Attack of Japanese beetles and earwigs!

Posted on Monday 24 July 2006 at 10:27 AM in Gardening - Post Comment

My bush after it was attacked by Japanese beetles.

Ok, bugs are just creapy.  Especially Japanese beetles.  Especially if one lands in your hair.  They are attacking several trees and bushes in our yard as well as my roses and several things in my vegetable garden.  I hung clothes out on the line over the weekend and had to pick several of them off clothes.  I'd rather deal with the rabbits.  So how do you control them without using all sorts of pesticides?  Is it even possible to control them organically?  Well, we tried the traps.  They work on catching hundreds of them.  The bags were busting at the seams after two days.  But they seem to draw more to our yard then we are catching.  Last year I read somewhere that white geraniums are great for Japanese beetles because they like to eat them and they are poisonous to them.  Well...these work.  Hubby looked yesterday at the white gerainiums I planted in the garden and found quite a few dead beetles.  I guess I just didn't plant enough of them to really be effective because I did find lots of live beetles on other plants in my garden.  Grrrr!

Then there are the earwigs.  They are in my opinion one of the creapiest bugs around.  With all the rain we've had, they are everywhere and they seem to be attacking my garden also.  I've even been finding a few in the house...which really freaks me out.

Honestly...I don't feel like I have any other option but to buy pesticides to control them.  I won't be using them on the vegetable garden, but I'm considering it for the rest of the yard.  I'm still open for ideas if you have any.