of which are very attractive to Japanese beetles, so for several years I used traps on my property. I got so fed up with the beetle invasion (they very nearly killed the tree), I just. . . gave up.

Since I quit using the traps, the number of beetles afflicting my plum tree and hollyhocks is but a small fraction of what I had when the traps were in place. Live and learn.

Reply to
Moe DeLoughan

The traps are made explicitly for luring Japanese beetles so they work well if you have a large enough yard to place them more than 100' from the plants you want to protect... they are of no value on the typical suburban lot, but you'll be doing your neighbors a favor.

Reply to
Brooklyn1

No longer a problem with me. Maybe spread of milky spore disease got them or natural predators.

I remember the days of a gypsy moth problem but that has also disappeared.

In the last couple of years, it was stink bugs but now I seldom see one.

In these three cases, I did not do anything but balance of nature must have taken over.

Reply to
Frank

passerby wrote: ...

no experience with the traps, but even the beetles themselves will attract other beetles.

last year i had a large infestation on some wild grape vines. after hand picking them off each day they'd still come back from the surrounding area.

i see they are now coming back again this year but the numbers don't seem to be as many. i'll keep picking them off the grape vines and as i see them on the garden plants and some flowers (hollyhocks and geraniums they seem to like too besides the grape vine). in the gardens i mostly try to keep them from eating all the bean plants.

songbird

Reply to
songbird

Gee, man, where do you live? I may consider moving to that magical place with no bugs!

Reply to
passerby

I think you are exactly right, they do tend to, for lack of a better term, snowball. I noticed that with the traps, too: as soon as a few of them discover it, a whole wave seems to show up next.

Anyhow, I will be taking the traps down and will try to go trapless next year. Thanks for your input!

Reply to
passerby

fwiw, i went out today thinking the wild grapes were being eaten by japanese beetles, but i found all of two. so something else must be getting them this year. last year i could pick off 50-100 japanese beetles in about 15 minutes each morning for quite some time and then come back later and get more (but as the day gets warmer they are more active and harder to capture). by the end of the summer i must have picked over a thousand of 'em. we are surrounded by farm fields so there is no way we'll ever be rid of them, nobody is going to treat that large an area and for my own preference that is ok as i think that i'd much rather have other moth and butterfly larva left alone.

i'll check again in the morning and see if there are more or if today was just a fluke...

songbird

Reply to
songbird

I did not say, no bugs in Delaware. What I said was that plague of these bugs diminished significantly. My suspicion is that birds, bats and other insects found the plagues tasty after a while.

Bugs are one thing but now it's weeds. Wish deer ate Japanese stilt grass.

Reply to
Frank

Many years ago when traps came out I tried one near my grapes and discovered the mistake to put the trap near the grapes.

Reply to
Frank

Frank wrote: ...

as these are wild grape vines i'm not too worried about what happens to them. they're growing on a fence that i'd like to keep them off, but it's tough to get anything done back there as the other side of the fence is a sloped large drainage ditch.

once in a while Ma likes to use the grape vines for making wreaths in the winter so i haven't whole heartedly gone after eradication of them... yet...

songbird

Reply to
songbird

I tried traps years ago, in Indiana. The results were amazing, as I could see dozens of JB's in flight across surrounding yards. It was like LaGuradia the day before a holiday! I later read that they are not really effective, and DO attract beetles unless the neighboring yards also use traps. But, then, how far out is "neighboring"?

Reply to
Norminn

No matter where one places traps one will be sacrificing some plants in an attempt to save others. Japanese beetles are fairly selective in which plants they eat, so it's most effective to spray those trees/shrubs where beetles are active. Five years ago there was a heavy infestation of Japanese beetles here, lots of people set out traps including me. I live on several acres but regardless where I set the traps the beetles found certain trees and shrubs, they loved my lindens, fruit trees, and roses. Finally I mixed up a batch of sevin for my hand sprayer, the beetles departed or died but within an hour all were gone. If one follows the directions sevin is safe. All my neighbors agreed, the traps increased the infestation while relatively few beetles died in traps.

Reply to
Brooklyn1

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