Results From The Japanese Beetle Trap

I wrote a few days ago about how we were going to try our first attempt at reducing the Japanese beetle population in our orchard, vineyard, and garden. As I said before, we have become overrun with them and they are really starting to affect our fruit. We have had this trap out for a few days now and I would like to share what we found out.

I will first start off with the benefits. The trap did work and we did find there were some beetles inside of the traps. Also, we did notice that there was a reduction in that amount of beetles. So we are glad for that, but I have read that the beetles lay their offspring in the ground, and that the following year they could still cause problems. This means that if we put the trap out again for another year or two, then we should have the worst of the problem taken care of.

Now to some of the negatives of the trap. First off, some of the traps that we saw in action were just filled to the brim with beetles, but ours did not seem to fill up that fast. Now, this could be because those that we have talked to had a worse encounter with the beetles, but ours did not seem to collect them as fast and we have heard that it could actually attract more beetles to your property. The next negative is that it would require us to have several traps scattered around on our property because the affected areas are fairly spread out from each other. This can become costly to have to buy more lures every year, if the lure gets rained on, or having to purchase multiple sets of items. We like to use things that are sustainable and kept as organic as possible.

I do not want to take anything away from the fact that the trap did indeed work and did catch beetles. We will probably continue to use it for the rest of the summer, and for an additional year or two, to greatly minimize the problems, but I think I will keep trying to find some other ways to fix the problem. Like I said, I want to find a more sustainable and organic solution that will not become costly in the future. I have been told there are things one can put on the trees or even companion planting can be a remedy, so I think I will continue to look into those options.

Thanks for reading!