Japanese beetles

[TherealZiggy]

My chickens have free range in my raspberry patch and I am getting Japanese beetles. The raspberries are just a little to tall for the chickens to reach the Japanese beetles.
First; is there anything besides pyretherin that is safe for chickens? If not I thought about just taking a broom and knocking the beetles off the plants and on to the ground where the chickens can get to them. This won't work once the berries start ripining because these are gold raspberries and they are really fragile. They are even hard to pick without them falling apart but the taste is amazing. I am open to any ideas or comments on what I have so far.

 

[shawluvsbirds]

My chickens have free range in my raspberry patch and I am getting Japanese beetles. The raspberries are just a little to tall for the chickens to reach the Japanese beetles.
First; is there anything besides pyretherin that is safe for chickens? If not I thought about just taking a broom and knocking the beetles off the plants and on to the ground where the chickens can get to them. This won't work once the berries start ripining because these are gold raspberries and they are really fragile. They are even hard to pick without them falling apart but the taste is amazing. I am open to any ideas or comments on what I have so far.

Ugh I hates Japanese beetles! I just saw my first one of the summer yesterday.
I had this same question last year only I have ducks not chickens, never got an answer. All I know is I tried D E and learned that it doesn't work. Not on beetles or anything else for that matter.

 

[sylviethecochin]

Old yogurt container full of water, one drop of dish soap, and go out and pick the beetles. It's the most effective approach I've ever used.

 

[TherealZiggy]

Ugh I hates Japanese beetles! I just saw my first one of the summer yesterday.
I had this same question last year only I have ducks not chickens, never got an answer. All I know is I tried D E and learned that it doesn't work. Not on beetles or anything else for that matter.

DE works best on soft or segmented bodies where it can get in and destroy the insect.

 

[TherealZiggy]

Old yogurt container full of water, one drop of dish soap, and go out and pick the beetles. It's the most effective approach I've ever used.

My patch is way to large for hand picking. I do hand picking on my roses and other flowers. My raspberry patch is about 200ft X 100ft

 

[shawluvsbirds]

DE works best on soft or segmented bodies where it can get in and destroy the insect.

Haven't seen anything that it would kill so far .
Bought it to control ants in my duck box. Only to find them still crawling around happily in the layer of de I put under the shavings. Lol. Along with a few other various insects. The only thing I have found any use for it for is plugin up little cracks where the ants come in at.

 

[TherealZiggy]

Haven't seen anything that it would kill so far .
Bought it to control ants in my duck box. Only to find them still crawling around happily in the layer of de I put under the shavings. Lol. Along with a few other various insects. The only thing I have found any use for it for is plugin up little cracks where the ants come in at.

I have had luck with it killing soft body bugs. I also use it in my chicken coop and I use food grade in my feed

 

[happyfrenchman]

you should look up japanese beetle traps... some of them are very effective. Catches them in a sack that you can then feed to the birds.

 

[llombardo]

Haven't seen anything that it would kill so far .
Bought it to control ants in my duck box. Only to find them still crawling around happily in the layer of de I put under the shavings. Lol. Along with a few other various insects. The only thing I have found any use for it for is plugin up little cracks where the ants come in at.

A couple days ago I had ants under the ramp of the duck house. I put the de down and all gone the next morning.

 

[shawluvsbirds]

you should look up japanese beetle traps... some of them are very effective. Catches them in a sack that you can then feed to the birds.

I've been afraid to get one. My neighbor got one a few years back and she was having to empty it daily. And there were so many more beetles with the trap out than there was without. . I think it just brought more in than it got rid of.

Could've been they were just super bad that year. . could've been her placement of it. . I don't know. But I never wanna have that many again. They literally rained out of my elm tree when the wind would blow.