How to Outsmart and Get Rid of Japanese Beetles to Protect Your Garden

Aargh! Just when your flowers are beautiful and blooming, you notice shiny metallic-green beetles eating everything in sight. Japanese beetles can lay waste to all your gorgeous blooms almost overnight. But the good news is, they won't kill the plant, and you can fight back. We'll cover the lifecycle of the Japanese beetle and share several approaches to add to your arsenal. With these proven tips, you'll be ready to win the war on Japanese beetles.

Understanding the lifecycle of Japanese beetles is key to controlling their population and will help you create a coordinated defense.

Adult

You will first notice Japanese beetles when they start feasting on tender leaves and petals. If you see skeletonized leaves and roses decimated in a day, you might have Japanese beetles. They are easy to identify with their metallic-looking copper and green bodies.

Japanese Beetles will fly around sniffing out food sources and pheromones. They will go after plants that are rotting and have overripe fruit. You can make your yard less attractive by keeping your garden clean. This is the time when you can pick beetles off by hand, cover your plants, and use topical sprays.

Eggs

While the Japanese beetles are feasting and mating, the females are laying eggs. She lays a few eggs at a time in the ground and repeats this process to lay between 40 to 60 eggs. This feasting, mating, and laying eggs cycle usually starts around the end of June and through July.

Larvae

In August and into September, the larvae hatch and feast on roots, usually in lawns and other grassy areas. During this cycle, you can treat the lawn for grubs to kill the larvae. If you have grubs eating your grass roots, you will notice dead spots.

Pupae

As temperatures cool, the larvae crawl deeper into the soil and are harder to eliminate. But then they will come back to the surface in the spring to feed on roots again before pupating. They will then emerge as adult beetles and start the cycle of feasting and mating all over again.

Now that you know the Japanese beetle life cycle, you’re ready to tackle how to get rid of these pests.

At the feasting and mating stage, your best line of defense is picking off Japanese beetles as fast as possible. The beetles are laying eggs daily and can lay up to 60 eggs each. So, this is the time to disrupt the cycle. Japanese beetles don’t sting or bite, but you still may want to wear gloves. Go out early in the morning before they fly off. They seem to be slow and sleepy at this time of day.

Take a bucket of water and add a few drops of dish soap. Then, shake the leaves or grab beetles and drop them into the bucket of soapy water. Leave the beetles in the bucket for the rest of the day so that they are dead before you dump them out.

If you keep an eye on it and pick off Japanese beetles every day, you can limit their damage and prevent them from breeding and laying eggs. This will reduce the number you have coming back next year.

This can be a fun task for kids or those who are squeamish about touching bugs. You can use a shop or small cordless vacuum to collect all the Japanese beetles you can see. You'll want to dispose of the beetles once you’ve trapped them in the vacuum.

Beetle traps have their pros and cons. The traps work by attracting the beetles, and then they can’t get out. However, the traps attract more beetles into your yard, and they can be coming from all your neighbors. Japanese beetles can smell up to a mile away! For this reason, traps aren’t recommended. But if you do use them, place them at least 50 feet away from your garden and any plants you want to protect.

Neem oil can be sprayed on plants to kill Japanese beetles. However, it can also be toxic to fish and bees. So apply it early in the morning to lessen the chance of bees eating it. Its chemical compound breaks down fairly quickly during the day.