Help with a list of plants to avoid due to japanese beetles

16 years ago

I only saw my first J. beetle a few years ago. Now they cover the fields of our farm.

My garden blooms/foliage are getting eaten alive.

My canna have to be sprayed daily as I will have as many as 30 bugs on ea stalk with the hand picking method. (That's per day!) I'm seriously thinking about eliminating the plants they find most tasty here. Not as an effort to decrease the bugs numbers- just to avoid a nasty looking garden.

That includes canna,

porcelain berry vine ( ampelopsis)

calla aethiopica

Please help add the the list of plants so I don't bother purchasing them and then tossing them after they are tossed-salad for these nasty orgie oriented bugs.

Karen

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Comments (5)

entling
16 years ago
I can add only 2 due to my limited experience of Japanese beetles: roses & Rose of Sharon (Hybiscus syriaca). I don't grow roses (for that very reason) & I'm hoping the beetles enjoy the Rose of Sharon & leave the rest of my plants alone.
athenainwi
16 years ago
Malva Zebrina, roses, raspberries, cherry tree, and peach tree. I decided this year that I don't mind them on the roses since they mostly eat the blooms rather than the leaves which doesn't hurt the roses. But on the cherry they eat the leaves. So I'm leaving the roses as attractants to keep them away from the cherry. I have enough roses now that they can't get all of them. They haven't noticed my Rose of Sharon yet but it's in an out of the way place. I drop the beetles into a bucket of soapy water every day or two and it keeps the damage at a tolerable level. It's just as easy for me to drop a bunch of them in the bucket as it is to spray and this way I don't have to worry about hurting the bees. I think I'll have to do the milky spore at some point though as I haven't seen a bloom on my Sunsprite rose open all summer.
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adiantium
16 years ago
Add Hollyhocks - they seem to love to eat the pollen. Maybe just shorten to list to say anything in the Mallow family? (smile)
sandy0225
16 years ago
grapes, crabapples, kiss me over the garden gate (heirloom annual), evening primrose, rhubarb, lotus, musa basjoo, hardy hibiscus, okra, and the petals off my rudbeckias have all been targets here. I hate japanese beetles so much!!!
iowa_flower_nut
16 years ago
They ate alot of the petals of my coneflowers last year but only a small amout this year. They LOVE mallow, hollyhocks, rhubarb and last year ate leaves of my clematis, not as much this year. I've only noticed them here for about two years and luckily they aren't in huge numbers yet so I go around late in the evening (when they are slower) and flick them into a container of soapy water. I have read that you don't want to smash them because the smell will attract more JB's!
I know people within 5 miles of us that have large infestations. I'm wondering if I may be lucky that there aren't many gardens in my area and they are less attracted to the area so far?