today, i vacuumed my vines

Have you heard the riddle, "How many beetles can you fit on two rose buds?" As an organic, chemical-free gardener, I have, uh, a bit of a problem with Japanese Beetles (Popillia japonica). 

Believe me, this is the tip of the iceberg.  The real damage is being done to my extensive Virginia Creeper vines (Parthenocissus quinquefolia). There are HUNDREDS of them skeletonizing the leaves.  They are also going for my precious Sassafras tree (Sassafras albidum),which took me years to establish.

The larvae of these beetles (which are grubs) can be controlled by nematodes or Bacillus popillae, but this is only really effective if done community-wide. Since the adults fly up to five miles, controlling them is a real challenge (scent-baited beetle traps only serve to attract MORE beetles to your property). Hand-picking is the only option.  But with an infestation of this size, I was fighting a losing battle.  The it occurred to me I might have an alternate weapon:

Oh, let me tell you about the satisfaction of hearing their hard little bodies bouncing down the tube.  With good aim, I can suck up a cluster of a dozen or so (poor aim results in only a few victims, and a bunch clumsily flying into my hair). Here are some preliminary results:

I've also had great success in sucking off those other little suckers, aphids, from my roses, and even better, I eliminated a big infestation of spider mites from my butterfly bushes. Note that my shop vac is a little one-gallon job; a more powerful one might damage foliage.  And you will get some pretty odd looks from your neighbors. 

Alas, I don't think this is a solution to the beetle problem -- there's just no way to get even the majority of them.  I will probably have to cut down the vine on that side of the house. But I have to really recommend a wet/dry shop vac for smaller numbers of beetles, and especially aphids and mites. Just add a little soapy water to the vacuum canister, set it in the hot sun (in a black plastic garbage bag if you wish) after use, and be careful when you empty it that any living beetles don't escape.  I don't think the mites or aphids live too long, but they're too small to see.  Now if only the shop vac were solar-powered, this would be a really eco-friendly pest control method...

Comments

[Callipygia]

The damage is horrifying! When i was a kid, my bestfriend's father made us pick them off his roses and put them in coffee cans filled with gasoline. I think i prefer the shop vac.

[Roger B.]

That's a novel solution! Scottish writer Iain Banks recommends using a vacuum cleaner to remove biting midges from the house (a particular problem in the Highlands!).

[Pamela]

Great idea! I've often used a vacuum cleaner for population control of invertebrates in the house (house spiders and cluster flies), never outside. Our most devastating and numerous garden beetle is the rose chafer: eats rose blossoms, even in bud, and then moves on to other flowering plants. I've hand-picked them, and dunked them in soapy water, tossed them into spider webs, and even squished them. They're gone now, but next year, I'll give the vacuum cleaner a try.

[Aydin]

Last year I tried those scent bags & was getting hundreds of beetles. Then someone warned me that I was probably attracting more beetles to my plum trees than I would without them. I did try vacuuming, but then I was concerned about where all those bugs in the vacuum bag were going to go. They haven't showed up yet this year.

[Nuthatch]

I'll tell you where the beetles in my vacuum went -- STRAIGHT TO HELL!

[ChrisTheRed]

I planted some flowering nicotiana this year away from my garden and the perennials I care about (the Rudbeckia they can have--it'll grow back), but saw nary a beetle. First time in a long time. Friends who run a garden center in another part of town got hammered pretty hard, though. I wonder what sorts of habitat they prefer.