Japanese beetles are voracious eaters and can completely decimate a garden if left to their own devices. To minimize or even prevent the damage these creepy-crawlies can do, try planting plants that deter them, or that they don't feed on.
Plants that deter Japanese Beetles
It may seem incredible, but there actually are plants that Japanese Beetles avoid. These plants typically have a strong scent and don't taste good to the insect. Some of the plants that deter Japanese Beetles are:
- Catnip
- Larkspur
- Onions
- Leeks
- Chives
- GarlicWhite Chrysanthemum
- White Geraniums
- Marigolds
- Tansy
Plants That Don't Attract Japanese Beetles
These are plants that just don’t interest Japanese beetles very much. While these plants can occasionally suffer from minor Japanese beetle damage, the nice thing about them is that the Japanese beetles will quickly lose interest in them, since they're not as tasty to them as some other plants are. Japanese beetle resistant plants include:
- American Sweet Gum
- American Elder
- Begonias
- Black Oak
- Boxelder
- Boxwood
- Caladiums
- Common lilac
- Common Pear
- Tuliptree
- White Oak
- White Poplar
- Dusty Miller
- Euonymus
- Flowering Dogwood
- Forsythia
- Green Ash
- Holly
- Hydrangea
- Hickory
- Junipers
- Magnolia
- Persimmon
- Pines
- Red Maple
- Red Mulberry
- Red Oak
- Scarlet Oak
- White Ash
- Shagbark
With a combination of the above plants, you should be able to stave off, or at least minimize, the effects of Japanese beetles in your garden.
