Will my plants survive an invasion of Japanese beetles?

Sandy
by Sandy

So they arrived by the thousands and have made lace of the leaves on all our fruit trees. We sprayed and it rained so we sprayed again. Will this years apple crop survive or does the fruit just drop off after making the trees go thru this kind of shock? Has anyone gone thru this in previous years ?

  4 answers
  • Have a consult with a local arborist. I went through this with my citrus trees a few years ago. Not as expensive as you might imagine. I lost most of the crop, but subsequent years were fine.

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    • You are most welcome Sandy! I understand about being organic as that is my method too. Nebraska gets some crazy weather. Wish you the best of luck! Maybe the winter will kill them all off? Wishful thinking?

  • I agree to reach out to your local extension agent. Typically Japanese beetles overwinter underground, so the more you can pick and put in soapy water now, the fewer you'll have next year. Here's an article that may help: https://thekitchengarten.com/how-to-get-rid-of-japanese-beetles/

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    • I'm sorry to hear this Sandy. I know that many fruit trees need to be treated these days in order to keep the bugs from eating your crop. Definitely reach out to your local extension office, so you have a plan in place for next year. They will have the best information specific to your area. Good luck!

  • Lynn Sorrell Lynn Sorrell on Jul 28, 2019

    leaves have nothing to do with fruit production have they eaten bloossoms? what did you spray with? hopefully something organic since it's edibles-- you need to treat area to kill off the life cycle stages in ground using Nematodes and Milky spore here is info. https://www.arbico-organics.com/category/japanese-beetles-control Mother Nature is really resilient.....however when mother nature produces lots of seeds & bugs means the weather will be really harsh-more seeds and bugs means less of a chance species will be wiped out either by dry/drought conditions,floods or really harsh winters. make sure your trees are watered sufficiently/correctly to help with any harsh conditions.

    • Sandy Sandy on Jul 28, 2019

      We are flood plain and luckily did not flood this year though the nearest town did have to do some evacuations . This seems to have brought on a host of new insects, snakes and problems. Your comment on really harsh weather coming may be right on target. Nebraska is known for harsh weather to begin with so a bad winter may be in our future. Thanks for the insight.

  • Rymea Rymea on Jul 29, 2019

    Use grub killer. We had a similar attack of them last year. We used GrubeX and have only seen a few this season. Hopefully you can talk your neighbors into treating for their grubs also or they will just fly in from their property. Milky spore works but it takes a few years to get strong enough to really make a difference. Then it is supposed to control them for about ten years.