Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Feeding Japanese Bettles

Same experience I had. At first they spit them out, a few days later they can't get enough. If I have some time in the next few weeks to learn how to post pics I will share pic I took of the stomachs of some fish I caught and cleaned. They were so filled with J.beetles that they were regurgitating them in the bucket before I cleaned them. When I gutted them the stomachs were completely packed full with beetles.

Ad-pond,
Once they taste them they won't go back. I noticed when I catch the JBs I hold them in my hand very tightly, this seems to keep them from flying away when tossed into the pond and must exhude some jucies, mmmum tasty! They keep coming back for more.

The beetle trap isn't working so great anymore must have lost it's scent?

Don't you guys get bit when handling JBs? They bite here in MN and it stings pretty good. I put them in same catagory as Deer Flies and those black picnic beetles. Yuk!

Brilliant!
(Really.)

No, never.

No biting here... Must be a MN thing, every insect seems to bite there!

Forget the JB's biting, I was collecting them today at my daughters place and got stung twice by yellow jackets.

Now they hurt! A whole bunch of them got me Saturday when I was bush hogging. I still got marble sized lumps!

My mistake about the JB's, we have Asian Beetles here. The ABs are not native and were dropped here some years ago by the Dept of Agriculture to rid the farmer's soy beans of aphids. The AB bites hard, smells bad, and leaves crap stains on your walls and ceilings when they get in your house. I have never seen a bird or fish eat one.

I have seen a lot of crop dusting going on here lately so I inquired what they were spraying for, and was told aphids in the soy beans. Another plan that failed. Unfortunatley, I think the ABs are here to stay.

I wonder if the AB's you speak of are what we call stink bugs around here... Do you get piles of them in your house right as the first few frosts hit? Man do those things stink! They do feed on aphids, but I haven't had one bite me.

I am guessing that he/she is referring to the asian lady beetle (redish with spots)?

Yeah, we started seeing the Asian lady bugs a few years back. Our hunting cabin gets covered with them on it's southern exposure in the fall and they will find anyway possible to squeeze their way inside.

We get the Lady Bug swarm just before the frost, they live in the house all winter. Haven't know one to bite but some pepole say they do. Don't usually see them in numbers until the late fall.

Didn't realize the JB thread would have such an interest? They seem to be tapering off now that I'm catching them mating, capurteing them in pairs somethings threes ;-}

Hey scruffy_fish, Sorry about my last post...I had my beetles mixed up. Asian lady bugs were what I was talking about..JB's been pretty rare around here this year...although I did see some on the soy-beans when I was cutting grass tonight.

bump:

I set up my japanese beetle trap off the dock again last week. I have a hole in the bottom of the bag which is about 6 inches over the water level. The fish took to it right away and now I even have bass sitting under it waiting for the beetles to hit the water.

The Japanese beetles are here again and the PS's don't seem to be picky about eating them as they were last year, maybe it's an acquired taste.

Yeah I just noticed them about a week ago here. My neighbor used to put out the phermone traps until he finally realized he was just calling them in for a sex orgy and there were more.

The JB's are back and eating everything.

I'm fishing out the PSs from my pond (mud hole) to put them in a temporary shelter, with water coming from my small well. (I'm using a JB pattern and my fly rod, works great.) Most fun I've had with the pond in some time.

I have six PSs in a 30 gallon tub and 5 more to go. I have my only trout in a 48 gallon tub and it is doing fine. The tubs are inter-connected so the water follows from the big tub to the small. Hope to keep them alive until I figure out what I'm going to do about the ledge leak.

My wife thinks I'm nutz!

Scruffy, I remember someone mentioning possibly putting concrete over the ledge in your pond, have you considered securing steel mesh over the ledge and working cement into the mesh, not sure if this would work but they do make boat hulls this way.

http://www.motherearthnews.com/Do-It-Yourself/1972-07-01/How-To-Build-A-Ferrocement-Boat.aspx

Thanks for all your help and concern AP.

I wish an expert pond builder would chime in with some advice, that has actually repaired a ledge leak.

I priced out more Benonite clay yesterday, since I haven't had any luck finding a blue clay source. Maybe if I pack the open ledge with a ton and a half of Benonite in 6 inch lifts I can stop it? The area is only about 20 feet in diameter where I couldn't compact the soil when I mixed in the Benonite two years ago. This would even allow me to have a deeper pond.

The first time I back filled at least four feet of soil over the area. The next time I mixed in the Benonite and compacted over the whole basin. Which left me with the soft area I couldn't compact.

This post should really go under the soils threads?

I think that a soil expert would be more apt to see it if it was re-posted in the soils or renovating a pond section. Try PM'ing some of the soil experts here.

is there any information that fish who eat jb will have a particular smell to them? i cant hardly stand to be around my trap when they get bunched up in it and was wondering if fish could have that smell if they injest jb. i really want to try the jb feeder explained here. it looks awesom.