Jap Beetles eating on luscious leaves
Noone really knows how they got here, maybe by someone bringing one of their favorite plants over by boat around the turn of the century. I remember my first encounter with them. It was at my mom’s house outside of Nashville, Tn, 1997, I remember it well. We had bought the new house about 3 years prior. Completely stripped the old overgrown landscaping out, and replaced it with new, small, more manageable plants. On the corners of the house, we planted some purple leaf plum trees. We loved the show of the blooms, and then the purple color leaf was just what our house needed. It matched the brick perfectly. Here we were on the 3rd year of growth and the trees were just the right size. All the other shrubs were coming in nicely as well. We came upon the end of June and the leaves started getting holes in them, like something was eating them. Then in July the tree was almost completely naked of leaves. “What was going on?” we asked several people. JAPANESE BEETLES was the answer we got! That really colorful, hard backed beetle that flies around and eats just about every luscious leaf in its path.
Japanese Beetles emerge from the ground in the spring as adults, and feed for several weeks on just about anything they can find. They usually prefer roses, birch trees, purple leaf plums, crepe myrtle’s, dogwoods and cherry trees. But, any plant with a succulent leaf is fair game. They will feast on these plants until there is nothing left to eat. This can do significant damage to the plant. Usually the plant will recover, but often times it leaves the plant susceptible to drought and disease. After feasting for several weeks, they decide it is time to mate. A female can drop between 50-100 eggs in the yard and around the home. These eggs will emerge in the fall and the beetle will take in a feeding before burying itself back down in the ground for winter. They will go down just below frost line and hibernate until the next spring when they emerge as an adult and the cycle begins again. A Jap beetle only lives for about one year.
Happy Beetles
Stay tuned to tomorrow’s blog where we will identify the treatment programs that can be used to rid yourself of these destructive animals.