# Attention, martial gardenersguaranteed Japanese beetle death!



## exile (Jul 3, 2007)

One of my cherished fantasies is doing a very tough, two-hour-long TKD workout in a classical Korean garden with one of those gorgeous palace/temple buildingsthe kind with the roof treatment two feet thick, and that gorgeous ribbed-tile compositionsomewhere in the background. But around this time of the year, that picture tends to get spoiled by the realization that the place would probably play host to millions of ravenous Japanese beetle who'd eat it it down to the plant roots in a matter of a week or so. _However...._

I recently encountered a really interesting fact about Japanese beetles that gives me limitless hope for the future. We have a pot of pink geraniums on a ceramic base in one of the front beds in our garden, and as I was making my rounds, tweezers and soap-water bowl in hand, to eliminate as many of the blighters as I could, I realized that the leaves of the geraniums were stacked high with the immobile bodies of the little horrors. Some were clearly dead; others were moving very slowly and feebly... fish in a barrel would be harder to hit. What was going on?

We've done some research and the evidence is in: geraniums have a well-documented, drastically narcotic effect on Japanese beetles. Something about the oil in them, geraniol, that severely intoxicates them, in some cases unto death, in others... well, let's just say that it would take the Last Trump to wake them up. This has been known since 1929, apparently. Jbs are so addicted to geraniums (flower or foliage, makes no difference) that they will ignore almost any other food source when geraniums are available and spend so much time gorging that their reproduction rate drops drastically when geraniums are available as nutrition. 

So if these things are plaguing you and wreaking havoc in your garden, buy a few geraniums, put 'em out in the hot sun (full sunlight is about the only prerequisite for the effectiveness of this method) and watch the fun begin. And the best part is, no one can claim cruelty on your part... you're literally killing them with kindness!


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## Shuto (Jul 3, 2007)

Interesting tip.  Thanks.

The only other effective treatment I've heard of (and used) is milky spores which kills them in the grub state.


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## Sukerkin (Jul 3, 2007)

That is indeed a splendid tip for the gardeners amongst us.  After all, geraniums are pleasant to have in their own right, so to find out that they have a 'martial' application too is brilliant .


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## exile (Jul 3, 2007)

Shuto said:


> Interesting tip.  Thanks.
> 
> The only other effective treatment I've heard of (and used) is milky spores which kills them in the grub state.



Yes, I've heard of that too... have always regarded it as a kind of last resort, but then, this is only the second year of infestation. For some reason they've invaded our corner of town... the milky-spores treatment does have a reputation for severe effectiveness, definitely. I'm hoping that playing the geranium card will head these loathsome horrors off at the pass before we have to resort to full biological spore-fare...



Sukerkin said:


> That is indeed a splendid tip for the gardeners amongst us.  After all, geraniums are pleasant to have in their own right, so to find out that they have a 'martial' application too is brilliant .



The geraniums we noticed having this effect are absolutely gorgeous, breaks my heart to think of them sacrificing themselves in the cause of the rest of our garden (the beetle-orcs do have to munch on them, after all, or they won't get narcotized!). It's astonishing to see just how quickly the invading beetle forces stack up in dead rows... reminds me of Byron's poem `The Destruction of Sennacherib', remember?

_The Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold, 
And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold; 
And the sheen of their spears was like stars on the sea, 
When the blue wave rolls nightly on deep Galilee.

Like the leaves of the forest when Summer is green, 
That host with their banners at sunset were seen: 
Like the leaves of the forest when Autumn hath blown, 
That host on the morrow lay withered and strown.

For the Angel of Death spread his wings on the blast, 
And breathed in the face of the foe as he passed; 
And the eyes of the sleepers waxed deadly and chill, 
And their hearts but once heaved, and for ever grew still!

And there lay the steed with his nostril all wide, 
But through it there rolled not the breath of his pride; 
And the foam of his gasping lay white on the turf, 
And cold as the spray of the rock-beating surf.

And there lay the rider distorted and pale, 
With the dew on his brow, and the rust on his mail: 
And the tents were all silent, the banners alone, 
The lances unlifted, the trumpet unblown.

And the widows of Ashur are loud in their wail, 
And the idols are broke in the temple of Baal; 
And the might of the Gentile, unsmote by the sword, 
Hath melted like snow in the glance of the Lord!_

Or of the geranium, as the case may be...


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## MA-Caver (Jul 3, 2007)

Well it'd probably be better than having a bunch of praying mantises around... Maybe if the mantises eat the stoned beetles they'll get high themselves ... heh!


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## exile (Jul 3, 2007)

MA-Caver said:


> Well it'd probably be better than having a bunch of praying mantises around... Maybe if the mantises eat the stoned beetles they'll get high themselves ... heh!



But I _love_ praying mantises!... talk about the Angel of Death, lol...


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## Steel Tiger (Jul 3, 2007)

Good thing to know about geraniums, just in case Japanese beetles penetrate our insane quarantine procedures.  Fear of terrorism?  Its got nothing on our obsession with keeping Australia pest free.


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## Brian R. VanCise (Jul 3, 2007)

Excellent advice Exile!  They have been so numerous around here in the past that it has been a real pain.  Lately though they have been a little less and less.  My wife has been planting more lately and this is probably the reason why.


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## exile (Jul 3, 2007)

Brian R. VanCise said:


> Excellent advice Exile!  They have been so numerous around here in the past that it has been a real pain.  Lately though they have been a little less and less.  My wife has been planting more lately and this is probably the reason why.



I've got some websites on the hows and whys of the geranium counterstrategy... will post.

Nasty horrible things, aren't they. I've been walking around with my long hobby-tweezers and a bowl of soap water catching them and drowning them, saying `Ooooh... _Hel_loo... Glug glug glug!'  as I do so in my best Mr. Bean impersonation voice... my wife has taken to looking at me severely when I do this, though, so my fun may be short lived. If a plant can do my job better than I can, I say, go for it. At this age and stage I've got no vanity left at all!


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## Brian R. VanCise (Jul 3, 2007)

exile said:


> If a plant can do my job better than I can, I say, go for it. At this age and stage I've got no vanity left at all!


 
I am with you there.


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## theletch1 (Jul 4, 2007)

We've had so many of the buggers around this year that they make almost a curtain in the air.  I don't have any Geraniums...yet.  Now that I have this tip we'll definetly be getting a few.  

Now, if someone can come up with a cure for ladybugs we'll be alright.  Last fall we had so many ladybugs that you had to use the basement door to get into the house.  Millions, yes, millions of the blighters around.  We were able to get the house sprayed with an insecticide last year that killed them quickly but I'm not big on using that stuff.  It worked well, though as we had to scoop them up by the shovel full.


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## exile (Jul 4, 2007)

Brian R. VanCise said:


> I am with you there.



Age makes chumps of us all, alas....



theletch1 said:


> We've had so many of the buggers around this year that they make almost a curtain in the air.  I don't have any Geraniums...yet.  Now that I have this tip we'll definetly be getting a few.



And the thing is, geraniums are beautiful just on their own, even if they didn't do any other work. It's not like there's this plant that's death to Jbs, but unfortunately it's skunk cabbage, eh? Having something so nice in itself also being a Jb killer is like finding out that something you really love to eat is also good for your heart...  doesn't happen all that often, alas. 

Now, if someone can come up with a cure for ladybugs we'll be alright.  Last fall we had so many ladybugs that you had to use the basement door to get into the house.  Millions, yes, millions of the blighters around.  We were able to get the house sprayed with an insecticide last year that killed them quickly but I'm not big on using that stuff.  It worked well, though as we had to scoop them up by the shovel full.[/QUOTE]

Are these your native ladybugs or the big yellow/orange Asian invasive species? We had a plague of those for a couple of years sometime back, but then they stopped showing up... very mysterious. We were worried that the smaller, native species was really in for it when those monsters appeared, but now it looks as though they're doing fine. And no sign of the monsters so far this year...


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## exile (Jul 4, 2007)

PS to the preceding post: if you're interested in the studies that have been done on this interesting effect, check out

http://www.sciencenews.org/pages/pdfs/data/1998/154-23/15423-15.pdf
http://turf.lib.msu.edu/1920s/1929/290471A.pdf

The latter is the original paper describing the discovery of this phenomenon by Charles Ballou back in 1929. 

I also found the following amusing little... anecdote is too strong, maybe, but personal reflection? ... on a garden website:

_I read that they love to eat geraniums but it is a love hate realationship becasue then they die. I wasn''t a big geranium fan but I started planting geraniums and the beetles aren't nearly as bad. They used to cover our house so you could barely find the door. What can i say now I'm a new lover of geraniums!_​


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## Rich Parsons (Jul 4, 2007)

exile said:


> One of my cherished fantasies is doing a very tough, two-hour-long TKD workout in a classical Korean garden with one of those gorgeous palace/temple buildingsthe kind with the roof treatment two feet thick, and that gorgeous ribbed-tile compositionsomewhere in the background. But around this time of the year, that picture tends to get spoiled by the realization that the place would probably play host to millions of ravenous Japanese beetle who'd eat it it down to the plant roots in a matter of a week or so. _However...._
> 
> I recently encountered a really interesting fact about Japanese beetles that gives me limitless hope for the future. We have a pot of pink geraniums on a ceramic base in one of the front beds in our garden, and as I was making my rounds, tweezers and soap-water bowl in hand, to eliminate as many of the blighters as I could, I realized that the leaves of the geraniums were stacked high with the immobile bodies of the little horrors. Some were clearly dead; others were moving very slowly and feebly... fish in a barrel would be harder to hit. What was going on?
> 
> ...




Thanks, I was hit by them really hard last sumer.


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## exile (Jul 4, 2007)

Rich Parsons said:


> Thanks, I was hit by them really hard last sumer.



It's true, last summer seems to have been a peak year. We weren't bothered by them ever, before that, and then, bang, it's like Helm's Deep... little orc beetle bastard horror things. They seem to be able to strip a leaf down to the ribbing in about five minutes. But earlier today, I had the pleasure of clearing almost a handful of (near) corpses out of our one geranium plant out in the front... I never thought so much death could give me so much pleasure... :EG:


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## Rich Parsons (Jul 4, 2007)

exile said:


> It's true, last summer seems to have been a peak year. We weren't bothered by them ever, before that, and then, bang, it's like Helm's Deep... little orc beetle bastard horror things. They seem to be able to strip a leave down to the ribbing in about five minutes. But earlier today, I had the pleasure of clearing almost a handful of (near) corpses out of our one geranium plant out in the front... I never thought so much death could give me so much pleasure... :EG:



I was out sparying and spraying soap and water and just killing in droves. I would kill five and 25 would fly up. I would go away in frustration and just cry as they were stripping my Japanese Maple(s).

Helm's Deep is a good reference. The break upon the walls like a sea of bodies crashing and crashing into the gates, over and over with no end insight. :wah:


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## exile (Jul 4, 2007)

Rich Parsons said:


> I was out sparying and spraying soap and water and just killing in droves. I would kill five and 25 would fly up. I would go away in frustration and just cry as they were stripping my Japanese Maple(s).



Disgusting to have to watch, isn't it!



Rich Parsons said:


> Helm's Deep is a good reference. The break upon the walls like a sea of bodies crashing and crashing into the gates, over and over with no end insight. :wah:



But that's where the geranium trick is so sweet (as my 10 year old would say). Apparently, Jb's love geraniums beyond all other food. They simply cannot refrain from it, is what that _Science News_ snippet I posted a link to earlier says. It's like a moth to the flame, except better, apparently, because a normal Jb is pretty much guarnteed to gorge on this stuff and either die outright or go into general-anæsthetic-grade sleep, and you can collect 'em at your leisure. Try getting a few pots, put one near your Japanese Maple (I know, they're lovely plants, hard to watch them being devoured), which will draw the nasty little buggers away from the JM and ensure them perpetual peace hereafter...


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## Rich Parsons (Jul 4, 2007)

exile said:


> Disgusting to have to watch, isn't it!
> 
> 
> 
> But that's where the geranium trick is so sweet (as my 10 year old would say). Apparently, Jb's love geraniums beyond all other food. They simply cannot refrain from it, is what that _Science News_ snippet I posted a link to earlier says. It's like a moth to the flame, except better, apparently, because a normal Jb is pretty much guarnteed to gorge on this stuff and either die outright or go into general-anæsthetic-grade sleep, and you can collect 'em at your leisure. Try getting a few pots, put one near your Japanese Maple (I know, they're lovely plants, hard to watch them being devoured), which will draw the nasty little buggers away from the JM and ensure them perpetual peace hereafter...




Yes I have plans to pick some up here today or tomorrow. I will by them in bloom and pot them around my trees or in the ground. 

I grow catnip for my cats. (* It is also a test as the previous owners use Queen Ann's Lace as green ground cover. It is invasive and has vine roots. The Catnip is taller so I hope it proves to kill of the Lace over time in which case then I can remove the catnip and put in someother less invasive ground cover.


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## Sukerkin (Jul 4, 2007)

So a flamethrowers not the right way to go then?  ROFL.

At present I have only the ravening horde of Saruman's Slugs and Snails division to combat - tho' they are ably supported by the Bindweed Long-Tendril Brigade .

I'm afraid that all my normal organic/sustainable gardening principles will have to be put aside as it is time to bring out the chemical big-guns (slug pellets and glyphosate).  I must've lost fifty plants to these vile enemies this year (as well as the expense it's the loss of all the hours spent in lovingly bringing them on from seed/seedling that's so infuriating).


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## Rich Parsons (Jul 4, 2007)

Sukerkin said:


> So a flamethrowers not the right way to go then?  ROFL.
> 
> At present I have only the ravening horde of Saruman's Slugs and Snails division to combat - tho' they are ably supported by the Bindweed Long-Tendril Brigade .
> 
> I'm afraid that all my normal organic/sustainable gardening principles will have to be put aside as it is time to bring out the chemical big-guns (slug pellets and glyphosate). I must've lost fifty plants to these vile enemies this year (as well as the expense it's the loss of all the hours spent in lovingly bringing them on from seed/seedling that's so infuriating).



When I moved in, I had moles. I found that the only reason you have moles in your yard is because you have a food source, usually grubs. 

I would recommend you take care of your slugs before something else moves in.


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## Sukerkin (Jul 4, 2007)

True words there, *Rich* - tho' if I had a nice family of hedgehogs 'in-house' I wouldn't complain (vociferous slug-slayers they are, as well as being cute ).

I'm just waiting for the rain to stop before I go out for some more bindweed removal {can't you tell I'm on holiday, it's done nothing but rain :sulk:}.  I want to try and get the stuff clear of my hydrangea's so I can nuke 'em without collateral damage.

I'm going to wait for the new bindweed shoots to show through, give them a cane to climb and then, when they've grown a bit, paint them with a weedkiller/detergent 'goop' which should hopefully eradicate them from the roots up.

I've tried the attrition method of just keep pulling them out (it's supposed to exhaust the root so it dies) but I think I'm losing that war - so time for a tactic change.

Any hnts on how to get rid of rampant American Rosebay Willowherb?  It's everywhere and, like the bindweed, it seems to sprout faster than I can pull it up .


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## exile (Jul 4, 2007)

Apart from the Jb horrors, my main problem is thistles. I spend hours a week uprooting them&#8212;also on the `wear 'em out' theory&#8212;and the end result seems to be that I get more of them than ever. Can't we find a way to deport them back to Scotland???


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## Kacey (Jul 4, 2007)

I recently found out that there is a microscopic critter known as the "bindweed mite" which lives on the stuff... it's not currently available (they were out when I called) but now I have hope for the future!


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## Sukerkin (Jul 4, 2007)

The only thing with the 'Mite Infestation' method is that it actually doesn't get rid of the bindweed, it just inhibits it's growth.  The 'MI' method is I think more for the agricultural commuity who just need to keep the viney pest from strangling their crops.


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## Kacey (Jul 4, 2007)

I would be perfectly happy with some inhibition - at least then I could pull them and hope they'd slowly die off... right now, they're popping up faster than I can pull them, especially when it hits 80 by 8 am; by the time I walk the dog it's too hot to do much else.


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## exile (Jul 4, 2007)

I guess I should be glad that we've been spared the nastiness of bindweed (just the name makes me think of the `Devil's Snare' in the first Harry Potter novel)...

... but we actually have something far more ominous on our plates, worse even than the Jbs:  poison ivy, which has been growing exuberantly over the past couple years on our property, fedso I gather from various science newsletters and websites I trackby the increasingly rich carbon dioxide content of the global atmosphere. Even though all vegetation responds positively to enriched CO2, there is a certain class of plants which is unusually inspired, as it were, by extra-dense CO2, and poison ivy, alas, belongs to this group. It's not only faster growing now, but for some reason associated with the faster growth, also more virulent. Double whammy... and unfortunately, there's no real substitute for armoring onesself up and digging out the whole root system. We did this last year for the front, but it's switched to the back, and since we have a kind of micro-forest on our grounds, the stuff gets entangled up with trees and tall bushes and is almost impossible to get at. And I'd just as soon avoid the weapon's-grade herbicides that you need to kill the damned stuffespecially since there are a lot of nearby plants that I don't want damaged...

Be glad, you poison-ivy-free gardeners, that you don't have any of it around you; but also be vigilantonce it starts, it's almost impossible to be completely rid of...


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## Ceicei (Jul 4, 2007)

Morning glories are just as bad.... I still haven't been able to get rid of 'em...  They take over the garden and choke the plants/flowers.


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## qi-tah (Jul 6, 2007)

Steel Tiger said:


> Good thing to know about geraniums, just in case Japanese beetles penetrate our insane quarantine procedures. Fear of terrorism? Its got nothing on our obsession with keeping Australia pest free.


 
And too right as well. Although now i see that we are going to import apples from fireblight regions of NZ?? What's going on there? :erg:

Nice tip with the geraniums... i do a similar thing with beer traps for the snails. Just about the only thing i reckon VB is good for, but then i'm a bit of beer snob. Ah, beer... is there anything it can't fix?


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## Shuto (Jul 6, 2007)

qi-tah said:


> i do a similar thing with beer traps for the snails. Just about the only thing i reckon VB is good for, but then i'm a bit of beer snob. Ah, beer... is there anything it can't fix?



Yep.  I've been dealing with my first serious slug infestation this year.  They completely wiped out my first vegetable planting.  I've been feeding them beer and they are under control but they are still causing limited damage.  

I've been using a heavy mulch for the last few years and haven't been tilling the soil except for the immediate area around the plants.  I suspect this mulch has made an ideal environment for slugs.


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