Attacking Japanese Beetles -- Victory!

The JBs arrived early this year, on June 19th, and they have been the worst ever. Over the last two months, on many days I have drowned several hundred in soapy water, but today I drowned only one.  While I fully expect to see a few more in the next couple of weeks, I think we can now declare victory for 2016!

I calculate, roughly, that I killed upwards of 5,000 JBs, entirely organically, while preserving the lives and habitat of all pollinating insects, like the hundreds of varieties of bees, and the beneficial predatory insects in my garden, including lady beetles, predatory wasps, lace wings etc., by not spraying insecticides; and I am proud of that! Those 5,000 JBs will never find their way into my lawn to produce more JBs next year and that is better than all the grub control or milky spore treatments one could muster.

My rose gardens have been extensively dead-headed, chewed-up leaves removed, fertilized, and positioned to quickly outgrow and outbloom the effects of the JBs, over the next couple of months.  That's a pretty good result, I believe, and that's what organic gardening is all about.

If you haven't read my earlier posts on JBs this year, take a look at "Attacking Japanese Beetles--Know Your Enemy", which also includes the addresses of my several other blogs on JBs:
http://theminnesotarosegardener.blogspot.com/2016/07/attacking-japanese-beetles-know-your.html

I would be interested in knowing how it has gone for my readers this year.  I know, for example that JBs made it further north in Minnesota than ever before; the result of changes in Minnesota's climate, which is warming faster than anywhere else in the country, other than Alaska.  Let me know how it has gone for you.  Have JBs made it to Europe or South America for example?  I look forward to hearing from you.

Jack Falker
@mnrosegardener
jfalkersr@gmail.com