Fred's Fine Fowl
06-18-2009, 09:09 AM
Hi everyone,
We put so much time and effort into our plantings, garden and landscaping, often only to have some rascal come and chew the bark off a young tree, or defoliate your favorite plumb or fig specimens.
All is fine, the world is sunny, the birds are singing and chickens strolling around at your feet. You wander over to see how your hybrid tea roses are doing and there there they are! JAPANESE BEETLES... sucking the life out of your buds before they open and deep in the petals of those which have already opened.
If you're like me, you hate having to kill something, even bugs, without having a way of using the remains. Bugs can be composted, but I feed them to my chickens. I never know what's eating bugs, so I don't personally use any pesticides, topical nor systemics. Trapping is a very good solution.
Watch these videos if you have the time... I demonstrate which traps are my favorites and why. Ever buy those plastic bags for the Japanese Beetle Traps? Honestly, what possible reason could there be for charging $6.00 for three tiny plastic bags! And then you throw them away as they fill up! Oy, such a scam.
Get ready now, before the beetles arrive in force upon your precious plantings. In the North, Japanese Beetles have only one breeding cycle, in the southern U.S. they have two. Each female lays only a few eggs, so you CAN have an impact on their populations with regular trapping. In town, it's a plus to get your neighbors to do the same, eventually numbers and plant damage will decline... My chickens actually go after the grubs while they are beneath the soil and get others as they drop to the ground to lay eggs... this is one advantage of free ranging poultry.
Ok... seeing is believing...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ix9GHjmsAno (My favorite trap)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDoUTnryOAM (watch chickens eating beetles)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ob28Q8g8sjw (automatically collect beetles and deliver them into your pen or chicken run)
Thanks and I hope you have a pest free summer!
Fred
www.FredsFineFowl.com
http://www.youtube.com/user/HTCSWEOD (my YouTube channel)
We put so much time and effort into our plantings, garden and landscaping, often only to have some rascal come and chew the bark off a young tree, or defoliate your favorite plumb or fig specimens.
All is fine, the world is sunny, the birds are singing and chickens strolling around at your feet. You wander over to see how your hybrid tea roses are doing and there there they are! JAPANESE BEETLES... sucking the life out of your buds before they open and deep in the petals of those which have already opened.
If you're like me, you hate having to kill something, even bugs, without having a way of using the remains. Bugs can be composted, but I feed them to my chickens. I never know what's eating bugs, so I don't personally use any pesticides, topical nor systemics. Trapping is a very good solution.
Watch these videos if you have the time... I demonstrate which traps are my favorites and why. Ever buy those plastic bags for the Japanese Beetle Traps? Honestly, what possible reason could there be for charging $6.00 for three tiny plastic bags! And then you throw them away as they fill up! Oy, such a scam.
Get ready now, before the beetles arrive in force upon your precious plantings. In the North, Japanese Beetles have only one breeding cycle, in the southern U.S. they have two. Each female lays only a few eggs, so you CAN have an impact on their populations with regular trapping. In town, it's a plus to get your neighbors to do the same, eventually numbers and plant damage will decline... My chickens actually go after the grubs while they are beneath the soil and get others as they drop to the ground to lay eggs... this is one advantage of free ranging poultry.
Ok... seeing is believing...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ix9GHjmsAno (My favorite trap)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDoUTnryOAM (watch chickens eating beetles)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ob28Q8g8sjw (automatically collect beetles and deliver them into your pen or chicken run)
Thanks and I hope you have a pest free summer!
Fred
www.FredsFineFowl.com
http://www.youtube.com/user/HTCSWEOD (my YouTube channel)