Can I feed chickens Japanese beetles caught in trap?

[Jmiller89]

This year we are having a Japanese invasion in our garden. So we put out a couple Bag A Bug traps out. They use sight and smell to attract the beetles that then fall into the bag and can’t get back out. Do you think it’s okay to feed these bugs to the chickens or is there possibility of harming the chicken if the bug came in contact with the smelly lure? The lure does not have pesticides in it.

 

[Chicken Heel]

They should be fine. I used these traps several years ago and my chickens then loved the stinking mass of dead and dying beetles. I no longer use these traps as they seemed to draw even more of the pests on to my property.

 

[Jmiller89]

I no longer use these traps as they seemed to draw even more of the pests on to my property.

Yeah, I’m worried about that happening. I found some frogs and praying mantis that I relocated to the garden to help as well.

 

[AgnesGray]

I saw a YouTube video of a guy who set up a Japanese beetle trap that funneled down into his chicken run. The beetles fell through a tube into a water bowl so they didn't fly away and the chickens could pick them from the bowl. I'm not set up with that yet, but I do take a jar with a bit of water in it and catch them from my garden and pour them out into a bowl of water for the chickens. I can say, the chickens love them.

 

[Jmiller89]

I saw a YouTube video of a guy who set up a Japanese beetle trap that funneled down into his chicken run. The beetles fell through a tube into a water bowl so they didn't fly away and the chickens could pick them from the bowl. I'm not set up with that yet, but I do take a jar with a bit of water in it and catch them from my garden and pour them out into a bowl of water for the chickens. I can say, the chickens love them.

That sounds cool. I may try that.

 

[WynellT]

This is the response when I asked about feeding beetles from a trap.


Thank you for contacting Spectrum Brands Home & Garden Division.

Unfortunately you can not feed the insects to your chickens.

If you have any further questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact us at 1-800-332-5553.

Product Specialist
Spectrum Brands Home & Garden Division
Ph 1-800-332-5553

 

[Chicken Heel]

This is the response when I asked about feeding beetles from a trap.


Thank you for contacting Spectrum Brands Home & Garden Division.

Unfortunately you can not feed the insects to your chickens.

If you have any further questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact us at 1-800-332-5553.

Product Specialist
Spectrum Brands Home & Garden Division
Ph 1-800-332-5553

They just want to sell more pesticides. Years ago I used beetle traps with no pesticides and the stinking mass of dead and dying beetles was scarfed up like I eat a Golden Skillet plate of fried chicken. With no ill effects for the chickens that I could detect.

 

[HollowOfWisps]

This is the response when I asked about feeding beetles from a trap.


Thank you for contacting Spectrum Brands Home & Garden Division.

Unfortunately you can not feed the insects to your chickens.

If you have any further questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact us at 1-800-332-5553.

Product Specialist
Spectrum Brands Home & Garden Division
Ph 1-800-332-5553

That response is for legality reasons. They aren’t in the business of selling the traps for chickens to eat the bugs so they are not going to pay for the testing and certifications required by law to see how their product could potentially interact with the chicken or any residue that would end up in eggs or meat. It’s free for them to say “no” and very costly for them to legally say “yes” especially when those costs have zero benefit for them business or profit wise.

 

[avjudge]

I saw a YouTube video of a guy who set up a Japanese beetle trap that funneled down into his chicken run. The beetles fell through a tube into a water bowl so they didn't fly away and the chickens could pick them from the bowl.

I did this for a couple of years (and have posted about it here). It worked great.

But my chickens mostly free range now, and when they are in their run it is close to the berries that I want to keep the Japanese beetles away from. I switched to a different method. (I actually started this method last year as a secondary collector, and have made more so that this is all I am using this year.)



I use a holesaw to make a hole in the lid of a large peanut butter jar. (The saw can be dull/cheap because you’re just cutting plastic.) With a small drill I make 4 weep holes around the bottom edge of the jar so it will not fill up in rain. Then I cut the bottom off one of the collection bags, an inch or two below its narrowest point. I make several upward cuts around the cut edge so it can be spread, put it through the hole, and tape it to the underside of the lid.



I have tons of this size jar as we go through a lot of peanut butter from Costco. So to collect the bugs I go out with a second jar (with drilled weep holes) and lid — daily, more often if the beetles are really out that day — and swap jars. I take the closed jar full of beetles up to my chickens’ feeding station and pour it in a shallow bucket of water and call. The chickens come running!

As for not putting out traps because they attract beetles, they do, so you should put them as far away as you can from plants you don’t want the beetles on. And I secondarily do pick beetles from my roses and raspberries, dropping them in a quart yogurt tub 1/4 full of water and eventually pouring what I catch into the same bucket as above, for my chickens. After several years of this, I do believe I have fewer beetles on my raspberries than I used to.

After hating Japanese beetles for years, I am now almost happy to see them appear! They make the chickens so happy. And it is immensely satisfying to know that instead of destroying my plants, they are being turned into tasty eggs.

 

[IwuvMyChickens]

This year we are having a Japanese invasion in our garden. So we put out a couple Bag A Bug traps out. They use sight and smell to attract the beetles that then fall into the bag and can’t get back out. Do you think it’s okay to feed these bugs to the chickens or is there possibility of harming the chicken if the bug came in contact with the smelly lure? The lure does not have pesticides in it.

Yes! It should be a great enjoyable snack filled with protein! As long as you are positive it has no pesticides of chemicals and the beetles haven't been just sitting for too long in all that then I say go for it!