Coming of age in the 60s & 70s, the music of The Kinks was part of my soundtrack. I owned none of their music so their significance in my development was probably minimal, but still they were on the radio. And it never dawned on me, until the other day at the garden center when I was struggling with yet another kink in the hose, what their name meant. Of course!
Now, anyone who has dragged around a hose knows the frustration of kinks and the false promises of kink-free hoses. As I continued watering, I realized it was the perfect metaphor to describe the frustrations of gardening.
Case in point this week: Garden’s looking good, everything’s planted, beds edged, mulched, the hard work is done, time to kick back, enjoy…and “what’s that?” There it is, another kink in the hose, a Japanese beetle, and another one, and another one, and another…..
Now Google’s dictionary defines “kink” as a “sharp curve in something that is otherwise straight.” Google gives an example for us which reads: “the river kinks violently in a right angle.” No doubt written by a software engineer, might I suggest a more creative example of the use of the word “kink”? The gardener, looking up from the kink in his hose, kinked violently in a right angle upon seeing the return of the Japanese beetle.
Yes, they disturb me, and as much as I dislike saying it, I hate them. I try not to hate but they descend upon our gardens with the intent of making them a wasteland. They will leave behind skeletons for leaves, half-eaten flowers, and to top it off, they will poop in our lawns leaving the genesis of next year’s rampage.
Japanese beetles, known by some (very few actually) as Popillia japonica, was a hitchhiker on an Iris bulb shipment from Japan to New Jersey back around 1916. It has since established itself in most of the Eastern and Midwestern states. It’s MO: sweep a garden, leave no leaf intact, copulate furiously, drop to the ground, lay a bunch of eggs, and die.
If this Bacchanalian carnival only lasted for a week, it would be bad enough, but no it’s weeks. If only that guy packing the iris crate bound for New Jersey would have been paying attention, and noticed there was more than iris in that box. Stopping that is definitely on my to-do list should I ever run across a Time Machine, along with all wars, famines, and pestilence, of course.
Turns out though that Mr. Popillia Japonica is not such a bad guy in his native country. He’s got some people (fungi, parasites, nematodes) over there that keep him in check. So I guess even if the guy noticed, he probably thought, “no big deal.” That’s what I will tell him when I go back. It kinda is.
A USDA booklet written in 2004 for the homeowner on managing Japanese beetles in the home garden suggests using pheromone traps, aka bag traps. Now most experts today will tell you if you do buy one of those bags, you’ll get better results sticking it in your neighbor’s yard. Studies have shown that these traps do attract Japanese beetles, but from well beyond the confines of your yard.
Seems these buggers are a gregarious group. Nobody loves a party like them, and that bag is an invitation to party. The early arrivals may end up in the bag (let that be a lesson) but pretty soon there’s so much pheromone in the air, nobody cares about that yellow bag anymore.That is one key to control, git ‘em early before the invitations go out to the rest of the neighborhood.
Control can be obtained through chemicals, parasites, or fungi. Most target the larval stage of the beetle which is a white grub. The grub is what the egg hatches into. It spends its time foraging through the roots of our lawns.
If you’re spending a few bucks treating your lawn to keep it free of weeds and bugs, this grub is one the things those chemicals are targeting. A heavy infestation of Japanese grubs can kill large patches of turf. It might also bring in skunks and raccoons who view the white grubs as an Asian delicacy.
Milky spore is a non-toxic (yes, the chemicals we use on our lawns are toxic) fungus that attacks the grub and keeps Japanese beetle populations in check. It’s expensive though, and unfortunately, trials in Ohio with it yielded not so great results.
Another non-toxic with promises is Neem Oil. Neem oil, an extract from the Neem Tree native to India, is said to act as a repellent if sprayed on plants. Anecdotal evidence suggests it works as long as you get it on there before they begin gathering on the plant.
Soapy water will work for adults but not as a spray. You have to put it in a bucket, and then knock the beetles into the bucket. Quite often you don’t even have to knock them. Their defense against disturbance is to drop straight down, and then fly away.
Great strategy unless a bucket of soapy water is beneath them. A bit tragic when you think about it. And it’s best not to think about it after you’ve squished them between your thumb and forefinger. If that’s not an option for you nor chemicals, pray for dry weather. They don’t like that.
The eggs need moisture to survive till hatching. For this reason, irrigated lawns are the perfect birthing grounds. A dry lawn is not. A few years ago, we had back to back dry summers, and the Jap beetle population was nearly nil the next couple years.
They have built back up, but I was hopeful this year because it seemed like there were not as many of them in the back yard as in the past. This morning as I was mowing however, I noticed the party has merely moved out to the front yard onto our birch tree. Oh well, just another kink in the hose.
