Honk If You Hate Japanese Beetles!

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frigilux

frigilux

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The Minnesota Prairie
They look like lady bugs. They have a musty smell. They invade like a biblical cloud of locusts....

They are the damnable Japanese beetle! Oh, how I dread them. Every year around the end of September we'll have a couple of unseasonably warm days and the invasion happens.

They're crawling all over the windows and siding on the south & west sides of my house. Soon they'll make their way into the tiny gaps around my garage door and I'll be battling them back with a shop vac and a can of max-strength bug killer.

Anybody else lucky enough to get a yearly visit from these creatures?
 
no japanese beatles.......

twice a year I spray a mixture of malathion around the foundation of the house....no ants, no spider webs in the corners, no beetles or bugs.......I don't know if it would do any good with these things though....if they fly.
 
hmm...that must be where the name came from. I remember the old Honda Civics from the seventies with the air-cooled engines being called "Japanese Beetles". I figured that it was just because of the fact the cars were similar in size, technology, and had a rounded ff back like a VW beetle but they came from Japan instead.
 
We're in for our 2nd day in a row of 80-degree temps, here. I went out to mow the lawn at 8:30 this morning (much to the chagrin of my neighbors, I'm sure) so I'd avoid the onslaught, which usually beings around 10:30.

I sprayed Raid Max all over the outside and inside of my garage door, as well as my front and back doors. Hopefully this will deter most of them from crawling in.

This is a relatively new phenomenon in southwest Minnesota. I certainly don't recall these invasions even 10-15 years ago... Box elder bugs, yes; but not these Japanese beetles. They have a horrid, musty/moldy smell to them. It's like you pulled an old trunk out of the attic or something.
 
Try Demon wettable powder (cypermethrin). Just mix it in your garden sprayer and spray around all entry points. Has a 6 month residual effect indoors but also under eves and on porches (areas out of direct weather). If your house is on piers, spray them all to help prevent termites. I usually spray the exterior of my windows and doors even though the next rain will wash most of it off. Demon is a neurotoxin to insects - it is safe for humans and animals (when used properly - as with all insecticides).
 
We really had them bad back in Illinois but have not seen them since I moved here to Florida. Am really glad to be rid of them.
 
I've experienced both Japanese Beetles and the Earwigs that infest everything here in the West. I prefer the beetles.
 
Thanks to our ever vigilant border guards I don't think the Japanese beetle is present in California. I have heard about them, though, and they are more than just a nuisance - they're a serious agricultural pest. Of just what kind of agriculture, I'm not sure.

Out here the biggest household pest is the Argentine ant. Apparently there's one huge colony that stretches from Mexico to Canada all along the west coast. You can never wipe it out... and since the ants are all the same colony, they don't get territorial with each other and limit their progression.
 
In my area--the bad insect critters are FIRE ANTS!!And they really bite-sting?If you get bitten-makes a nasty sore-that itches.I was able to control them somewhat-you take a shovelful from one ant mound to another-and you can get a FIRE ANT wrestling match!!They really go at it-hate each other as well.On the Japanese beatles-are these the sort of pretty irredescent ones-we get those too.Sometimes the area is loaded with em-other seasons you hardly see any.The beatles they call Japanese ones here are the sort of "pretty" irredescent ones.Sort of a purplelish irredescenece.Their grubs live in your lawn and feed on the grass roots-they can damage your plants two ways-as grubs under your lawn feeding on grass roots,then as adults eating your plants.The grubs are white in color-about an inch long.
 
Tolivac, the beetles you are describing sound like our June bugs. The June bugs are brown but they have white grub worms that eat the roots of the lawn. As the name applies, the beetles come out in June. They are active in the evenings and are attracted to light. On the fireants, the ones in most areas have adapted into interconnected networks. Apparently, taking a shovelful and dumping on another mound has caused this. Now all the mounds in a given yard are actually related - these are called polygyne colonies. A few areas of the country still have monogyne colonies - each mound is autonomous and your shovel technique works on them. My college roomate studied fireants and got his PhD doing this kind of research. As such, I know more about them that I really care to.
 
This is kinda late for Japanese Beetles here. They are larger than lady bugs and are really attracted to ligher colored roses. They eat the petals. They are bad on grape vines and lots of vegetables like green beans, but they don't arrive by swarms, they emerge from the ground in early summer and I would have thought that Northern winters were too cold for the grubs to survive. They do not try to get inside, at least not here and could not fit through any but fairly large openings. The Container Store sells SLA moth spray. The secret ingredient is cedar oil. It will soak into wood, concrete and door mats and keeps crickets and other creatures from crossing the line to enter your house. In between my storm door and entry door, I put 3 or 4 mothballs in a paper towel, twist it shut and secure with a paper clip, twistie, etc and place it on the door sill between the doors. The vapor keeps crickets, etc. from sitting outside the door waiting to jump in when the door is opened.

For the earwigs, I used to use Dursban (discontinued) powder in an unbroken perimeter around the foundation. I can't remember the name of the new stuff. They come in seeking escape from hot dry weather, but don't get across my chemical barrier.

I remember box elder bugs from when we lived in Illinois. Dad would twist up paper to make a torch and burn them on the tree. He said that if he didn't do that, they would march across the back yard and come in the house.

You are describing hibernating swarms. Lady bugs do this same thing. I have read questions to Heloise, etc. about this, but Japanese Beetles do not do what you are describing around here.
 

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