pesticde free way of ridding fruit trees of Japanese beetles ?

[Ed]

Is there a pesticide free way of ridding fruit trees of Japanese beetles ?

Thank you

Ed

[William Wagner]

Look about for Japanese beetle traps. Then again you may make your own. They like yellow. Growing up hand picking with a small jar of kerosene was the method of choice. I think "milky spore" is the way to go now. We were always more interested in lighting bugs ;))

Bill

[Andrew Ostrander]

I don't know what a Japanese beetle is but, as it happens, this post about 4 o'clocks and Japanese beetles was posted about a half hour before yours, by Starlord.

[Holley]

no need to use kerosene............soapy water does the trick! just drop 'em in and toss away.

William Wagner wrote: Growing up hand picking with a small jar of

[nitsupak]

There are several ways

1. Beetle traps. You can buy these at any hardware stores or Home Depot. One big word of advice. Place them AWAY from your trees like on the other side of the house. You want the beetles to flly AWAY from your trees. I have hybrid T roses and these beetles LOVE to eat the roses and the beetle traps diminish the beetles by about 95 %.

1. Buy some worms called nematodes from a garden store or mail order and put them in the soil. They eat the beetle larvae. They won't work right away, but over time they will.

2. I read this from a magazine and have yet to try this. It seems that beetles are attracted to bright colors, specifically white. Hang a white sheet , again away from your trees but on your property. Supposedly the beetles will congregate on the white sheet and you can pick them off with soapy water and then dump them in the water. I haven't tried this yet.

Nitsupak Nitsupak Art & Photograhy

[Father Haskell]

Go with milky spore. Apparently, it's driven the Japanese beetles in my area to near extinction.

[Myrl Jeffcoat]

I'm confused here. . .I thought nematodes weren't that great to have around. Especially to tomatoes??? Is there another side to the nematode story???

Myrl Jeffcoat

[John Wheeler]

[Myrl Jeffcoat]

Now that is educational. . .I had no idea!