Hello everyone! I hope this post finds you all doing well. The new Japanese Beetle Traps came in the mail on Monday. I sent the company an email about the issues with the first two traps I bought from the local Farmer’s Co-op. I sent a link of my post to her and she said she was glad to see I had caught so many beetles but was sorry to hear about my issues with the traps. She said they had a lot of complaints about the same reason I did so they changed the design. They changed it in October 2018 although the first two I bought the first part of July were the old design. I replied with a couple of links from people who had “re-engineered” the top part of beetle traps and fit them in funnels (like the ones you use to pour oil into motors) and fit them onto 5-gallon buckets. I thought that was very ingenious and maybe they can make a kit to use with buckets.

I didn’t put the traps up until Tuesday evening because I wanted to take one to the Farmer’s Co-op to show them the new design. Well, they had a full box of the old design they just got in. I showed them how the zipper on the old design cut the bags when they were opened and closed and how the new design works. They didn’t seem to enthused. 🙂 🙂 🙂 I may have “implied” the ones they were selling were no good. Even though I said customers complained so the company changed the design. She said, “That is what they sent.” I guess they came from a warehouse and had them leftover from last summer.

 

The top part of the trap is basically the same as the old design (although not as colorful).

 

With no sliding zipper to cut the bag…

 

You just simply pull it apart.

 

It is kind of “velcro-like”.

 

To close, you just press the two sides back together. Pretty simple.

 

Then you snap the “funnel” in place.

 

I must admit, the attractant does smell pretty good.

 

The attractant slides into place at the top of the trap.

 

As you can see, packing tape doesn’t work all that well sometimes. Maybe duct tape would work better but it would be a pain removing it when you have to dump the bag. You would pretty much have to cut the bottom and retape it every time you needed to dump it.

 

All setup and ready to go next to the shade bed. I put them both where the old ones had been. I didn’t get bombarded with beetles since it was 8 PM when I hung them up.

 

I am not sure how easy it will be to reseal the bag with it hanging, so I may have to take it down and put it on a flat surface. That’s easy enough to do as long as it works.

Even though some retailers may still be selling the old version, many people don’t have as many Japanese Beetles as there are here so they probably won’t have an issue.

Well, that’s all I have to say for now. I did take a few other photos for another post. Until next time, be safe and stay positive!