Bing Cherry and Japanese Beetles - Help!

[drumin]

Hi all.

After 3 years of trying to keep Japanese Beetles from stripping the leaves off of my 2 Bing Cherry trees by mid summer, one of them died last year. I've tried various bug killers but they don't seem to work too well. I'm hoping that someone has an idea other than trying to hand pick them off, which I did last year and which obviously is time consuming and didn't save one tree. Help?

 

[loadthestove]

Some years back we had a major infestation of the bettles.We use some kind of bait(dont remember what it was).The bait was place in a sock and hung above a plastic jug.The bettles would try to get to the bait and fall in the jug.

My folks place several around the place and the bugs would try to get in there instead of on the trees

 

[dingeryote]

Skip the sock traps. The Jap Beetles are lookin' for love and tasty snacks when they come outta the ground. The sock traps are baited with phermones to bring them INTO your yard where they will find Chow before trying to get laid....

A better plan is to give several of those sock traps to your neighbors in a half block radius.

The Beetles lay eggs in grassy areas so if you can, keep the area tilled.
If not, you're gonna have to kill the emerging grubs with a soil applied insecticide, or the beetles as they feed.

Ground applied in mid to late June, and watered in Admire(Imadaclorpid) and Platinum(thiamethoxam) do a good job of catching the bastards on thier way out, and both work systemicly in trees and bushes to either deter the feeding or kill 'em after feeding.
Both are RUP pesticides though, and may not be available to you or the Pest control guy ya call.. you'll have to check.

As for nuking 'em on the tree..Immidan,Lannate,Provado(Imadaclorpid) work well, but again are RUP so check with a local arborist or pest control dude.

Plain old Sevin XLR is unrestricted, and does a pretty good job if you keep the application fresh. It's also about the safest and least persistent option short of picking 'em off.

The Organic weenies will tell you about Diotamacious earth and insect soap, and a bunch of other stuff....good luck with that.

I HATE Jap Beetles. Kill 'em all, and kill thier larvae!!!
But if your neighbors don't make life tough on them, you're in for a long fight.

Stay safe!
Dingeryote

 

[Bushman_269]

The Japanese beetles love my Weeping Cherry trees, I kill them by the hundreds (if not thousands) by spraying the trees with liquid Sevin while they are chowing down on the leaves. One year I had a mound of dead beetles under one tree.

 

[Vuotto]

I read some where that spraying the tree with a mixture of water and dishsoap works. I'm going to try that out this year and see if it actually works.