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Sarah Browning: How to Defeat Beetles | Home & Garden

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Sarah Brown for Lincoln Journal Star

The season of Japanese beetle is in full swing! They have been feeding for several weeks and their damage is becoming very apparent. Below are some common questions about these nasty bugs and tips for managing landscape damage.

What do they look like?

Adult beetles are similar in shape to our common June beetle, but a little smaller and about 0.5 inches long. Their head and chest are metallic green and their wing covers are copper brown. But sometimes you need to look closely to see these colors.

At first glance, it often looks dark brown. There are also a series of five tufts of white hair on either side of the abdomen, distinguishing them from native insects called fake Japanese beetles and spring rose beetles.

Immature Japanese beetle is a type of white larva. They are creamy white, have a brown head, and have three pairs of legs on the front of the body.

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What does their damage look like?

Adults are more than 300 general in our landscape, including Japanese and Norwegian maple, holly, rose of sharon, birch, cherry, plum, peach, rose, American elm, American elm, marigold, grape, Virginia creeper, etc. Eat typical plants, such as Boston ivy. Adults eat during the day and prefer plants on hot days and in the sun.

They have a part of the mouth to chew, consume the tissue between the veins, leaving lace-like or skeletal leaves that quickly turn brown. Insects only eat the leaves and do not damage the twigs and buds underneath.

As immature insects, white larvae feed on the roots of plants and are often lawn pests. Root feeding causes browning and death of the grass.

Do I need to install a trap?

No, don’t put out the welcome mat! Do not use the Japanese beetle traps advertised in gardening magazines or found in some hardware stores. Studies have shown that these traps attract far more insects than they can catch, resulting in more harm than good for the landscape.

Stop using traps to control Japanese beetles, https: //lancaster.unl.edu/pest/resources/japanesebeetletraps.shtml

Does the damage kill my Linden?

Linden, crab apples, cherries, and birch are the preferred hosts for trees, and the damage caused by feeding adults is often severe. Fortunately, healthy trees endure this leaf loss well and are not killed. Even though the entire leaf canopy has been skeletonized, the plant will re-leave next year because the underlying twigs and branches are undamaged. Do not overreact by pruning the branches or removing the entire tree.

To minimize the problem, you can plant less preferred trees. That doesn’t mean they won’t be hit by beetles, but it’s not serious. These include voxel der maple. Shagbark Hickory; Japanese wood lilac; Black, Northern Red, Scarlet or White Oak. Red buds; sweetgum or tulip trees.

How can I protect ornamental and vegetable garden plants?

If the beetle damage becomes an annual event in your landscape, consider replacing the plants they eat with less desirable ornamental plants. If only one or two plants in the landscape are affected, hand-pick the beetle and drop it in a soap can.

Before applying pesticides to control flowering plants, understand how to use the product properly so as not to hurt the pollen mater. Follow the instructions on all labels. Do not spray on windy days or during days with pollen maters. Instead, spray at the end of the day near dusk.

Pesticides classified as risk reduction by the Environmental Protection Agency are pesticides that have minimal impact on human health and the environment. The low-risk pesticides neem, pyrethrin (a blend of pyrethrin and canola oil), and spinosad kill adults, but they last only about 3-7 days. Neem products are effective repellents and can be applied regularly (but less than once a week) to reduce leaf damage.

The sample prescriptions available to home gardeners are:

• Monterey 70% Neem Oil or Bonid Neem Oil

• Gardens Alive Pyola Vegetable, Fruit, Ornamental Insect Spray

• Bonned Captain Jack’s Dead Bug Brew (Spinosad)

Traditional pesticides usually require two sprays during peak adult flight from late June to early August.

The first application should be done before the damage to the plant becomes intolerable, but when it is abundant in adults. Carbaryl, bifenthrin, cyfluthrin, permethrin, lambda-cyfluthrin provide control for about 2 weeks after complete application. Follow the label restrictions regarding use in food crops and harvest time after application.

How can I prevent damage to the lawn?

Adults lay eggs in the soil for about 4 to 6 weeks from late June. Eggs hatch after 10-14 days and small larvae begin to eat turf roots. Most turf damage appears in late summer from mid-August to September.

Our turf products for controlling white larvae also provide control of Japanese beetle larvae and should be applied from mid to late June. If extensive damage occurs and grab control products are not applied in early summer, Dylox works well as a rescue treatment in late summer.

For more information

Handling of Japanese beetle, https: //extension.unl.edu/statewide/douglas-sarpy/pdfs/ce/resources/ce-dealing-with-japanese-beetle.pdf

Japanese beetle in the cityscape, https: //extension.entm.purdue.edu/publications/E-75.pdf

Sarah Browning is an extension educator for Nebraska Extensions. To ask her questions or contact her, call 402-441-7180 ​​or write to sarah.browning @ unl.edu or 444 Cherrycreek Road, Lincoln, NE68528.

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