Feller Landscape Group

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

Serving the Chicagoland counties of DuPage, Kane and Northern Cook.  Over 25 years of experience!

 

 

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...Where Imagination and Design Unite...

 

Japanese Beetles - Part One

What is a Japanese Beetle?

 

 

 

The Japanese beetle (Popillia japonica Newman) is a highly destructive

Adult japanese beetles and typical damage

plant pest of foreign origin. It was first found in the United States in a nursery in southern New Jersey nearly 80 years ago. In its native Japan, where the beetle's natural enemies keep its populations in check, this insect is not a serious plant pest.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the United States, however, the beetle entered without its natural enemies and found a favorable climate and an abundant food supply. By 1972, beetle infestations had been reported in 22 States east of the Mississippi River and also in Iowa and Missouri. Since then, the pest continues to travel south and west.  Without its natural checks and balances, the Japanese beetle has become a serious plant pest and a threat to American agriculture.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Both as adults and as grubs (the larval stage), Japanese beetles are destructive plant pests. Adults feed on the foliage and fruits of several hundred species of fruit trees, ornamental trees, shrubs, vines, and field and vegetable crops. Adults leave behind skeletonized leaves and large, irregular holes in leaves. The grubs develop in the soil, feeding on the roots of various plants and grasses and often destroying turf in lawns, parks, golf courses, and pastures.

 

 

 

 

How To Recognize the Japanese Beetle's Life Stages

 

The adult Japanese beetle is a little less than 1/2 inch long and has a shiny, metallic-green body and bronze-colored outer wings. The beetle has six small tufts of white hair along the sides and back of its body under the edges of its wings. The males usually are slightly smaller than the females. You are most likely to see the adults in late spring or early summer.

During the feeding period, females intermittently leave plants, burrow about 3 inches into the ground--usually into turf--and lay a few eggs. This cycle is repeated until the female lays 40 to 60 eggs.

By midsummer, the eggs hatch, and the young grubs begin to feed. Each grub is about an inch long when fully grown and lies in a curled position. In late autumn, the grubs burrow 4 to 8 inches into the soil and remain inactive all winter. This insect spends about 10 months of the year in the ground in the larval stage.

In early spring, the grubs return to the turf and continue to feed on roots until late spring, when they change into pupae. In about 2 weeks, the pupae become adult beetles and emerge from the ground. This life cycle takes a year.