Making Feed from Japanese Beetles

[Zinjifrah]

Have you done any of the wet meal up as frozen bricks for hot-weather feeding?

Just thinking of the frozen bloodworm cubes I used to feed some of my tank fish, and the vitamin-water ice I've been giving my birds. Bricks might be convenient for freezer storage, and it works well for feeding fish.

 

[centrarchid]

No. Can't do everything. Having trouble getting sleep as is. Frozen paste we have, but only for analysis of nutrient profile.

 

[Howard E]

Neighbor using the same commercial sample traps you have had the same problem with funnels clogging. When they are running fast and furious, they arrive faster than they can fit through the funnel. He modified his by cutting out the bottom part of the "crash board" fins to make the opening in the bottom of the funnel larger.

I solved it by using the Bag a Bug crash boards inside the funnel made from a vinegar jug. If fits perfectly and they drop straight through without hanging up.

Scent attractor seems to be the same type, and certainly works to attract them.

We wound up composting most of ours. Made a pit of sorts by stacking square hay bales on the ground and dumping them in, covering them with loose hay. But the green shells never broke down. Grinding them would certainly help.

Also occurred to me to have each of the drop pipes empty into a larger pipe running horizontal on the ground. Use a water pump and have a stream of water flowing through it for the bugs to drop into. You could pipe as many traps into this as the pipe would hold and carry without clogging. At the bottom of the "water slide" / log flume, have that empty into a garbage disposal or septic system grinder / macerator. That might work if you only wanted to get rid of them. But if you wanted to feed them, when they arrive at the bottom of the slide, you will need to pull them off the top with an elevator of some type, something like the way they harvest cranberries, then grind and find a way to spread them out on screens or some other way to dry them down.

No end to the number of beetles you can catch, finding a way to process them is the trick.

And when you get this figured out, you can move on to harvesting asian carp. They are even more nutritious, providing two essential amino acids needed in poultry diets that are hard to come by. Mokane needs a fish meal plant!!!

 

[centrarchid]

We are taking a couple hundred pounds to Bluebird Composting tomorrow for them to play with. Throat modification we will be trying shortly. Ultimately we will be getting away from trash cans and buckets as reservoirs. We are still looking at getting catch rates up where throat is not limiting. We are running a different trial almost very day testing modifications. I want single traps to collect 100 lbs in a day next year. That is where location is going to be involved as much as trap design.

 

[centrarchid]

We are also looking into using a lubricant. Some beetles are able to hold on to fins even when only one beetle present.

 

[centrarchid]

Hmmmm.

Last year (2107), a neighbor and I attended the JB seminar at Lincoln U. Following that, we attempted a mass trapping program. It worked, but we couldn't find a use for all the beetles we caught. He had about 6 of the commercial traps and we were getting about 1/2 a 5 gallon bucket per day per trap. He estimated that over the course of the season, he caught at least 3 million beetles. I did about the same with the bag a bug traps. A chicken can only eat about 50 to 100 per day and then they are full. So consuming that many beetles fresh would take a lot of chickens!

So finding a way to save and process these would be a great benefit. The info in this thread is great stuff!

BTW, here are some of the trap mods we used. Starting with the simple Bag A Bug trap and how we modified it to catch more.

View attachment 1462595 View attachment 1462594 View attachment 1462597 View attachment 1462596

So the bugs crash into the panels and drop down into the funnel, down the pipe and into the bucket.

The pipe (3" PVC sewer pipe) can be longer......it can extend up into the tree canopy, and the bugs will still drop to the bottom.

The problem remains it only catches a small fraction. I tried some experiments with larger funnels.......have one I was going to use this year that was 2' in diameter to up the catch rate. Never got to use it.

A variation on this theme is to let the bugs drop into a small plastic wading pool with water, and bugs will float and chicks snag them that way. I've heard that ducks eat more than chickens, so this may work well for them. Assuming you have a few thousand ducks to feed!

Or hang the trap over the water and let them drop straight into the pond, lake or river. Problem still remains you may overwhelm the ability of the fish to eat them. They can only hold so many before they are full.

Would like to see this tried in a river where the fish population can swell to meet the need.

See what I have bolded above. I think I am seeing a lot more consumed per bird than 50-100. Number not actually quantified. Same also get crop fill on feed in AM and PM where beetles dominate consumption during middle of day when beetles flying. It may take a couple for birds to acclimate the feeding regimen. Chicks in 4 to 5 week range I have may be eating the lower amount because the birds are smaller.

 

[Howard E]

To my knowledge, my 12 week old pullets are not eating the beetles. They are in their pen in abundance on pole beans. Older hens, yes, but debutantes, not yet.

Another idea for a mass trap that may keep them alive.......mount the scent attractor onto a floating block of styrofoam or similar in a small child's wading pool. Less flyovers and those milling around may get caught. If that works, a series of these can be connected together and drained at the end of the day?

 

[centrarchid]

Two things may be impacting intake of beetles. First is breed of chicken although is not appear to be consistent based on what I have alone. Another is the nutritional status of the birds. Mine appear to vary their interest in beetles based upon whatever else they are consuming.

Next year I will try to quantify the amount of beetles attracted and consumed. Having them land on plants / structures near lures appears to keep more beetles in an area than actual traps, regardless of type.

 

[centrarchid]

I am also seeing a lot of beetles dying near traps now, started last Thursday. I think they flying as far as they can before running out of fuel.

@Howard E do you live near Mokane?

 

[centrarchid]

Today is a big day. We will be collecting about 5 lbs of very fresh Japanese Beetles from traps at out research farm. These will be analyzed for nutrient quality for comparison with similarly collected beetles in the second week of the season. In suspect the nutritional quality of the late season beetles will differ markedly from those early on. Beetles must be live and vigorous when they come into contact with the dry ice.