TRY THIS! Attracting Japanese Beetles to Pens of Chickens!

[Chickassan]

Pheromones ordered, now I wait.

 

[Redhead Rae]

Thank you for the inspiration. I've actually come up with an idea for a "bait station" that will attract the beetles, but put them in reach of the chickens. I'll post pictures when I've finished.

 

[AlderCreekFarms]

Pheromones ordered, now I wait.

 

[centrarchid]

Thank you for the inspiration. I've actually come up with an idea for a "bait station" that will attract the beetles, but put them in reach of the chickens. I'll post pictures when I've finished.

I used run a bait station for May Beetles on the front porch. My wife allowed if for almost five years. Attractant was a porch light. You can see lower part of lamp. We have replaced it twice owing to storms catching door.

Images pulled from thread below when I had to bump heads with moderators of the era way too much. Still paying price for that.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/constructing-a-single-chicken-family-unit-for-porch.451333/

 

[centrarchid]

Beetles settled on a Sassafras tree in poultry yard. Denuding well underway.

Some of the juveniles went after some beetles when they birds where released from pens. Not enough to get crop fill. Birds appear looking for something else.

Feces below pens has gotten darker and wetter.

Birds also flew a lot more today upon release. I assume they feel really good.

 

[centrarchid]

I would like to find a way to treat this with scientific method. Would cost money. The beetle biomass here might justify the effort.

 

[centrarchid]

The beetle pheromone has been attracting beetles to pens for 5 days now and I am feeling better about pattern of actual feed intake. Feed applied to feeder in early AM has remained the same. Before bio-attractor setup realized they would consume better than 90% of that applied. Now they are consuming about 2/3's. Still not quantified and birds growing during that interval. Ranging habits when released 2 to 3 hours before dusk also markedly changed where juveniles now staying within a 100' radius of pens. Feces also still much darker with lots of moisture. Water intake also greatly reduced.

Weather may confound this a bit. Need more control.

 

[lazy gardener]

One thing I've done to keep the trapped JB from flying away is dump them in a tub of water. The birds can then go bobbing for beetles. Even if pheromone removed at this point, I expect you will continue to have a lot of beetles attracted to the area. My reading tells me that the initial "scouts" to a feeding station act as an attractant for future waves of the JB.

While I've put up traps in the past, and emptied them to feed the chickens, my intent this year is to NOT put out traps. Primrose and a few other plants make great trap crops. I make several trips around the yard per day, collecting the JB, which are then dumped for the birds to consume.

Saw the first JB of the season here yesterday.

 

[centrarchid]

We are exploring traps over water now to feed Bluegill and Channel Catfish. We want poundage of beetles to feed fish and chickens, otherwise the setup is difficult to justify. I suspect out JP abundance is much higher than yours. We are denuding entire stands of trees even though no traps / lures present. Their seems to be a pattern where beetles concentrate and it is more than just about food and pheromones. Somehow wind and topography concentrates beetles. My lab where we are tinkering with traps has a veritable river of beetles going through and we catch only a tiny fraction even though the traps are overwhelmed.

 

[dotporter]