Japanese Beetle pheromone trap

First, I would like to thank and commend Paul Schnare for his excellent June 29 article on the subject. I think he covered all aspects of the problem.

The only reason I am writing is to emphasize what a horrible scourge to gardening these critters are. I first noticed them in 2009 in my roses. I probably had several hundred and sprayed frequently with my rose insecticide with mediocre results. Last year I probably had several thousand with the same poor control. This year they came in early, around June 15. Since I had not read Paul's article, I used my own "three pronged" approach. First I sprayed wit Dieldrin, a very potent, long-lasting insecticide. It worked for two days but they just kept coming in so I sprayed the rose blooms (twenty five beetles on each) with Raid. It killed them with no residual, the next day they swarmed in like bees, destroyed all the rose blooms and started on the leaves of nearby hazel nut buses. This was before Paul's article but my grandson bought me a pheromone trap. The beetles actually swarmed into it and filled it by the second day. The trap came with two bags which hold 2,000 to 3,000 beetle each. I now have filled the bags five times (over a million beetles) and still going.

I have been in the chemical and orchard business 30 years and this is the worst scourge of insects I have ever experienced. Frightening.