Japanese beetles! help!!!?

Question

is there a nature-friendly way of getting/keeping japanese beetles off my roses?

Answer 1

i don't know of any ways other than traps and chemicals.  But, what ever you do DON"T USE TRAPS!  they have attractants on them and will attract every japanese beetle for miles.  

i personally have had a bad expierence with traps, i put two out and started getting hundreds of them in my yard.  Then my neighbors started to say how they were having a japanese beetle issue, and then they all disappeared.  They were all in my yard!!!!!

Answer 2

mothballs, they also help with cats.

Answer 3

Arctosa has a good answer.

  The thing with traps is you use them in large scale areas to draw the beetles away from your plants.  I do tend to hang one directly under a night light which stays on. The light attracts them anyways, and I don't bother with the lures so I only get what the light attracts.

A lot of your botanical gardens are hand picking them these days.

The other half of the coin is to control the larvae which are grubs. They spend most of their live in that form. You can use Milky Spore, which is a slow but long term solution. Milky Spore is a natural biological solution.  Granular insecticides will kill off the grubs in one application usually. However, your neighbors have them too. Japanese Beetles emerge in June, Eat their fill, and lay their larvae back in the soil, usually in lawns, about the end of August. They are most vulnerable then, as they are closest to the surface and at their youngest stage. They burrow their way deeper over winter and begin returning towards the surface in spring to emerge as beetles again next June.

TopCatt

Answer 4

Go to the Lowes garden supply and get a Japanese beetle trap, hang it in the middle of the yard or open area, put a few heavy rocks in the bottom so the wind doesn't blow the bag over and let them out, They work really great, I hung one yesterday and have about 50 now. They are really bad here and just about wiped out my roses and bushes. One will do it.

Answer 5

This may not be good news but the best way to control them and their offspring is to hand pick and dispose of them in soapy water. Another method that you may try is to set out white (that's the color that attracts them) 5 gal buckets under and around your roses. Fill them with water and a couple drops of detergent to break the tension. They will fall in and drown.

Don't use pesticides. The beetles are protected within the petals and need direct contact to be killed. The larvae live under the soil so they too are protected.

They like light colored roses the best so you may want to consider a more colorful variety if you are planning on any new planting.