Japanese Beetle

I don't know about you but I like my plants' foliage to be nice and full with no holes. It is not fashionable to me to have leaves look skeletal but you may have your own opposite opinion and you are more than welcome to that. For those of you who agree with me though, we face some issues with bugs, Japanese Beetles to be particular.

First, a little history courtesy of the University of Kentucky's website. We were unfortunately introduced to these horrific insects in 1916 when someone made a big 'uh oh' and accidentally brought them to New Jersey. I think it must not like America and is being a pest on purpose because they were apparently never a problem in Japan. With no natural enemies and well suited environments (turf and pastures along with many variety of yummy plants), the Japanese Beetle has grown its population and has expanded its range of devastation to the north, west, and south!

As you can see from the picture above, they're actually kind of a nice looking bug. They have a cool metallic tint with the green and black bodies. They're not as nice as they look though so don't be fooled! They usually come out late June and love warm sunny days for feeding on your plants. The most obvious indicator that you have a Japanese Beetle problem will be the skeletal looking foliage. There is a decent chance that you have a plant they will like because they're known to devour 300 species of plants.

How do you get these awful things off your plants and away from your landscape? Well, there are a few ways like using chemicals and hand picking them but who wants to use harsh chemicals on already struggling plant material and who has the time to go out and hand pick them off their plants? Our suggestion is to give traps a try. We carry a line of Japanese beetle trap supplies from Bonide.

It is a simple product to use. The directions are on the back of the box so I won't got into too much detail now. It's a simple setup and one key direction you don't want to miss is to place the trap 10 feet downwind of the affected area so it attracts the beetles away from the plants! The product is extremely effective at attracting the bugs so the bags will fill up and you may need to replace. Replacement bags are available as well.

If you have any questions about the bugs or the product, leave a comment, give us a call at (302) 239-2727, or stop in and chat with us!

***There will be a week of silence next week for the blog to celebrate my vacation! I will be back to writing 8/13!