How To Stop Beetles From Eating Your Plants

So, you hear a loud buzzing sound coming from your garden.

You come outside and find that it’s no bumble bee buzzing in your garden, it’s an invasion of beetles consuming the soft fruit on your fruit tree.

What is that thing? Is it a Japanese Beetle or a Figeater Beetle? How can you tell?

And most importantly, how do you stop them from ruining your harvest?

Identifying Your Beetle

If you have a fig tree, or any other soft fruit tree for that matter, you most certainly have a “Figeater Beetle” infestation.

Also known as the “Green June Beetle”, try not to mistake the figeater beetle for its cousin, the Japanese beetle (Popillia japonica).

One thing to note is that the Figeater Beetle is only found in the western parts of the United States.

Japanese Beetles are predominately found in the eastern parts of the United States and are usually more brown and bronze in tone and appearance. They can also cause severe damage to trees and lawns as larvae by devouring the roots quickly.

Fortunately, the Figeater beetle is less destructive. Nonetheless, is can still be a major pest in your garden.

The Proactive Approach

So now that you have identified your garden pest, how do we get them out of your garden?

First thing you can do is take immediate action and give it the proactive approach.

Pick Out The Larvae

If you can catch them early enough in your soil, dispose of them or feed them to your chickens. This way you can minimize the population that will be born in the coming season, making the next population a bit more manageable to control.

By using only this method of hand-picked pest control, it will take a very long time before you can significantly reduce the number of pests in your garden. However, a significant reduction is possible to achieve when being proactive at picking out the larvae from the soil and then picking off the beetles as adults.

Pick Off The Beetles

If the beetles are already adults, hopefully you can identify the problem as soon as possible, while the population of beetles is smaller and more manageable. Picking them off at this point is still very effective.

Once you’ve picked them off, it’s up to you how you want to dispose of them. Most people prefer to drown them in soap water (cruel, I know). However, if you have chickens, they will be happy to eat them for you.

However, if you’re dealing with larger populations, they will scatter and buzz like crazy when approached and that can cause panic for some of us.

If the population of beetles has grown to a significant amount and you don’t feel comfortable handling them with your hands, then you should check out some of the other methods of dealing with your garden pests.

Let Your Chickens Feast

As we mentioned earlier, if you happen to be raising chickens in your backyard homestead, you’d be delighted to know that your garden gals will gladly keep your beetles at bay.

Chickens find beetles to be a tasty and crunchy snack. You can either let your garden helpers roam the infected area and find them on their own, or you can (if you’re able to) hand pick them and give them to your chickens yourself. Either way, they’ll be happy you did.

However, the larvae of the beetles (grubs) we mentioned earlier are the preferred snack of most chickens as they are squishy and filled with tons of soft-tissued proteins.

Home-Made Trap

You can capture the fig beetles by making a home-made trap with a sweet temptation to lure them in. Since sweet things attract the fig beetles, this home-made sweet trap is perfect.

Start off by making a mixture (1 part water to 1 part fruit juice – 1 to 1 ratio) and pouring it into a large container. Create a funnel shape out of wire mesh and insert into the container opening with the widest part of the wire mesh funnel facing upward.

This funnel shape will assist the beetles to go inside the trap by guiding them to the entrance but they’ll be lost trying to find the exit once they’ve fallen into this trap!

The Preventative Approach

The best thing you can do to control these pests in your garden is to prevent them from populating in the first place.

In order to do that, it’s important that we understand a bit about how their life cycle works.

 

Understanding Their Life Cycle

There are 4 stages in the life-cycle of the Japanese Beetle and Figeater Beetle. Having knowledge of these cycles will help you understand how it is that you can interrupt that cycle for the benefit of your garden.

Egg

This is where it all starts. Or ends? Restarts?

Okay we’re not here to answer whether the beetle or the egg came first.

After mating, beetles can either lay their eggs in clusters or individually in different areas of the soil. At this stage, the eggs essentially just sit there, waiting to hatch.

Larvae

Around 2 weeks, the eggs will hatch into young larvae, then eventually grow into larger C-shaped grubs.

Japanese beetle larvae will feast on thin roots and other organic matter during this time. As they grow into larger looking grubs, their appetite for thicker roots will grow. If not dealt with early on, the larvae of Japanese beetles can devour lawns and pastures fairly quick.

Figeater beetle larvae, however, don’t grow such a large appetite for lawn roots as they do for more organic matter. This makes composting areas a great place for these beetles to lay their eggs.

Pupa

Before the beetles emerge from the ground, they go through a stage called the pupa stage. The grubs will then hibernate over the winter using a cocoon-like protective shell. Once the soil begins to warm up in the spring time, the larvae will break their dormancy.

After about 4-6 weeks from the end of their hibernation, the pupa will begin to pupate, then emerge from the soil as adults.

Adult

Ironically, the beetle (all 3 of them) will spend most if it’s life in those earlier stages and only in little over a month as an adult beetle.

• During the Japanese beetle’s time as an adult, it will consume leaf material, skeletonizing the leaves on it’s way down the entire plant. Once these adult beetles take a liking to your plants, they send out pheromones to attract other beetles and they can quickly overwhelm an entire plant or tree.
• During the Figeater beetle’s  life as an adult it will help itself to any soft or fermenting fruit that you might have in your garden. Fruit from cacti, sap from desert trees and of course figs are popular items on their menu. If not managed early enough, the Figeater beetle can even devour whole fig crops.

Disrupting Their Life Cycle

When looking for an organic solution to deal with these pests, the answer comes to us by observing nature.

The question that needs to be asked is what exactly is nature’s way of controlling the population of these beetles?

Nature disrupts the life cycle of these beetles (at the egg, larvae, and pupa stages) using beneficial nematodes!

So What Are Nematodes?

Nematodes are a microorganism that occur naturally in soil. Beneficial nematodes are actually one of the best things you can add to your soil. Not only will they vastly benefit your garden by helping to control the population of beetles but they also help to control leafminers, borers, ticks, fleas, and a host of other soil borne insects. There are literally thousands of strains of nematodes, each with it’s own lifestyle.

How Do Beneficial Nematodes Help?

Beneficial nematodes are known to actively seek out pests.

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When added to the soil, the nematodes pick up on the temperature and carbon dioxide given off by these soil borne insects and make their way towards them and eventually enter the pest through its body openings.

The nematodes carry an associated bacterium (Photorhabdus species) that kills insects fast (within 48 hours).

The nematodes find and prey on soil-dwelling insects and leave plants, humans, animals and even beneficial bugs such as earthworms unharmed.

Beneficial nematodes have about a 96% success rate against Japanese beetle grubs.

Are All Nematodes The Same? Which Ones Should I Get?

Not all nematode species are created equal. In fact, some nematode species are considered to be pest in the garden.

Of course, nematode species that are sold as beneficial nematodes are just that, beneficial. These beneficial species of nematode have been studied by scientists and their life-cycles are well understood.

Although many species of beneficial nematode species are available, the most effective nematode for our garden problems is a combination of two species, Steinernema and Heterorhabditis.

However, Heterorhabditis bacteriophora (Hb) is the most effective species of nematodes to control Japanese beetles, Figeater beetles, and similar grubs found in soil.

The reason that Hb nematode species are the best choice for your beetle problem is because they are cruiser nematodes that dig deep into the soil and vigorously hunt down the soil-dwelling grubs (larvae) and other pests. They also have a unique “tooth” that helps them get into the grub.

Check out the Pest Control resource page for some additional info and where you can order beneficial nematodes online.

When Should I Apply Them?

Before you go out and buy your nematodes, you should probably know when conditions are best to apply your nematodes.

First, your microscopic pals can’t survive the cold, so it’s best to apply them when soil temperatures are above 42°F

Also, they aren’t too fond of the bright light and UV coming from the harsh sun.

For best results, apply your nematodes early in the morning or bit after sundown when it’s not too hot nor too bright and also consider applying during the spring and fall seasons. Not only is the weather optimal during these seasons, this is usually the time that grubs are lurking in the ground.

How Much Should I Apply?

Here is a simple guideline to when considering how many nematodes you should use.

10 Million nematodes will treat up to 3,200 sq.ft. – which is a typical garden size

50 Million nematodes will treat up to 1/2 acre.

100 million nematodes will treat up to an acre.

Anything Else I Should Know?

Do Not Disturb.

Once they have made themselves at home, these microorganisms don’t appreciate you going and digging up the soil. Beneficial nematodes work best in undisturbed soil conditions.

This means if you plan to use nematodes while growing vegetables in the same soil, you should consider using no-till farming methods along with the use of the nematodes.

Otherwise, you can apply the nematodes to vacant areas of your garden, which remain untouched during that particular season, just be sure to keep the soil lightly moist to prevent the soil from drying up and killing your nematodes.

Ready for Battle

Now that you are armed with an arsenal of tactics and an army of soldiers (or nematodes), you are ready to go head-to-head with the enemy (the beetles and grubs) who are reeking havoc in your garden.

Whether you choose to pick them off one by one, set up a trap, use nematodes during the spring, or use a combination of strategies, you are armed with the knowledge and tools you need to help you in the battle that lie ahead. With this knowledge, I am confident that you can fix your pest problem, one way or another.

Go get ’em green thumb!

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Featured image credit: By Elf [CC BY-SA 4.0 ], from Wikimedia Commons