I had 100% losses in two varieties of Japanese plums last season due to Japanese beetles. I have three varieties of plums in the orchard and was able to harvest the first variety, but the other two varieties were still ripening and were attacked by the beetles. The beetles ended up damaging pretty much every piece of fruit on every tree. I had pheromone traps at the perimeter of the orchard and was emptying them daily - and taking lots of beetles from them, but I still had many beetles in the plums. None of the other fruit was really damaged, it seemed as if they were only interested in the plums. Anyone have success with other organically approved controls for the beetles?

Sounds like you had an overwhelming number of beetles. Every year, I pick them off raspberries and beans. Haven't had them in the tree fruit. I have used milky spore. The beetle numbers seem to have declined over the last 12 years, but I couldn't say why for sure. You might try the old curculio treatment: put a cloth under the tree, then smack the branches. The beetles here drop off as a defense mechanism, so you could get quite a few of them this way.

Japanese beetles send off a pheromone when they find something they like which attracts other beetles so they tend to mass on a specific type of plant each year. Last year it was the plums, other years it has been edamame, raspberries, even the grapes one year. I have hay fields near by and will always have Japanese Beetles coming in from adjacent fields so the Milky Spore option isn't really viable. What I am really looking for is a way to divert the beetles from the Plum trees. Is there something I can spray or place on the trees which will make them less attractive to the beetles or are there more effective perimeter trapping strategies which will do a better job of stopping the beetles. One problem with my orchard layout is that the plum trees are at a corner of the orchard, so they are touching my buffer strip and are close to the perimeter traps.

I have a black gold cherry that was covered in Japanese beetles this year. Being the novice that I am, and the fact that I was already spraying my potatoes, I decided to try some neem oil on the tree and I haven't seen any on that tree since. I just used the concentration suggested on the bottle. I am thinking about spraying my raspberries next.

What kind of neem oil did you use? That is good news! Surround is also fairly effective vs Japanese beetles. I'm not sure if the timing would be right for plums, ie. you might have to spray when the fruit is ripe which would be undesirable. Brian Caldwell