OK To Feed Captured/Dead Japanese Beetles To The Flock?

[Raptor Chicken]

Title says it all.

We've got those hanging bag traps to lure Japanese Beetles from our garden and fruit trees. Is it OK to feed them to our chickens? It would be a mix of dead and mildly dead.

FWIW there are no toxins in the traps. Its a citronella smelling lure that baits the beetles and they just fall in the bag.

 

[2ndTink]

Here's a link to an older BYC thread about them:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...kens-japanese-beetles-caught-in-trap.1394169/

I'm not sure I've seen my chickens eat them, but now I've got to try! We have quite a few beetles and they make a total mess of the roses and fruit trees.

 

[Raptor Chicken]

Thanks Tink!

Anyone else have any experience?

 

[jpalmatier83]

Thanks Tink!

Anyone else have any experience?

I asked similar questions about black flies several years ago. The biggest concern is what chemicals are used in the traps attractant. If it’s something you’d be ok with your chickens (and by extension through eggs yourself) consuming, then it’s fine.

I like the water trap idea mentioned in the middle of the linked thread.

 

[saysfaa]

I tried the traps and went back to hand picking the beetles because the bags quickly became full of beetles. Possibly, if we had fewer beetles, that wouldn't be as much of a problem. I didn't like emptying the bags because they hold each other and the holes in the bags and make too big of a clump to easily be shaken out through the narrow neck.

I think the traps attract beetles into the area - not just just the ones that were already in the area. If the traps got all of them, that wouldn't be a problem but they don't.

I feed the beetles I hand pick to the chickens. I didn't feed the ones from the traps because they turn putrid too quickly.

 

[Sally PB]

It is almost Japanese Beetle season here. When it starts, I go out nearly every day to collect the bugs. With me, it's personal, as they killed my hazelnut trees a few years ago. I am on a mission to eradicate them in my area. I won't, but I'll try.

I feed them to my chickens, and they eat them all. I say, "Bug snack!" and they come running.

In case anyone else wants to hunt them, this is what I do.

I have a wide mouth plastic jar for catching them; it held 2 lbs of almonds. I put about 1" of water in it. JBs natural defense when disturbed is to drop to the ground, not fly away.

Put the mouth of the jar under them, tap the leaf/flower/whatever, and they fall into the water. Move on to the next one. They will crawl over each other, but rarely try to fly out of the jar. Every now and then, I swirl it around, to keep them from trying to fly.

For feeding them to the chickens, I dump them into a large white roaster pan that has a couple inches of water in it. Again, the water keeps them from trying to fly away. The white color makes them very visible.

Nom, nom, nom. Free protein.

 

[Raptor Chicken]

Just as an update we've been emptying the bags in a tub of water and giving them to the chickens. Some bugs are alive, most are dead.

The chickens go at them with a passion.

No problems a week in.

 

[ItsChicky]

I just hung one of these traps next to my chicken run! It instantly created a swarm in the area and the girls went nuts picking them out of the air and off the fencing. I'm planning on emptying the bag into water for the chickens whenever it gets full.

 

[icsd71]

Title says it all.

We've got those hanging bag traps to lure Japanese Beetles from our garden and fruit trees. Is it OK to feed them to our chickens? It would be a mix of dead and mildly dead.

FWIW there are no toxins in the traps. Its a citronella smelling lure that baits the beetles and they just fall in the bag.

Yes it is fine. They will love them!