Gary A.
Been spending a lot of time on here!
Buenas Dias Coffee Hosers. 69F right now, we are expecting highs in the low 80's. Even with the higher than normal humidity in the 50% arena ... still pretty comfortable with no need of A/C.
@ Ben: Gary only has a average backyard, no acreage of any size. But, due to the water (pond) and fruit trees and stuff, the backyard attracts a lot of stuff, most benign some destructive. The beetles seem to favor soil with high nutrient value. Gary composts in place with the rose garden and has two large compost bins which has more than its fair share of grubs. While Gary has no experience with chickens and beetles, the Koi love the grubs as if they too were crack. Gary tried nematodes in the rose garden ... but it is hard to really know if they helped any. Over the years we have made our our traps ... essentially sliced oranges hanging from trees. The oranges fill quickly and Gary shakes the bait and the beetles fall into a net. Gary then transfer the captured beetles to some spent container, a milk/water jug or wide mouth pretzel container ... and the container is recycled into the "Jar of Death". When Gary is home this is process is repeated throughout the day. Often he will just bare hand a single beetle or work on his eye-hand coordination and swing the net at them in flight.
The beetle first instinct when disturbed is to drop, then take flight. So a net under the bait is quite effective. The beetle are very hungry during the mornings and for the past few days we get a dozen or so beetle on a single slice of orange.
As you alluded to earlier ... Gary is constantly running calculations in his cream cream brain about significant benefits of setting traps. Obviously, the oranges attract a lot more beetles than normal ... Gary just hopes that he is trapping more than the 'extra' beetle attracted to the bait. The grapes are turning and the beetle love the grapes (back to crack), Gary again just hopes the easy mark of a slice orange would be of greater attraction than a bunch of sweet Pinot Noir.
@ Ben: Gary only has a average backyard, no acreage of any size. But, due to the water (pond) and fruit trees and stuff, the backyard attracts a lot of stuff, most benign some destructive. The beetles seem to favor soil with high nutrient value. Gary composts in place with the rose garden and has two large compost bins which has more than its fair share of grubs. While Gary has no experience with chickens and beetles, the Koi love the grubs as if they too were crack. Gary tried nematodes in the rose garden ... but it is hard to really know if they helped any. Over the years we have made our our traps ... essentially sliced oranges hanging from trees. The oranges fill quickly and Gary shakes the bait and the beetles fall into a net. Gary then transfer the captured beetles to some spent container, a milk/water jug or wide mouth pretzel container ... and the container is recycled into the "Jar of Death". When Gary is home this is process is repeated throughout the day. Often he will just bare hand a single beetle or work on his eye-hand coordination and swing the net at them in flight.
The beetle first instinct when disturbed is to drop, then take flight. So a net under the bait is quite effective. The beetle are very hungry during the mornings and for the past few days we get a dozen or so beetle on a single slice of orange.
As you alluded to earlier ... Gary is constantly running calculations in his cream cream brain about significant benefits of setting traps. Obviously, the oranges attract a lot more beetles than normal ... Gary just hopes that he is trapping more than the 'extra' beetle attracted to the bait. The grapes are turning and the beetle love the grapes (back to crack), Gary again just hopes the easy mark of a slice orange would be of greater attraction than a bunch of sweet Pinot Noir.
It's even raining today.
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