You've probably seen them hanging out in people's yards.
I never understood the whole Bag-a-Bug concept... that is, until WE needed to use them!
Listen to Bud Light's Real Men of Genius "Mr. Backyard Bug Zapper Inventor":
Japanese Beetles In Tennessee
Last year was the first time that we noticed a problem with Japanese Beetles here in Franklin, Tennessee...
...even though we've lived in this same house for over 3 years.
I had read somewhere that you "just need to trot around the yard with a cup filled with soapy water" -- then whenever you spot one of these buggers, you're supposed to just flick it into the soapy water where it's trapped and dies. After you build up a collection of drowning beetles, you're supposed to dispose of them. Sounds easy enough... UNLESS every tree you own is taller than you and the beetles are collecting on every single branch by the hundreds!
Here's a similar do-it-yourself method of Japanese Beetle control.
Lawn Doctor To The Rescue
In a panic last year, I called a lawn-maintenance company (The Lawn Doctor, love 'em!) to come right out and spray to save our trees. They did. It worked. No more Japanese Beetles on our trees, but we also had no more leaves on our trees at that point. We'd waited too long...
Alas, the leaves did grow back, but we were left with some pretty ugly trees through the rest of the summer.
"Professional" tree sprayings vs Bag-a-Bug Japanese Beetle traps
Our First Trial With Bag-a-Bug Japanese Beetles Traps
THIS year we thought we'd try Spectracide's Bag-a-Bug Japanese Beetle Traps.
They're REALLY cheap. They're REALLY easy. And, from what we've heard they're REALLY effective. We got ours at Home Depot.
WARNING: It does seem like the Bag-a-Bug tends to attract Japanese Beetles from miles away, but it's probably an exaggeration. Though I don't know... they say the lure which hangs above the bag ("floral", but it smells like citronella) is a powerful sexual attractant to both the male and the female beetles. By the looks of all the Japanese Beetles A) swarming around the one trap we have in the backyard and B) flying in droves from the nearby yards and over our fence to get to this trap, it's like they're saying, "Hey, I heard the sex is REALLY good over here in THIS yard... follow me!"
From the first moment the packaging to that lure is opened... the mating call is on! So hurry up and get that bag attached and set up on a stake. Otherwise, you're bound to have Japanese Beetles flying at your hands and into your hair trying to get to the lure. That's kinda creepy...
The Proof Is In The Bag
The very first day we set a trap (ha! it's simply the act of hooking an empty plastic bag, WHICH happens to say "bag-a-bug" all over it, onto a hard plastic yellow card, then sliding the "lure" into the pre-drilled slots in the plastic card... then hanging it from a tall silver peg in your yard) we barely had it up 5 hours before the first bag was FULL... to the brim!
And THAT is the draw which keeps us using this particular system... the fact that it's so incredibly satisfying to see a whole bag full of nasty leaf-munching beetles... in a bag and not on our leaves!
Disposing Of The Japanese Beetles
To dispose of the bag of Japanese Beetles (who are now having a mating fest piled up on top of one another inside that tall bug bag), you simply unhook the bag from the plastic card and dispose of it.Which sounds easy enough... UNTIL you're in the act of unhooking the bag from the plastic card when you discover that you've now become a powerful sexual magnet to hundreds of OTHER Japanese Beetles who are flying at you from all directions! (I know, I need a picture of THAT.)
Then, even AFTER you have the bag unhooked from the plastic card which holds the lure, you have to figure out a way to ENCLOSE that bag -- keeping all the Japanese Beetles inside, as opposed to flying around or (more likely) falling like drunken sailors to the ground from all the ecstacy they've sustained from their beetle orgy.
We've found that the simplest method is to place the bag full of beetles upright into a plastic grocery bag or WalMart bag, then quickly tie into a knot the plastic bag. (Though most of the beetles are dazed and confused, so there's really no flurry of beetles scampering to get out!)
Beetle Mania
Truth be told, those bags work wonders! They claim that each bag holds about 4,000 Japanese Beetles. So, based on the number of bags we've changed during the two weeks that we've used the Bag-a-Bug products, we've sucessfully trapped about 32 THOUSAND Japanese Beetles!The first couple of days, we were changing the bag every few hours -- filled to the brim. Then it became every other day. Now, two weeks into it, we're changing the bag every 3rd or 4th day.
But the amazing thing is... we're still on the same lure. It's all dried up, and has a few dead shriveling beetles trapped within it's protective case (those beetles REALLY had a good time in their last few moments of life!), but it's still attracting Japanese Beetles in swarms.
And in the end, all of our trees still have all of their leaves -- despite the fact that the Japanese Beetles started munching on them over 2 weeks ago -- until we bought the Bag-a-Bug!
NOTE: You DO need to dispose of the bags promptly when they get full, or they begin to stink. Same is true for the bags of dead beetles which are collecting in your outdoor garbage pail until garbage-pickup day... If you're like us and keep your garbage pail in the garage... you might want to move it outside if it's going to be a few days till the garbage truck comes around. Trust me on this one...
These Beetle Traps Are Not Harmful To Pets
Not only is this Spectracide product not harmful to pets (unless they EAT it, maybe!), the whole Bag-a-Bug thing is actually quite entertaining to our Lab/Golden mix.
He could sit for hours watching the beetles fly in for a little "afternoon delight", only to never experience such graceful flight again. It's as if our dog is thinking, "Now, how are they so stupid?... Why are they suckered into this tiny little baggie-thing?... All they've got to do is fly UP and out." 
Trust me...
Hours of entertainment for a backyard bark-a-lounger!
Spectracide Bag-a-Bug Facts
- The Bag-a-Bug Japanese Beetle Traps literally catch 3 out of 4 beetles they attract.
- Each bag is hourglass-shaped. Its unique design and slick coating on the inside eliminates escapes.
- Each bag holds up to 4000 beetles.
- As soon as the bag is full or contains mostly dead beetles, whichever comes first, you should dispose of that bag since the smell of dead beetles will keep other Japanese Beetles away from the trap.
- If it rains and your bag is not full of Japanese Beetles yet, use a toothpick to poke drainage holes in the bottom of the bag, this will allow the water to drain out while keeping the beetles contained inside.
- The Bag-a-Bug traps are effective over a 5,000 square foot area, but I'd double-up if you have an especially large yard. Seems to me (and most others I've spotted using this product) that one in the front yard and one in the backyard works well -- even if the square footage is less than 5,000 total!
- One to two lures will last through the entire Japanese Beetle season (6-7 weeks).
- According to the folks at Spectracide, it's the most effective Japanese beetle lure system available.
Facts About Japanese Beetles
First and foremost, Japanese Beetles are attracted to the mere sight of other Japanese Beetles. Thus, where there are a few beetles, there will soon be many beetles, and you could be fighting a losing battle if you do not choose SOME method of control. (The lure of the Bag-a-Bug simply magnifies their attraction and creates a central location for all to procreate -- rather than, say... on the leaves of your trees.)
Japanese Beetles are most active during the hottest part of the day.
You can plan on about 6-7 weeks for Japanese Beetles to be in your garden and eating the leaves off your trees. They usually arrive mid to late June and stay through mid to late August. Ugh!
They invade by the THOUSANDS... literally.
Here are other fun facts about Japanese Beetles.
It's an old gardener's joke: The easiest way to rid your yard of Japanese Beetles is to give a beetle trap as a gift to a neighbor 100 yards away!
UPDATE 8/4/05: For the record, it's early August, and we find that we no longer need the bug bags here in Tennessee. In total we went through 11 bags and 2 lures. Thankfully, the stand itself is reusable year after year.
UPDATE 6/25/06: The Japanese Beetles are back again this summer, and we're using Bag-a-Bug beetle traps again. So far so good... (We're even using last year's leftover lure!)
UPDATE 7/31/07: We needed even fewer bags to control the Beetles this year. One refill pack (of 6 or 8?) got us through the whole summer this time.
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I really have one really honest question. What type of tree are you specifically talking about? I really can't believe what you are saying, putting the bag right in the tree. I have apple trees. I have so many beetles, yes you say a thousand at least. Let's be real here. The bag a bug doesn't even recommend that.
Before I got the traps, I had 100,000s JB everywhere. Year one, went through at least 10 bags. Yes, they were lured from far and wide, but I got corn that year. Year two, still beetles, but not so many as the year before. Year three, still fewer than the year before. Year four, no bags and no beetles. Other neighbors have them, but not on my property. When they show up again, will put up the bags again. My guess is that they got "bagged" before breeding and laying eggs. No eggs, no grubs. They'll come back, but I try to do things organically and this is certainly organic. Am also treating yard with milky spore this year.
GOT 2 OF THEM AT STEINS GARDEN CENTER IN VERNON WISC.
WITH IN 3 DAYS 1 BAG WAS FULL THE OTHER AT LEAST WAS 1/3
FULL . THANKS FOR THE HELP JIM
Who cares what the University of Wherever says... I have had thousands of beetles infest my trees and plants for the past few years. I sprayed and did everything else then finally broke down and got the traps. I may be attracting beetles from who knows how far away but they fly to the bag, not the surrounding trees and plants. I could care less where and how far they come as long as they stay off my plants and trees. It's better to test things out before believing some study or someone elses results with the same product. I do recommend putting them upwind and away from your plants and also treating for grubs every spring.
My apple trees and Birch trees were attacked this year as well as my vegtable garden. I placed 4 traps in my 10,000 sqft yard and filled three of them to overflowing in two days. That is 4000+ X 3 or about 15,000 beetles that were taken out of the reproduction population.
I will agree that I am attracting more beetles than I would without the traps and from long distances. I say GREAT so long as I am killing that many I'm happy. They would eat plants no mater where they are. So if anyone within 3 miles of you has the traps you must also use them or your the victom of there bait.
The most important thing is YOU MUST ALSO KILL THE GRUBS each year by applying a grub killer to you lawn in early spring like MAY 1st to kill the larva.
If the beetles are really bad more that a bag full every 2 weeks in that summer then apply again in late Aug. Like Aug 21st. Also the Beetles love to lay their eggs in lawns that are arrigated like new homes with fresh sod that is watered regularly. If you allow your lawn to go dorment in late July and early Aug there will be less egg laying done in your lawm, but still APPLY GRUB KILLER at least once a year and water it in.
I'm sure the University of Kentucky and other Landscapers have valid points. I can tell you however, that before I hung the bag a bug I was losing my newly planted service berry tree to hoards of the creepy beetles and now I have not seen any. I also treated the roots with a systemic insecticide from Bayer but that takes about a month to kick in. Thankfully my tree looks like it will recover.
All of the non believers must Have never tried these traps, and yes, i do believe that they are attracting more into the area. The moment I set the trap up what I did find was all of them leaving my trees that I spent at least and hour a day diong the plucking into my coffee cup full of soapy water. or spraying the trees they were eating and destroying the week prior with seven with no success. Right after the traps were set, the numbers of beetles on my trees that they were eating was almost nothing, vs the days before when I would pull at least 20 of these bass turds of each one. going on a week with the traps now, my trees are looking better, not a single beetle to pick off any trees, my neighbor next door said their roses are coming back and I get the satisfaction of revenge on these little buggers. Every day I get to trap like 1000 of these. I have many neighbors who are purhasing these soon to help save the world with me. I do recommend the application of Milky spore to the yard, so any beetles that do have a chance to make it away from the trap will have no success in producing offspring in your lawn just to multiply next year.
If the truth were to be known the 'bags' don't work! The beetles pick up the scent for miles coming to the your bag. In otherwords, you're actually drawing more towards your trees/foliage by using the bags. And in the process everything in the path to the bag is at risk. I have found that when I spray my yard and trees in May-June with Seven the larva are killed and no beetles. My neighbors think they are killing the beetles with these bags .. well all they are doing is bringing the beetles throughout the county eating on every rose brush and tree of it's choosing. To use the 'bags' properly you need each person in your neighborhood to hang a bag at each corner of their lot to cover their land and overlap the neighbors. Otherwise if one or two bags are hung everyone within 1/2 radius is subject to the ravage of the beetles to come. It's so much easier to put Seven insect killer (granulated) with your lawn fertilizer in the spring killing them in the ground.
Look at like this. You've got a cat in season and you've let her outside .. given a short period of time how many Tom cats would she attract? Your bag is the heat .. and the beetles are the Toms!
Can you use them in the house. THe smell is very potent and wonder it it's dangerous. Read all the literature but nowhere does it say NOT to use it in the house.
If you think these traps protect your vegetation, here are the facts:
"Research conducted at the University of Kentucky has shown that the traps attract many more beetles than are actually caught. Consequently, susceptible plants along the flight path of the beetles and in the vicinity of traps are likely to suffer much more damage than if no traps are used at all. In most landscape situations, use of Japanese beetle traps probably will do more harm than good."
Also, combine this with the fact that each female beetle lays about 60 eggs in your lawn (many of which reach full maturity the following year), using the traps insures that your beetle problem will continue every year. In addition, the hatching beetle grubs will damage your lawn by eating the roots of your turf. You then have created lawn grub problem in addition to the initial landscaping beetle defoliation.
george.
I worried about attracting more beetles, too- but after drowning about 50 bugs at a time- twice a day! day after day after day-I gave up and got the bags. I live in northeastern IL and this is the worst I've ever seen- the damage they've done is remarkable.
Hello, I saw a bag similar to the one on this webpage not too long ago and I told my mother abou it and now I ask her everyday to get one but she doesn't believe me that the Japanese Beetles eat your flowers. She says that the flowers with holes are normal. What should I do?
I have been told by TWO tree care professionals to NEVER EVER use these bags. All they do is attract every beetle for like a one mile radius. Any neighbor who puts one up should be asked to take them down. My next door neighbor put two of them up and we have more beetles this year than ever before. All they do is end up feeding on your trees by the thousands as they come into the neighborhood.
I've never used the bag-a-bugs method. You are attracting Japanese beetles to your yard. Why would you want to do that??!! Would you do the same with mosquitos??? I always use the method described in this link:
http://www.walterreeves.com/insects_animals/article.phtml?cat=21&id=390
First year to have them in our yard here in Iowa. Bought three traps and put them at the farthest corners of our back yard. To date I have chamged the bags (3) over 5 times. Hate those darn things.
They ar almost full when I change them so I estimate 6000 beetles each change!
I must not be the only one with them as every time I have been at Lowes there have been people standing looking for something to get rid of beetles. Think I must be the worlds best Bar A Bug salesman as I have sold bags to about 10 or 12 people, even though I don't get paid to do it!
If you're trapping a *lot* of beetles, and dealing with the bags has become a nuisamce, here's how to go: start with the standard bag-a-bug trap, and 2 2-liter soda bottles. Tape the caps of the two bottles together top-to-top; foil tape works best; and cut out the center. take one of the standard bags and cut it off just below the pinched section. cut top off one of the soda bottles about 3" down, and insert it in the bag-a-bug bag you cut off, so the bottle forms a funnel leading down. attach the double cap. take the second soda bottle, punch a couple of small drainage holes in the bottom in case it gets rained on, and screw it onto the double cap.
Now, your beetles collect in the bottle instead of the bag. when it gets a bit heavy, punch a couple of drainage holes in a new bottle, swap bottles, and cap the one with all the beetles in it before disposing.
Japanese Beetle traps really do work! I also have a bucket of soapy water nearby, so I can just knock the beetles off the plant and get them while there mating. The more they mate, the more they eat. We have ornamental bushes around our house and they just devour the plant, but we took our pump sprayer and went out and sprayed the shrubs. It worked, but do not spray soapy water on flowering plants. Good Luck!
The best way to deter the cycle of Japanese Beetles is to #1 use the traps to kill the adults, #2 use Scotts GrubRx for your lawns (where the beetles lay their eggs) in June or July so they will kill the beetles larvae before they appear in August, and #3, suggest to all your neighbors to put up traps. Or, if you're feeling overly generous, buy them a complimentary trap so they can see firsthand just how well they work :). You can apply the GrubRx with any other fertilizer without doing harm to your lawn.
I have used the traps for a week, and they really work. But I question whether it is effective at getting rid of them completely. Does any one know how to rid them completely? Do I need to use a combination of the bags during the active season and a pesticide on the lawn to kill the larvae? And, would that even work?
The traps are wonderful. However after two years of using spray & traps it's getting old. They are eating my impatients & rose bush's. So my questions is does anyone know what kind of flowers the little guys won't eat? If so I would appreciate knowing.
We have been fighting the Japanese Beetle here in southern Ill. since 02, and feel that we are winning the battle. There are several of us who live in the country. In 02 I had 9 bags and one other had 11 bags. The bags would fill up every day. The first thing we did was to put larger bags under the trap. This worked better, but the bags would only last a couple days. Then we started using five gallon buckets with lids. We cut a hole about the size of a half dollar in the center and then cut off all but about eight inches of the bag and stuck it through the hole. When the bucket was almost full, we replaced it with another bucket and after all the beetles were dead in the first bucket, we threw the beetles out on a fence row. This works well most of the time, but one of the farmers had a little better idea. Dairy farmers have larger containers that their supplies come in, so he uses 20 gallon containers. He placed 2 such containers out on his farm and it took about 2 weeks for them to fill up.
The idea is to trap as many beetles as possible and over the last few years we have gotten much better at trapping them. Why trap them? Well, you not only are rid of them once they enter the trap, but they also will not be laying eggs for the next year.
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Wow... great comments everyone!
Thanks so much for the feedback.
Glad to hear the Bag-A-Bug traps are working well for everyone else too.
For what it's worth... I was listening to 99.7 WTN on the radio last weekend where Josh Cary and David Bates co-host a popular home improvement show.
They're from here in Nashville, and they mentioned that Japanese Beetles, as a rule, tend to be a very bad problem at first, then they practically phase themselves out after 5 years.
They said after that first year that you see Japanese Beetles in your trees, you'll start to notice the beetles are less and less each year -- until that 5th year when they'll be VERY light.
They said it's because all the birds and other insects figure out they're there... and the Japanese Beetles seek other places to call home.
That's definitely what we're seeing at our home. We're on the 4th year in a row of dealing with Japanese Beetles and this was without a doubt the lightest year ever. We didn't even use two whole boxes of bags this year! And by late July, there was no more need for the traps at all. (Last year, we had to trap midway into August.)
Hi everyone. I just starting using the beetle traps and I am trapping hundreds of those nasty critters. I have a great way to dispose of the beetles and re-use the bags over and over again. At night when the beetle activity level subsides, I take the bag off the trap. Then I tie a twist tie around the top of the bag. I put the filled bag into another plastic bag and tie that one. I put a fresh, empty bag onto the trap for the next day. I then put the filled bag into the freezer overnight to kill the little suckers. The next day, I sprinkle the dead beetles on the ground around the trees and shrubs that have the most damage for the birds and other bugs to feed on. I read that beetles will tend to avoid feeding from areas that have the smell of dead beetles and this does seem to work. Plus you are disposing of the dead beetles in an eco friendly way and you save money by not having to purchase more and more bags. Hope this info helps out there. Happy Beetle trappings to all!!
DISPOSAL: If you want to avoid being amidst a swarm of the bugs while deiposing of the bag, it's best to change the bags after sunset. If you haven't noticed, the activity level ceases after the sun goes down...or should I say, it's particularly frenzied during the day. And if you detach and replace the bags at night, you won't hear any buzzing..ew!
Of course the holes are for drainage in case it rains. I'm guessing the beetles would all rise to the top and float away if there were no drainage holes! Hello?!!!
By the way, Al Gore is right (global warming has created this problem - go see the movie)!!! I don't remember ever seeing this many beetles before in one season.
BEWARE! When the bag becomes completely full of beetles you no longer have an effective trap but rather a long-distance sexual attractant (near your plants) and a bag that is too full to trap more beetles. After their amorous bodies have become exhausted in this unintentionally advertised orgy of yours, they will require nourishment from the nearest of their favorite plants.....Namely Yours!
So...Don't go on vacation thinking that your single backyard Bag-A-Bug will continue to protect your plants ---- a mistake we made for a ten day vacation in July. We returned to find foliar devastation on roses, grapes & ferns. The bug-bag was completely full, not just to the neck but to the brim, yet stinking badly from several days of summer mammalian decay.
So, for your own vacation, either: 1) rehang your trap a block or two away from any plant that is 'beloved' by anyone you know, 2) bury your trap deep underground or wrap it in several layers of molecularly impermeable film, or 3) best) hang enough traps to preclude trap-saturation during your entire absence. I suppose vacationers could devise a high-capacity trap out of a grocery bag but the dynamics of entrapment are imperfectly understood.
Is it possible to use the dead japanese beetles for food for insect eating birds, such as bluebirds, for whom I have constructed a very elaborate feeding station?
My thought is to "nuke" the beetles trapped in the bag, hung beneath the bait. I don't believe there is anything toxic in the bait.
I would like to hear some thoughts.
Thank you.
David
My husband laughed at me when I brought the bags home. I put the first one together and he hung it to please me. Next thing you know he was putting the second one together. We went to the store and purchased 5 more, 3 of which were for our married daughters. One son-in-law laughed. His son told him to quite laughing when he saw what the bags were catching. They are fast sellers in our area as every store in the neighborhood are sold out.
Thank you for all the details about catching those critters. I started to use the bag-a-bug after noticing something swarming (in the thousands) around the top of my front tree. Once I finally realized they were Japanese beetles, I rushed to Home Depot and put up two bag-a-bug traps (one in the tree and one away from the tree). Although there are conflicting recommendations about whether to use this type of product or not, I am very glad I did! Right now, I'm changing each "full" bag on a daily basis and the beetle population seems to have been significantly reduced (my imagination you say?). This swarm ate about 1/3 of my 30 foot tree's leaves (from the top down) in the first 3 days after I noticed them; however, since I put up the traps, my remaining leaves appear to have been saved. Thank goodness for bag-a-bug!! There are; however, a few things that I do not understand about this product.
The first is why there are small holes around the circumference of each bag near the bottom? Are they for drainage? I also noticed that some of the smarter trapped beetles try to use them as escape routes but usually get caught half-way out. And the final thing I do not understand is "what the heck is that noise coming from the bag after I take it down and seal it?" I'm guessing its the beetles all buzzing in unison; however, its a really scary noise because the bag sound like its going to explode at any moment! The closest sound I can relate it to would be "water boiling over on a stove at the highest boiling point." I put those criiters in 3 extra layers of plastic bags before final disposal. I know this is going to sound really stupid but when I first heard that resounding noise, I thought they were "self-destructing" to release a chemical that would eat the plastic (saw that on the sci-fi channel one time). Just kidding of course...