Beetle season has just started here (Western PA, zone 5b).

July 1, I found one; July 3 another one, today up to

six or so on my plum trees.

I have three Catch-can traps about 150 yard from the trees

and those are getting a lot more. This afternoon I emptied

the traps with a yield (!) of maybe four or five hundred

beetles. so it seems that the traps are doing some good

where they are.

When I go to the traps, I first dunk the whole trap and can

in a bucket of soapy water, then empty the wet beetles

into the bucket. They stay there just fine but I've

started to think about how to dispose of them when they

become more numerous. In the past, I've dumped them in a

far corner of the yard but they stink and sometimes crawl

around and I don't like that.

This time, I decided to see what happens if I feed them to

the fish, so I threw the whole bucketful into my pond

(1/4 acre, 10 feet deep, stocked with large-mouth bass

and bluegills). It took a few minutes before anything

happened but the fish did nibble and later got quite a few.

After about five minutes, some of the beetles revived and

flew away (probably less than 10%). For the next fifteen

minutes there was regular feeding, probably by bluegills,

but I have to concede it was anything but a feeding frenzy.

After a while some of the larger bass showed up and

began to do a better job. I didn't stay longer but I'm

going to venture a guess that probably 90% or more of

these beetles were "consumed".

This result seems good enough to me to warrant another

try. I'll try a couple of things different:

1) I'll leave the beetles in the soapy water longer

(this time was only a couple of minutes) in the hope that

more of them will be "drowned". Anyway, does a japanese

beetle drown?

2) I guess I'll try a different time of day to see if

feeding is a little more enthusiastic. This time it was

around 2 PM under a hot sun.

If anyone has suggestions or a story about a similar

experience, I'd like to hear it. Thanks for any help

you may contribute