How do you know if you have Japanese beetles? You’ll see damaged plant material, often on rose bushes, flowering plants and ornamental trees. The leaves look like a doily or netting, because these very hungry insects eat the leaf tissue between the veins and leave the vein structure behind.
When They Show Up
In Central Illinois, adult Japanese beetles usually emerge in late June and feed through July and into August. They feed in groups and give off scents that draw in more beetles, so damage can go from a few leaves to a skeletonized shrub quickly.
What To Do If You’re Seeing Damage Now
Once the adults are feeding, the best treatment at that point in the season is a topical spray on the plants being attacked. On a small number of plants, knocking beetles into a bucket of soapy water in the early morning, when they’re sluggish, also helps. Skip the bag-style beetle traps; they attract more beetles to your yard than they catch.
Stop The Next Generation In Your Lawn
Japanese beetles spend most of their lives underground as white grubs, feeding on grass roots. That’s why it might be too late for this year’s adults but not for next year’s. A preventive grub control application to the lawn in spring gets into the root zone and kills grubs as they feed, before they turn into beetles. It also protects your lawn from grub damage, which shows up as brown patches of turf that peel back like carpet.
Grub prevention is part of our fertilization and weed control programs. For trees and ornamentals that get hit hard every summer, ask about our tree and shrub care.
Rather have a pro handle it? F&W has provided fertilization & weed control for Bloomington-Normal, Peoria, and Champaign-Urbana, Illinois properties since 1989. Call (309) 664-2666 or request a free quote.