Are we breeding smarter Japanese beetles?

[Bert]

We had our first major beetle infestation last summer, and my wife and I spent many enjoyable evenings picking them off the shrubs and dropping them into a jar of soapy water.

We noticed that they had only 2 defense moves; one was to raise their back legs when alarmed, and the other was to simply drop off the leaf they were currently munching on. They would almost never fly away. This made them darned easy to catch.

This year, more and more of them are actually flying off when approached.

Are we accidentally selecting for this undesirable behavior?

On the other hand, we've found that imidacloprid is actually effective in protecting our shrub roses and dwarf crab apple tree. Our untreated sand cherries are being chewed to shreds.

[Billy]

ENVIRONMENTAL HAZARDS: Do not apply within 30 metres of environmentally sensitive areas such as lakes, streams, rivers or other aquatic systems. Do not apply to terrains where there is a potential for surface run-off to enter aquatic systems. Do not mix, load or clean equipment within 30 metres of wellheads or aquatic systems. Do not contaminate water when disposing of equipment washwaters. This product is highly toxic to bees exposed to direct treatment or residues on blooming crops or weeds. Do not apply this product or allow it to drift to blooming crops or weeds if bees are visiting the treatment area. This product is highly toxic to aquatic invertebrates. Apply this product only in accordance with this label.

[Bert]

Thank you for your pointless restating of the obvious.

[Billy]

Glad to be of help.

[Kay Lancaster]

Yes, it's quite possible to select animal behaviors by breeding. It's also possible that sub-lethal doses of imidocloprid could be influencing their behaviors, also.

Kay

[frinjdwelr]

Here next door in Wi. ours always flew, so I don't know what kind you're breeding over there. I will say temperature affected their flying. Hotter=more flying, colder=less. Now all that said I've had to kill exactly 4 of them this year versus about

4000 the last couple years. Used no chemicals. I attribute it to the totally weird and inside out weather. Maybe they went the way of the cherry and maple syrup crops this spring.