Garden Menace is Back

Japanese Beetle Infestation, 2010

Rose bush devastation.

I guess we can add okra to the list of plants the Japanese beetle will devour.

This has just been in the last few days.

The okra planted in the same box as the tomatoes hasn't been eaten nearly as much.  Wonder why.

My attempts at "organic" pest control: a small container with some rubbing alcohol in the bottom, and short stick to knock the beetles into it. Very effective, except when I went back to water there were just as many covering the leaves again.

They haven't seemed to notice the beans yet.  They are bush beans, rather than pole beans--I wonder if that makes a difference.  Also, I wouldn't care if they ate the scarlet runner beans, since I just wanted the pretty flowers anyway, but they haven't seemed to notice those either. 

I haven't looked at the apple tree, but I'm sure it looks just as bad.

I need to find out their range--I'm hoping I won't have to deal with them in Washington!

Go away Japanese beetles!

Here it is: bug enemy #1. These beetles are eating my beans, roses, and apple tree leaves to ribbons. Apparently there's a bag-trap device you can get for them, but if your yard is the only one in the vicinity to have the beetles, the traps actually attract more to your yard. Not helpful!
As Jason says, I guess the only solution is putting up the traps in your neighbor's yard.... One of our ward members who has lived here a long time says that the beetles are almost done for the year, but that it has been a really bad year for them.

Maybe my bush beans, if I can get them planted this week, will grow up beetle free and we'll actually harvest some beans this year. So far my pole beans are so busy trying to grow new leaves to replace the shredded ones that nary a bean has been seen.

As grubs they kill your grass too. I wonder if that would account for the brown patches in our back lawn that I've noticed lately. Grr.