Backyard Style - Outdoor, Backyard Pond and Birding

Most likely, if you are a gardener, Japanese beetles bug you too. If you have a light infestation of this pesty insect, the safest and most inexpensive route to killing Japanese beetles is to pick them off the plants by hand (yup .. boring, but effective) and drop them into a bucket of soapy water.

Most importantly - start with getting rid of the Japanese beetle grubs. Although the adult Japanese beetles cause the most damage on your plants and lawn, the beetle larval form -- grubs -- also cause horrible lawn problems.

If your lawn has a Japanese grub infestation, treating for the grubs with a product like Greenview Grub Killer and Preventer will kill most of them before they can emerge as adult japenese beetles.

A number of grub-killing products are quite effective. Most well known is Milky Spore. The adult Japanese beetle feeds on fruits, flowers, shrubs, garden plants and the foliage of some field crops as mentioned above. At the immature beetle stage, the grub, enjoys feeding on the roots of grass and other vegetation to include stems of plants. Milky Spore will work at the grub level.

The most important thing to remember when battling Japanese beetles is to work quickly. The beetles will release chemicals called pheromones into the air. These pheromones will attract other beetles to your yard! Kind of like "Invite a friend". So if you see a few Beetles, they are probably already sending out pheromones to attract thier friends.

Japanese beetles tend to avoid these plants: Arborvitae, Boxwood, Dogwood, Firs, Hemlock, Holly, Junipers, Lilacs, Magnolias, Oaks and Pines