Reptile & Amphibian Forums

June 1st comes along & all of a sudden we have so many June bugs at night my turtles are loving it!
All of them love the bugs including the aquatic turtles. I wish there was a way to keep a stock pile of these bugs every year.
When I put some in front of Chip yesterday he scarfed them down.. they are the first bugs I've ever gotten him to eat that weren't some type of worm.

I've been out hunting them 2 nights in a row.. I'll be back out tonight.
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PHRatz

The June bugs aren't out in mass here yet, finding plenty of japanese beetles though.

Past years I've taken a clip lamp and attached it to the side of the pen over a water dish. The June bugs bounce off the fencing, stun themselves and fall in the water. The turtles waiting below did the rest.

>>Past years I've taken a clip lamp and attached it to the side of the pen over a water dish. The June bugs bounce off the fencing, stun themselves and fall in the water. The turtles waiting below did the rest.

How creative! I should try something like that because so far I've caught x-number of them but it's never enough. I split the take up among all the turtles and I run out too soon.

btw because I know not everyone reading this would know but our lawn is completely organic because we have the grazing tortoise.
I watch these June bugs come up from the lawn at dusk to get near the light. I'm not worried about chemicals because we don't use them.

Funny thing.. I've noticed that the predatory bugs are noticing this too. It rained last night so I didn't go bug hunting but the night before when I did, the mantids, windscorpions, & spiders all started coming toward the light too. They saw dinner!
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PHRatz

This is one of my summer rituals also, although its just
kind of getting started since we've just had 2-3 weeks
of cool, rainy weather.

After the June bugs are finished, then its Cidcada
season!

I always wince when I see those bags of grub poison that people put on their lawns. How can they kill all that food for herps, birds, etc?

>>I always wince when I see those bags of grub poison that people put on their lawns. How can they kill all that food for herps, birds, etc?

I don't get that either. We used to treat our lawn for fleas & ticks which would kill everything else too. Today we have Revolution so we treat the dog, not the lawn.

We've heard all our lives-OMG you have to treat for this & that or your lawn will be destroyed.
Ok so...
It's been over 5 years since we put anything on our lawn other than organic fertilizer & you know what?
There's been zero harm to our lawn- in fact it looks better than ever if you don't mind looking at the dandelions all over the place that are part of the tortoise food. We don't mind looking at them.
The bugs out there are not harming anything at all, not that I can tell.
A couple of weeks ago I found bugs on my spineless cactus that we planted 4-5 years ago. It's purpose for being here is turtle and tortoise food.
I found out that these bugs destroy cactus so I mixed up Dawn dishwashing liquid with water in a spray bottle & sprayed it on those bugs. The soap killed the bugs! Bwahahahahahahhaha!
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PHRatz

When I used to work at a garden center, we would spend a lot of time persuading customers to not use granular Diazinon, because birds have a tendency to pick it up thinking it's seed. We stopped using pesticides here well over a decade ago: we had a severe flea problem one year, and sprayed the yard, but then we had no lightning bugs...
We got wise and now treat the dogs only, haven't had a problem since.

If you are interested, you should do a little reading about IPM, or Integrated Pest Management. There are very few pest insects that cannot be controlled with simple soap solutions or organic products.

>>If you are interested, you should do a little reading about IPM, or Integrated Pest Management. There are very few pest insects that cannot be controlled with simple soap solutions or organic products.

Hey I'm behind.. but thanks for this tip.
I'll look into this. I usually consult my sister because either she has a book on this or she's been reading a lot somewhere. She's got garlic, cayenne pepper tips among others to share.. natural pest control has been working for her for a long time. Until I had a garden to worry about, I never gave it much thought.
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PHRatz