Japanese Beetles: 5 Safe Ways To Control Them in Your Garden

METRO MILWAUKEE, WI — The gardening season in Wisconsin is well underway, but you may have already seen a shiny pest stripping the foliage off of some of your favorite plants.

Japanese Beetles have made a comeback in Wisconsin this year, emerging from the ground in mid-June. They are present for about six to eight weeks every summer. Each beetle lives from 30 to 45 days. Fortunately, most Japanese Beetles are gone by mid-to late August.

Experts say there is no way to completely get rid of them, but there are ways to reduce their impact in your garden without resorting to dangerous chemicals or insecticides.

Here are five safe ways to beat back the Japanese Beetle:

1) Select plants that Japanese Beetles don't like to eat. Here's a list from the Old Farmer's Almanac chronicling their favorite (and least favorite) plants to eat: Best and Worst Plants for Japanese Beetles.

2) Japanese Beetle traps: Japanese beetle traps can be helpful in controlling large numbers of beetles, but they also attract more of the pesky insects to your yard. So while you'll catch more in the long run, you may find your yard festooned with Japanese Beetles for awhile. If you want to deploy traps, be sure to place traps far away from plants so that the beetles do not land in your garden on their way to the traps.

3) Hand Picking: Japanese Beetles have a natural defense mechanism - whenever they are threatened, they simply drop to the ground, making them hard to catch. So here's what you do: get a bucket or pail and fill it with soapy water. When you find a Japanese Beetle, tap it a couple times with your finger, and let it drop into the bucket of soapy water you hold underneath the unsuspecting insect. The soapy water will kill them.

4) Insecticidal Soap: Insecticidal soap will kill adult Japanese beetles - but only if it is sprayed directly on the beetle. It no longer works once it has dried. Chemicals in the soap need to penetrate the insect’s outer covering, which causes the cells to collapse.

5) Neem Oil: Neem oil products function like insecticidal soaps and can kill Japanese Beetles on contact. Neem oil products also make the plant that is sprayed unpalatable for hungry adult Japanese Beetles.

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image via flickr / Benny Mazur