Green Japanese Beetles – UGH!

Other than butterflies, moths, and Lightening Bugs…insects in general

CREEP ME OUT.

I’ve found that in Missouri – there’s a lot to creep me out here. (insert crying face)

One of the most annoying, albeit colorful, insects here is the Japanese Beetle. They are not native to the U.S. but came over on shipping containers from Japan. Talk about an annoying insect! They chow down on a variety of plants but the most annoying one they bother is my roses. They destroy the blooms by eating away at the base of them and the whole rose wilts and dies. When no blooms are available…they riddle the leaves.

I never had much of an issue with them on the West Coast but here in the Mid-West…WATCH OUT…they are a serious issue. The big problem is you can’t spray for them without hurting the beneficial insects too. Sprays, chemicals…even “natural” products like Diatomaceous Earth….aren’t discriminatory and kill off both ‘bad’ bugs as well as the ‘good’ bugs.

The only way to affectively deal with them sans chemicals is to treat your lawn in early spring (the first stage of these Son of a Bug is a grass grub) or picking them off BY HAND (!?) into a jar of soapy water. Ew!

I have been faithfully swallowing my squeamishness and go out every morning when they are not as active (once disturbed they fly away and live to reek havoc another day) to shake them off into a jar of water and dish soap. They really cannot escape the soap swim and it seems to take them out but if I had more than 2-3 rose bushes that could be a full morning routine. Who wants that?! Not me!

I have recently switched to a spray bottle full of water and a healthy squirt of Doctor Bronner’s Soap. Spraying them with it seems to gum up their wings and they cannot fly or move. I’m not sure how effective it is because I don’t have a body count like I do with the BUG JAR OF DEATH. However, I must say its VERY satisfying to use the squirt bottle and blast away at them! Kinda like a Wild West Bug Slinger…get it? ‘Bug’ slinger…not “gun” slinger?!

LAST TIP: Be careful and ONLY squirt the bug. I found it wilts and browns the flowers and/or foliage too when applied. So don’t go give your plants a nice mist of the soap spray thinking it will help protect your plant from future J.B. visitors. Also, only use ‘soap’…not dish soap…in your SPRAY bottle. I don’t really know why it makes a difference but that’s what ‘they’ say…people who know J.B. I guess. 🙂

Hope these tips and personal testimony helps you fight your own battle against these little green demons.

Have a Blessed and Wonderfully Gnomie Day!

Eileen