Our blueberries got a bad infestation of Japanese Beetles this year. I bought a Japanese Beetle trap with a removable beetle trap. Just about every evening I dump thousands of Japanese Beetles into a bucket of water and toss them into my pond. The fish gobble them up like candy. Wondering if anybody else is doing the same?
I recall using Japanese beetles for sunfish bait as a kid. Some years the beetles would cover our hollyhocks. We'd catch RBS, GSF, PS on the adult beetles, and on the grubs.
This was more than 50 years ago! Thanks for reminding me.
All types of sunfish love beetles. I tie a beetle fly and it works miraculously. Good for trout too.
It seems to be that a few years ago there was an article on this site that showed how to make a huge beetle trap that you could float on the pond and the bugs would drop directly into the water. It called for cutting the bottom out of a five gallon jug like you have in water coolers, placing it in a certain size inner tube, I think it was the 13 inch size of a Volkswagen beetle, and a giant beetle attractor you could buy on the internet. Floating it on the lake drew the bugs away from plants and never needed to be emptied. It seems like the story was that bluegill hung around it like they do to a bug lite or feeder.
We have them in our garden this year by the thousands. Also in field corn cutting off the silks of the corn. I have never noticed them much in field corn or any other time for that matter. Must be the right conditions for them to thrive this year. We have had lots of rain.
It seems like when an area gets them for the first time they are really bad for a few years then taper off after they develop a prediator that gets a taste for them
The japanese beetles are back. Just caught about 15 BG, 2 LMB and one whopping channel cat that broke me off. Some of the BG's are getting fat and big bumps on their heads. That was a lot like fun, one Japanese beetle on a small hook under a bobber. Doesn't get much better than that!
Now my grass carp have developed a taste for the bugs. They come in and pretty much clean up all the beetles I throw in. CC, LMB, RES, BG and now GC are all chowing down on the beetles.
I froze a small bottle of japanese beetles. These are effective baits at certain times. Wifey isn't a big fan of frozen beetles in the freezer though but there is no smell, no mess.
Are theses the bugs that look like lady bugs ?
Think most folks down south call them June bugs
My HBG ate quite a few as they were hand tossed into the pond, but after building a trap/feeder, they decided not to like them much anymore. I contribute it to have more than enough FHMs in the pond.
Here's more on the topic...
http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Main=37762&Number=492292#Post492292