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Coworker says smashing Japanese beetles will attract more? (self.gardening)

submitted 5 months ago by drhugsymcfur to c/gardening

9 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Hello,

I recently had a coworker mention, " You can't just smash Japanese beetles because it will only attract more through a pheromone they release when dying."

Is this actually a thing or is he misremembering some old gossip's tale?

Thanks, DrHugsyMcFur

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[–] [email protected] 29 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Evolution: Here’s a scent released on death, go travel to it so you can also die.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 5 months ago (2 children)

I think I remember something about other insects that may get triggered to attack when one is killed. (I am not really sure though. It might have to be a stingy-type insect, but I couldn't Google anything about it.)

[–] essteeyou 2 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Sounds like some wasp shit to me. Maybe ants. I haven't looked any of this up, but that's my guess.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago

Bees do that. I once helped a bee keeper by holding a ladder so he could get the runaway queen out of a tree. There were so many bees, but i kept calm so they leave me alone. One of them stung me in my baseball cap and suddenly i had to book it, because all the vees were suddenly after me. I got stung like 5 times or so. I only later found the stinger and some bee ass in my hat later.

Also fun fact, getting stung in the eyelid is very uncool.

[–] lemming741 2 points 5 months ago

Honey bees release isoamyl acetate- banana runt flavor- when they sting

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isoamyl_acetate#Natural_occurance

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=List_of_honey_bee_pheromones&diffonly=true#Alarm_pheromone

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago

I've had more luck flicking and smashing than anything else.

[–] just_another_person 2 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I think it's BS. Logic would say it's BS because of evolutionary purposes of pheromones, which would made in glands, and in almost any other case used for attracting LIVE mates. If you suddenly smashed one, then the worry is you're busting their pheromone sac or whatever and attracting more? Specious.

I'm suspicious haha. I looked it up anyway and can't find any proof of that, only the negative.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Wasps can emit alarm pheromones that inform other wasps that it's in trouble. Smashing it can I think also cause this. https://phys.org/news/2015-12-arms-social-wasps-alarm-pheromones.html

[–] Hildegarde 11 points 5 months ago

Those are colony insects that have a cooperative survival strategy. Japanese beetles don't do that as far as I'm aware.