Danger,Japanese Beetle War Zone

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Japanese Beetles love Raspberries! They are really bad in our gardens this year. We have been picking about 5 quarts of berrys and a pint jar full of beetles every day now for about a week. I am starting to wonder if there will be any end to the Beatles. Do they just keep flying In?

Our chosen method of dealing with these beetles is hand picking as we are opposed to poisons and arn't too sure that the spore stuff doesn't draw more in. Has any one out there tried the spore? What did you think?

I have read that you should have other plants that the beatles like to deter them from your crop, but I am even wondering if by having alot of other plants that the beatles love.(the wild mallows, primrose,knotgrasses,)if maybe we arn't just drawing more in and supporting them! Not that I am gonna get rid of my mallows, no way,!

I am so thankful for my little buddy chickens who follow me when they see me heading for the bushes, as they love to grab up and eat the beeetles that I drop. If it weren't for their enthusiasum I don't know if I would make it!

My husband Jim says that he doesn't know how I can pick beetles and berrys at the same time as he has to do them one at a time,but I just drape the basket under my left ewbow and hold the beetle jar, filled with a little water to anchor the beetles down, in my left hand, then my right hand is free for picking. There have been a few of those nasty beetles gotton into my berry basket tho! And they crawl into the hole of the berry and hide out to come out later!

The best times that I have found for picking are before the sun hits the bushes in the morning and after it has left them in the evening, not only for cooler berry picking conditions but because then the beetles are less active and easier to gather. All those suckers do is eat and mate, eat and mate! Plop Plop Plop, they go two at a time into my mason jar. And sometimes I catch them in the act of a huge orgy,then the whole pile of horny blasted beetles plunk into my mason !

They get all over me out there, later I find them in my underwear, down my shirt. yesterday Jim picked 10 of them out of my hair, crawling to my brain! I HATE JaPAnESE BEETles!!!!!

There is another method of dealing with pests, I remember reading once, where you take a couple of cups of the pest and put with some water into an old blender, then you set the setting on liquify and you squash the liven daylights out of them . Then you spray this solution on the offended plants. Guess its something about smelling their dead comrads that drives them away. Has anyone ever tried this ? Hm maybe I should just do it for the revenge! Where is that old blender!

Beetle Brained Tren

-- Anonymous, July 03, 2001

Answers

Tren,

Beetles aren't that bad here YET, I suppose they are on their way though. The only joy I get from these guys is watching my chickens zoom around the yard chasing them! It is such a sight. I have heard of the blender method but don't know if it works because it drives them away or it just gives psychological satisfaction to the human. Good Luck! Kim

-- Anonymous, July 03, 2001


Hi Tren: Have not tryed the "beetle juice" but seriously considering it this year. We are just seeing the very beginning of them here. One thing that has helped catch them here is something I discovered quite by accident. They always seem most drawn to my white roses so this makes sense. I was doing some transplanting and left a white bucket of water setting and when I went back it was loaded with drowned beetles so I am going to try leaving them around and see what happens. Last year they were up in the top of a wild cherry tree in our yard and if we say quietly we could actually hear them CHEWING!! I also hate these beetles!!!!!!!!!!!

-- Anonymous, July 03, 2001

Trendle, kind of reminds me of the Star Trek movie where the bug crawled into Chekov's ear and started to eat his brain ...

>:D

-- Anonymous, July 03, 2001


Tren: Are those the little beatles that are thumbnail size and green in color? I searched the web but can't find a picture.(Dumb Californian). I tell ya Tren you have more patience than me! I usually give up when over run like that and try again next year. Remember its only a rasberry! Ha!.....luv ya Kirk

-- Anonymous, July 04, 2001

Hi Tren, We have been battling the beetles, too. We generally each pick a pint or more every morning and evening. They love the berries, the apple and peach trees, the okra, grapes, and roses, too. We put down milky spore a few years ago (at least 2 1/2 yrs), but it doesn't appear to have helped any. One thing we wonder about is all the manure we've brought in from local farms- wonder if that also brought in more grubs. We haven't tried the juicing method. Our chickens love them, too. Good luck.

-- Anonymous, July 05, 2001


Do they eat slugs? We have a different kind of annoyance out here...

-- Anonymous, July 05, 2001

Tren, We have a few beetles around here but nothing like you. My skin is crawling just reading your post. To have all those pulled out of my hair....YUCK!

I know I have seen beetle traps around and I seem to remember some that used natural baits. Your chickens may not enjoy it as much but they will adjust. There are lots of other bugs around.

I love the blender idea - at least you feel a measure of revenge.

Thanks for waking my skin up today. Joanie

-- Anonymous, July 06, 2001


Kirk, I tried to cut and paste a picture for you but guess my computer skills arn't what they should be. According to this map that I found you don't even have them there! Lucky You! Thanks for all the sympathy every body, actually it's getting better, think that the chickens and I are getting ahead of them.

No No No Kirk, it is not just a Raspberry, they are the berrys that we dreamed of for years, the berrys that my Jim chose, he planted, we tended, we put netting on to keep out the birds(because they won't share) they are not just berrys to us anymore, we have too much invested in them, and I will be &^*%#, if the beetles are going to rob me of them. Hm, and you all thought I was meek and mild didn't ya! Smile, Tren

-- Anonymous, July 08, 2001


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