Sunrise Landscape Designs

    What do we do about this? I set out JB traps.  I have my JB traps set about 10′-15′ down wind from plants that I know are chewed on every year.  The reason for the distance is so the beetles are attracted away from their favorite food and hopefully less damage is done.  Do the traps attract JB from other areas too?  Probably, but I find it difficult to stand by and watch my plants be defoliated.  It is also very satisfiying to watch the beetles fly into the traps!

    Biological control is a great idea.  If you provide a variety of plants in your yard, you will be drawing different types of birds that eat the JB.  Starlings, Cardinals, Grackles, Meadowlarks, Crows, Chickens, Pheasants, Ducks, Geese, and even Guineas are all great predators of the JB.

Those nasty tent worms are now forming in many trees. They feed on the leaves and just look messy. If left alone, little harm is done to the tree. It is late enough in the growing season that even if the tree leaves were totally gone, the tree would likely re-leaf fine next year.

If you find tent worms in your ornamental trees in the landscape and they are low enough to reach, there are ways to get rid of them. The best way is to put on a pair of work gloves and pull the nest off. Make sure to get all the worms off that you can and destroy them. Or, if you want to try a different method, some people put gasoline on them and burn them off. This is fun but be careful!!!

By they way, this is prime time for lawn seeding. If you need to patch up any areas, try to do it in the next couple of weeks.

Questions have come to me as to how to prevent next summer’s Japanese Beetle attack. Kirsten in Cedar Springs, asked specifically about her grape vines. I visited a vineyard in Pennsylvania last summer and they planted rose bushes at the ends of the rows of grape vines. The rose plants were to attract the Japanese beetles to this preferred food and they also sprayed the plants with an insecticide. My Ortho book recommends treating infested grape vines or other food crops with Malathion 50 Plus Insect Spray or Home Orchard Spray.

Japanese beetles have three different stages to their life cycle: eggs, grub, and the adult beetle. If you want to take preventative measures for next summer, attack the stage of the Japanese beetle when it is a grub. In the fall, apply Milky Spore Disease (or another similar product) to your lawn to control the following year’s grubs. The following year, begin spraying ornamental plants with Malathion or Diazinon as the adults emerge, about the same time as Queen Anne’s lace is blooming. Controls may have to be repeated, because new beetles continue to emerge from the soil for about 6 weeks during the summer. Before spraying, make sure that your plant is listed on the product label.

We’re being attacked! Japanese Beetles are metallic green and bronze winged beetles; ½ ” long. They are very destructive and chew on plant leaves until they look like Swiss cheese. These beetles feed on hundreds of different plant species. You may see the Japanese beetle from June-Sept., but the next 3-4 weeks will probably be the worst of the damage seen. They only feed during the daytime and they love the hot, sunny weather.

Treatment: You can spray your lawn in the fall to control the juvenile grub stage but for right now, get on the defense and put out traps. At most garden centers, Lowe’s, Home Depot, etc, you can purchase Japanese Beetle Traps for ~$7/pc. The trap is a bag with Jap. Beetle pheromes (sex attractants) in it. Hang the trap outside and the insects fly toward the smell and get trapped in the bag. It’s a great invention! The downfall is that you will probably attract the neighbor’s beetles too but at least they aren’t eating the roses anymore. Replace the bag when it’s full or you can empty the full bag into a bucket of soapy water to make sure all the insects are dead. Re-hang the trap.

There is a lot of satisfaction in watching these destructive insects be fooled by these traps. Last year, I hung 3 different traps outside and had to empty them 3 times!

Autumn is the time of year when little kids stick woolly bear caterpillars in peanut butter jars and starve them to death. In the interest of stopping the unnecessary slaughter of woolly bears across our country, I have composed this letter to children about this insect. Feel free to copy and give it to the next 8-year-old you see wandering around with a woolly bear in a Mason jar.

The banded woolly bear gets its name for two reasons: the furry appearance of the caterpillar and the fact that, like a bear, it hibernates during the winter. Woolly bears are most commonly seen in the autumn. It is at this time that they begin to look for a place to spend the winter in hibernation as caterpillars. They are probably through feeding for the year. They have been eating weeds and other green plants since late June or early July to store enough energy to eventually change into moths.

If you want to see the banded woolly bear turn into a moth, you must leave the jar outside until spring. The caterpillar must first hibernate all winter as a caterpillar before it can turn into a white moth with black spots in the spring.

In the early spring when the days get longer and the sun begins to feel warm on your face, the woolly bears will awaken from their long winter’s nap. They will search out a secret, safe spot and begin changing into a moth. At this time, each one will form a cocoon.

Do not leave the cocoon in the jar. About the time school gets out, you will notice the cocoon start to wiggle. This is the newly transformed woolly bear moth. The cocoon will split open and the new moth will emerge. Its wings will be wet and wrinkled. It will quickly dry itself and pump life into its new wings. If it were in the jar, the wings would not dry properly and probably be deformed. It would not be able to fly away.

So, maybe the best thing to do is enjoy the little guy for a while and then put it back where you found it. After all, you can always catch another one next year!

This story is taken from: What’s Bugging You? by Tom L. Ellis and Joy N. Landis
Michigan State University Extension, 1999

Q: Do you have any advice on what to do about Japanese Beetles? Should I put a bag bomb in my yard to catch them, or will that only attract them to my yard and trees? Todd L., Rockford, MI

A: Those pherome bag traps work great but they do call the Jap. beetles over from the neighbors yards too. It would be best if everyone put the bags out for a mass killing. That probably won’t happen, but I would still do the traps. When the bag gets full, empty it into a pail of soapy water and reuse the trap. If you put grub killer down on the lawn, it will help reduce the Japanese Beetle population for next year.

The Peony flowers are opening now and if you don’t have one in your garden, you may want to consider adding one of these gems. The plant grows about 24-30″ tall and the blooms are about 4″ across and fluffy looking.

There is an old wives tale that tells us that the Peony flowers are opened by ants. This is not true. Just before the Peony flower buds open, they attract tiny flying insects called aphids. After the aphids eat from the buds, they leave behind an excrement that attracts ants. The ants timing to be there “cleaning up” just happens to be at the time when the Peony blooms are opening. Ants may seem quite ingenious at times but they can not open a Peony bud!