Country Lore: Japanese Beetles Make Great Fish Food

Feed Japanese beetles to your pond fish.

June/July 2008
By Bob Falk 
Japanese Beetles
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Catfish and bluegill love pesky Japanese beetles.
BOB FALK
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I’ve been after my rose-growing wife to buy chickens for years now. I have been trying, unsuccessfully, to convince her that chickens would help control the Japanese beetles that damage her flowers.

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With last year’s hot, dry summer here in Ohio, the beetle population was out of control, so until we get those chickens, we put up a few beetle traps that use scent lures to attract and trap pests.

When the trap bags fill up with the beetles, I put them in the freezer for about a day to chill them. Then I feed the beetles to the fish in our pond. The catfish can eat a dozen of them in a mouthful and the bluegill love them, too!

Bob Falk
Bluffton, Ohio
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  • Curt Bolin 7/30/2008 9:53:33 AM

    After reading this article, I thought why not put the beetle trap in the water, I cut the end off the bag, held it open with some wire, hung it in the water, about a half-inch off the water. The beetles fall into the water, float out and the fish lay and wait on them. I had the end in the water first but the fish kept knocking it down when the would jump up into the bottom of the bag to the the beetles.

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