To avoid these ads, REGISTER NOW!

How to deal with June bugs

chadster1

Well-known member
Joined
Aug 25, 2009
Messages
4,023
Location
Terrell, Texas
Its that time of year, when I am out in my garage at night and the weather is nice. I am bombarded by June bugs. The d**n things fly in and then die on the floor. If I dont run my shop vac regularly, the get crushed when i walk. Then I have June bug guts all over the floor.

Is there something I can do to combat the June bug invasion?
 
To avoid these ads, REGISTER NOW!

rodnok1

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 27, 2005
Messages
853
Location
NC
work with the lights off...other than screens it's hard to keep them out. I swept them up and fed them to the lizard one year, he prefered alive, but learned to live with the dead one's.
 

bgott

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 31, 2005
Messages
3,512
Location
Houston, TX.
If you keep smashing them one day you might get 'em all!:lol_hitti

Will fans aiming outwards blow them away?
 

airbassador

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 13, 2009
Messages
58
Close the garage door...

Seriously, you've got the lights on and a big hole for them to fly in. What can you really do?

- You could get some of those yellow bug lite sleeves that go over fluorescent light tubes if you don't have regular bulbs.

- Recruit some cats that like to eat june bugs. But then you have june bug cat poo everywhere.

- some kind of attractor outside like a bug zapper, or a brighter 'security' light on a pole down the drive.

- you could put bug poison/granules that kill grubs out on your lawn and try to slow down the cycle, but they'll just come in from around the yard.

- cut a hole in the garage wall and put in a window unit so you can close the door and keep a reasonable temperature.
 

Torque1st

MEMBER EMERITUS
Joined
Sep 14, 2008
Messages
5,668
Location
KC Metro, Kansas
Google June Bugs.

The things are dumb and are attracted to lights. When I was small one landed on my eyeball and scratched the hell out of my eye but no damage was done to my vision. I hated them and killed as many as I could any way I could. This is the type I have always seen:
 

Attachments

  • june_bug.jpg
    june_bug.jpg
    36.7 KB · Views: 29

Steve in Mi

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 13, 2007
Messages
1,042
Location
Mid Michigan
This was typical of the June bug population on the drive under the yard light, year after year, until 2009. In 2009 not a single June bug, why? I wait to see what 2010 will bring.

My way of dealing with them is to keep the garage and shop doors closed for the ~ 2 weeks of heavy infestation. The look-a-like little lady bugs are even more difficult to keep out.
 

Attachments

  • June bugs 10 05 (Small).jpg
    June bugs 10 05 (Small).jpg
    32.1 KB · Views: 129

70redbee

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 31, 2008
Messages
494
Location
Knoxville,Md
Around here we have the dreaded stink bugs taking over,can't get close to them or you will stink,kill one and you need to shower. Been really bad the last few years...so Chadster I will be happy to trade.
 

GeorgiaHybrid

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 9, 2008
Messages
3,763
Location
Extreme NW Georgia
Chadster,

Invite the neighborhood kids over to your house. Back in the day (45 or 50 years ago....) we used to catch the suckers, tie a string to a leg and fly them for hours. If you got a good one, they would fly around in circles (with you holding the other end of the string) for over 30 minutes before landing.
 

Matt M PA

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 21, 2008
Messages
3,174
Location
SE PA
I had a problem like this is my attached garage. All sorts of critters flying in at night. I got a roll up garage door screen...HUGE improvement.
 

55chevy

Well-known member
Joined
May 16, 2009
Messages
417
Location
Hendersonville, Tn.
No tonydanzah, we don't mean cicadas or Japanese Beetles, we mean June bugs, as pictured by an earlier post. As stated, kids will tie a string to these suckers and they'll fly all day. And cicadas/japanese beetles do not fly at night. Go Predators!!
 
To avoid these ads, REGISTER NOW!

Keep

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 1, 2009
Messages
1,398
Location
Oshawa, Ontario
Do not let your dog eat them, they give them a severe case of diarrhea. Our oldest dog loved eating the damn things when we were in NC. Vet couldn't even figure out what was causing it, until we found the pieces in the poo.

As for keeping them out, buy the garage screen, just a huge rolled up screen to cover the opening.
 

Kevin54

MEMBER EMERITUS
Joined
Jan 12, 2005
Messages
29,341
Location
Urbana, Ohio
June Bugs start out as grubs. If you fertilize you can thin out the grubs somewhat but it will not cure your June Bug problem. There are just too many. We get all of ours starting in May. I try to keep the garage doors shut if I am out there when it is nice but they seem to still get in somehow. They last a little more than a month and then are gone

I know you southerners have different names for some things on occasion. By june bug do you mean Japanese beetle or cicada?

Japanese beetles. They are iridescent in color and will land on plants and trees and eat the leaves. Some species of smaller ornamental trees can be stripped of their leaves by the beetles. So every season when they come out, we have to dust with Seven powder to kill them. BTW.....the Japanese Beetle bags you see for sale attract them from other places into your yard. If you decide to put the bags out, stick them in the neighbors yard. LOL!!!

Japanese Beetle
220px-Popillia_japonica.jpg



Cicada
220px-Tibicen_linnei.jpg


The Cicada's are what you hear in the late summer and when school starts that make the noise in the trees. They lay their eggs in a small tree limb, the limb will die off and fall to the ground, the eggs hatch and they burrow into the ground where they remain for a year or more until they decide to come out. You can usually find the shells of Cicadas hanging on the sides of trees. The shells will look just like the Cicada. What is amazing is to watch one come out of the shell. It takes a few hours but everything about the shell is identical to the actual Cicada including all the barbs on the legs. Check this for more on them http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cicada

170px-Cicada_molting_animated-2.gif
 

billspit

Well-known member
Joined
Aug 21, 2008
Messages
1,889
Location
SC
June bugs are a type of white grub. Japanese beetles are more commonly called white grubs. They emerge in the spring and are attracted to light. So they are coming into your garage if you have the doors open and lights on. You may can help some by treating your yard for white grubs, but only if they are actually in your turf. If severe enough, they will cut the roots so badly that you can roll the grass up like a rug. Unfortunately, not much you can do this year.
 

pop pop

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 1, 2010
Messages
2,859
Location
Virginia
Was gonna argue that this is not a June Bug, but did the Google thing. Guess I grew up with the "green june beetle" being called the June Bug. Only come out during the day near June here in Va and especially in Ga where I grew up.
 

turbotank

Active member
Joined
Oct 15, 2006
Messages
38
ur gonna need some supplies. get some yeungling, a couple friends, radio going, and some woofle ball bats. stand at garage drink beer, and swing away as they come in. fun time
 

KCarGuy

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 5, 2009
Messages
2,075
Location
50 miles outside Chicago, illinois
I had a "Run in" with a June Bug a few years back that still pisses me off.

We get a ton of them crazy little flying "Tanks" every year in the Midwest, and I try to Keep my Garage closed, especially if I am working in there at night.

I was Painting a friends Car...Black...and was at the end of the job, putting the very last "wet" coat of clear on the car. I left the lights and the Exhaust fan on and went into the house to clean up and take a shower after a very long day.

Around midnight I went outside to check my work, look for any runs, dust or sometimes small bugs may get into a nice fresh paint job that I pick out with tweezers...

...only to see a June Bug came in for a Crash Landing in the center of the roof and Trenched his way through, for about 2 feet, before taking its last breath.
OH MY GOD! The paint is toast, I now have to sand down the entire roof in the morning and start over...F'N JUNE BUGS!

Between that crazy Bug and the Dragonfly that flew up my shorts while I was riding my Motorcycle...He wanted out and so did I!!! Almost took me and my wife out.
(you should have seen the look on the family's face in the car next to us at the next stoplight, as I was smacking my privates, jumping around and a dead dragonfly fell out of my shorts...Priceless!)
 

billspit

Well-known member
Joined
Aug 21, 2008
Messages
1,889
Location
SC
Scrap the duck, get a goose. Shoot the goose after the june bugs are gone. Geese are messy.
 

bondsman

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 20, 2010
Messages
81
Man, I hate those things.... Bugzappers dont work that well on them. There are so many and all you hear is the constant buzzing of a few getting caught at a time then the sounds of them blowing up. It doesn't sound like a mosquito getting zapped. More like a gunshot.
A rollup screen would be ideal, but they will find a way inside.
 

6th Gear

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 17, 2008
Messages
261
Location
Ohio
I just found garagedoorscreens.com after doing some google searching. Then I searched here for a review and found this thread. Has anybody bought one of these? They seem confident about the quality of their product and the price is well worth having no bugs in the garage.
My main concern is how long/well that velcro is going to stick around the trim on my garage door...
 

dankicksass

Well-known member
Joined
Jul 28, 2010
Messages
1,820
Location
New Jersey
June bugs are a sign of a drainage problem in your immediate local area, as are the skunks that eat their larvae... I have a lot of insects in the garage, but not too many of those come in since I made some changes. I have a zapper inside 24-7 and haven't seen any of those in the barrel or in spiderwebs. I'm taking my issues up in the garage one at a time and I'm at a happy medium in insect management where they're just about confined to one corner of the garage with an ultrasonic pest control device (it worked for me, I know a lot of people say they're BS) and a zapper. I know I really shouldn't have to have a zapper in a garage, but until I replace the glazing on the windows that is completely deteriorated, the place is absolutely open all the time. My zapper kills a lot of those Chinese stink bugs and smaller flying things, much less in volume since I put the ultrasonic in. Good luck with your beetles.
 

James E

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 21, 2010
Messages
16,507
Location
Raleigh, NC
The problem with June bugs and bug zappers is that the June bugs are such poor flyers that they fly all around but often never quite make it to the light.

Other than a screen or shutting the door, you have no really good options.
 

Indy_500

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 2, 2010
Messages
1,873
Location
Appleton, WI
I haven't seen a june bug in my garage yet this year, i always remembered them in the fall... maybe i haven't seen one because of rain? i still can't quite remember the months i see them though, as they are annoying. I get a ton in my garage and they ****
 
To avoid these ads, REGISTER NOW!
Top Bottom