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What to do about Green June Beetles on pear trees?

 
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(Hello and welcome to my first ever post!  I'm only just starting to learn about permaculture, and I'm kind of new to forums in general, so if I do/say something stupid, please don't hesitate to let me know!)  ;)

My question is: is there a good, non-poisony way to keep green june beetles (I sometimes hear them called "Japanese beetles," but I'm pretty sure they aren't those) from absolutely obliterating all the pears on a tree??   It's actually my uncle's tree and I couldn't tell you the variety (I don't know if that makes a difference).   But it's a nice old tree that has a ton of tiny pears all over it right now...I get excited every year only to realize the fruit's all been turned to mush by those gorgeous, green bugs.

If anyone has any advice on how to at least mitigate the problem, I would appreciate it so much...thank you!
 
steward
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The best solution that I know of is to get a pail of water and pick the beetle off the tree and drop them into the water.
 
pollinator
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I employ Anne's technique. Though from my experience, they often will drop from the tree before I can grab the little buggers, so I try to position the bucket under them and pretend to grab them or just knock them off the tree and more often than not they will drop right into the bucket. After that, they get fed to the chickens. If the tree is big, perhaps use a kiddie pool under the tree or rig-up a tarp to hold water in it and shake the branches?

Edit: I'm referring to what we call Japanese beetles, so not entirely sure we are talking about the same bug, though the technique may work the same (asssuming they don't fly off).
 
Leanne Couturière
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Thank you so much!  I will definitely give this a try.
 
steward
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Increasing the soil health will greatly help the pear repel the beetles on its own, and letting some wild plants grow nearby will greatly help increase the predators that can significantly reduce their numbers. I went from having a beetle plague to having difficulty finding even one beetle.

https://permies.com/t/155996/long-Japanese-beetles-sheriff-town
 
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