Making Feed from Japanese Beetles

[centrarchid]

Some could be toxic, but certainly not all. I have had misfortune of eating a few riding a motorcylce through a swarm and a co-worker at a bunch to make a point. Ants, wasps, bee larvae and mayflies taste better.

The toxicity is likely to come from plants the adults consume while refueling. Elder Berries and Common Milkweed are both consumed and could be a source of nastiness.

I have about 60 juvenile chickens eating lots of beetles over the last few days. No losses nor obvious health issues.

 

[Nifty-Chicken]

I'm absolutely LOVING this thread! Brilliant work @centrarchid and thank you SO MUCH for sharing this with our community!

 

[MyChickenShack]

I'm very interested in your experiment. I pick them off plants early in morning and in evening when they are docile and just give directly to the chickens. They love them! Hand picking doesn't eliminate them from my crops/veggie plants, but its a good control method if you don't use chemicals. Good luck!

 

[MichelleBelle]

Thi is maybe a dumb question, but could Japanese beetles be toxic? One of our chickens just keeled over and died the day after she ate a bunch of beetles my husband caught and fed to the girls. None of the others died. We thought maybe the one who did ate more than the others. She was the alpha hen.

Do you live near farm land that has been recently sprayed in an effort to control these beetles? I wanted to try capturing some to give to my girls, but I am surrounded on all sides by farm fields that just got sprayed with pesticides this week. Now I think I'll pass, as I don't want my chickens to ingest whatever chemical was sprayed on the corn fields.

 

[Carolrich]

Do you live near farm land that has been recently sprayed in an effort to control these beetles? I wanted to try capturing some to give to my girls, but I am surrounded on all sides by farm fields that just got sprayed with pesticides this week. Now I think I'll pass, as I don't want my chickens to ingest whatever chemical was sprayed on the corn fields.

I didn't think of that. Yes, there is farmland within a couple of miles. Hmmm.

 

[centrarchid]

I am not thinking about that because likely not relevant. Yes the beetles are largely coming from farm land, but from forage fields rather than row crop fields. Poisons that would be of concern to me will drop beetles before they reach my birds.

 

[Howard E]

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.



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.

 

[Howard E]

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.

 

[Howard E]

Sorry, my web browser is fighting with BYC....keeps hanging up.

BTW, one day's catch:

 

[centrarchid]

Trap problems we are having involves throat of funnel below visual lure clogging. Another issue is beetles dying in trap reservoir. Students working on both issues.

Do you have a meat grinder? Grind them, air dry for a day. The ground and pelleted product to be used for fish, we have been storing in freezer so far. We are being forced to explore storing at room temperature with some that will be directed at least in part to chickens. Keeping bugs out of it may be a challenge.