If you’re like most people, you’d prefer that your prized plums, roses and fruit vines not munched on by Japanese beetles. If you ignore the two or three that show up in your yard, you will have to call pest control later when the population explodes. But what are some of the best ways of getting rid of the pests without those harmful pesticides?

Japanese beetles typically mate during mid summer and lay their eggs in the ground. The larvae grow and eat the roots of plants, including your lawn. The fully-grown beetle emerges after a year underground.

You can use pheromone traps to help catch them, but beware that you will attract almost every beetle in your neighborhood to the trap. Also, the smell of decaying bugs is disgusting. Commercial pesticides that pest control in NH can use work but are dangerous to kids, animals and the beneficial bugs. What to do?

You can manually pick the bugs off your plants. The early morning hours is the best time for this. Simply go out just after daybreak with a bucket of soapy water, pick the beetles off and drop them into the water to drown. Insecticidal soap (a mixture of plain castor oil soap in a spray bottle of water) can be a better solution than picking the bugs off. Simply spray the plant from the roots up. This method will kill beneficial mites as well as beetles.

For people who prefer to control populations with predators, Japanese beetles are the perfect snack for birds. Cardinals, meadowlarks, ducks and geese find them extremely tasty. A wise homeowner may decide to set up a small bird friendly corner of the yard to attract and keep birds around.

Japanese beetles have been known to destroy thousands of dollars of landscaping in a few days. Don’t wait to call pest control in NH, destroy them now!

Japanese beetle as beetle and larva.