Japanese Beetles... and Bag-A-Bug... LOL! Eww!

MattinSTL

MattinSTL

Sound Modulator
Does anybody know what I'm talking about?

Here in the midwest I remember about 12-15 years ago... the "japanese beetle" was marked to be the next plague... the agriculture department said that if you EVER see one of these... to contact them right away!

Well... here we are some years later... and those things are INSANE here in the midwest... they definitely called that one right! These beetles eat a really wide variety of leaves from trees and shrubs.

So... in comes "bag-a-bug"... I'm sure that SOMEBODY must be making a killing on this product! "Spectracide" is the brand-name for the most common version around here... (there are other brands) and basically what it includes is a couple plastic plates that slip together and provide a holder for the lure... which I assume is pheromones... then a BAG that hangs underneath this... and apparently... the biology of the bug... with little hairy legs or whatever... falls into the bag after slipping off the plastic lure... and the steep angle of the bag is too much to climb... plus they don't seem to fly out (the bag is more or less hour-glass shaped... with the narrow midsection providing part of the "trap" element)...

Okay... so why am I posting this? These "traps" are about the most amazing invention I've seen! I've never witnessed a product that so completely does what it's supposed to do... I'm tempted to post an indiana jones type video of a BIG SACK of crawling bugs! (japanese beetles)... I've put these "traps"(?) up in my parents' lawn... brother's lawn... and just today in my own... and today... in just ONE day... in ONE bag... I probably have a couple POUNDS of them! We're talking somewhere in the zone of 4,000+ of these... in less then 7 hours. I walked out to change the bag and it looked like a water balloon hanging off the stand... I thought "that CAN'T be all bugs"... *ugh*... it WAS.

I tied off the bag and it sounds like what you think it would sound like... nightmares tonight for sure.

Anyway... does anybody have experience with these beetles or bag-a-bug? If you live in the midwest and are watching your japanese maples and other ornamental trees disappear due to these bugs... go get this and prepare to be amazed and really grossed out.
 
We had a plague of them back in the 60's in NJ. Everyone used little things that looked like air-raid sirens to catch them. Pretty much the same principle, I think. They fell in and couldn't get out.
 
I don't want to open the bag tonight... I tied a knot in it and the whole bag is vibrating.

I'm not sure what is the most humane way of handling them... on the box it says that being in the bag in the sun takes care of it... so I don't know... I just tied a knot in the top of the bag tonight and put a new one on the "lure"... and left the tied bag out there. At my parents' house they have raccoons that eat 'em. (LOL!... I really am LOL!... enjoy your dinner...)

I'll post a (certainly disgusting) pic... tomorrow or sunday. These things are deforesting the landscape... so I don't want to offend anybody regarding the humane treatment of "bugs"... but they are... um... something to be dealt with.

You'll see that this was/is a pretty effective approach. I'm sure that I'm probably only putting a dent in the area population... but man... imagine a water-balloon FULL of BUGS... (LOL) it's every bit as gross as it sounds.

The whole bag of 'em goes "sssHHHHSHHHHHHH"... and after the end is tied off and the bag is laid down the surface of the bag is moving in waves like water... *ugh*... I'm feeling sick.

Hey on the upside... I almost guarantee... GUARANTEE... that this would HAVE to be compelling footage for a story about how these things went from "if you see ONE... ONE of these... contact the dept. of ag...".... and now... hmm... I wonder what THOSE people are thinking? Just like American Elm trees... did you know that you ONLY see those in the mall of Washington DC? That's from the "bronze birch borer"... people have probably forgot what elm trees look like... the japanese beetle is the next pest bug that's going to make some cool plants extinct. The reason Elms are (were?) in D.C. is because this fact is understood and there are people tenaciously working to be sure that a once great mark of the american landscape is protected.
 
C'mon Matt, you're our resident sound guru. Surely you can get some audio. I'll probably regret suggesting it but you've piqued my curiosity.
 
I wouldn't say "guru" by any means... but I have considered the obvious... which is to say it's "a uniquely disturbing sound"... that should probably be archived for future use :)

(I'm picturing one of my little "this is what 'x' mic sounds like"... "when mic'ing a big bag of BUGS!"....)

I'm probably the only one that's actually laughing at this... but what's so funny is you can't imagine how literal this all is... I had NO IDEA that this little domestic disturbance was going to go like this. I'm almost certain that damn few people have ever seen a couple pounds of bugs like this.

I was going to take a picture (might still do it)... but go to youtube and type any of the keywords... here's a vid I found You can't tell how big this bag is... but if you look at a couple other videos you can. If you spread your fingers out wide... that's the diameter of the bag.

This is how full mine are getting, which means POUNDS of 'em... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYwL02Q8EG0&feature=related
 
:huh:I just watched "bizarre foods" on FoodTV. You're supposed to fry them in a wok with peanut oil and hot peppers. Just remember to pull off the wings and legs - they stick in the throat. A Thai thing. :(
 
We saw japanese beetles for about two or three weeks out of each year when I was a kid. My mom groused about them chewing up her roses but I thought they were just about the coolest bugs that I had ever seen.
 
I think beetles are cool. They don't bug be at all. When I was a teenager we had 16 year cicadas come out in Chicago. Talk about a pestilence! They carpeted the ground, and I mean carpeted. Noisy little buggers too. These are the ones--

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They make a familiar noise...

They make a familiar noise...

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MattinSTL said:
This is how full mine are getting, which means POUNDS of 'em... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYwL02Q8EG0&feature=related
Click to expand...

OMG! That thing is moving!

Batutta said:
I think beetles are cool. They don't bug be at all. When I was a teenager we had 16 year cicadas come out in Chicago. Talk about a pestilence! They carpeted the ground, and I mean carpeted. Noisy little buggers too. These are the ones--
Click to expand...

Dude! I remember that. Don't they sound like crikets on something. But we turned the tables on them and started eating 'em. Yum. (True story, people cook cicadas).

-Nate
 
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