Japanese Beetles

For those of you who don't live here, Japanese Beetles mate like mad in June. If you live in Murfreesboro, you are most likely dealing with this very problem. I noticed the first ones about four days ago...I could hear them hitting the windows and siding of the house. I looked outside and saw several stuck to the screens. Icky.

If these are not the nastiest, peskiest creatures! They're awful. They are about the size of a small marble and are copper/green in color. They eat all kinds of foliage. They can eat an entire bush in a day if you let them. My first defense was to put up a Bug Bag. It's a plastic hour glass shaped bag that hangs from a metal stand in our yard. There's a bait system that attracts the lil' boogers, and they fall into the bag.

In about 4 hours, the bag was nearly half full of bugs!!! (I'd say the bugs measured about 2 inches high by about 6 inches wide...and no, I didn't stop to count how many were in there!) I would have taken a picture, but I don't want to gross you out.

The worst part about this is that someone has to empty the bags. Sure you could tie it off and toss the bag in the trash can. But you'd have to do that once a day, and the bags are $2.50 a piece. Sooooo, Mike has the wretched task of dumping the critters into a Wal-Mart bag (three thick), then tying it off. I stay as far away from that chore as possible. Oh, and they STINK to high heaven when they die. Between the bugs and the diapers, our toter trash can is hummin'!

BLECH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Our next line of defense is to put down some Sevin Dust. It's a chemical that you put on all of your foliage and is supposed to be the only thing that truly works. We bought some last year, but never used it. I'll have to read the label to see if it's toxic to pets or children. If it's not, then I'm going to go crazy with it.