Have Japanese Beetles learned stealth?

Jul 24, 2013 2 Replies

I know they're out there because they're making fine lace from the leaves of our purple sand cherries, yet checking in the morning, afternoon and early evening since late June I have yet to find any bugs.



Last year, my wife and I would spend quality time together picking them off the plants and dropping them into mayonnaise jars with an inch of soapy water. Over the summer, I'm sure we collected many hundreds of them. So far this year, nothing.



On the other hand, our shrub roses and dwarf crab apple tree treated with imidacloprid show absolutely no sign of damage from the critters, although I have found 3 of 'em with their noses buried in rose blossoms (the imidacloprid is only passed to the leaves, not to the blossoms).


Well, you know what you are going to have to do, don't you?

Time for a midnight patrol to see what is eating the sand cherry leaves. I suspect that Asiatic garden beetles, which feed at night, have taken over from the Japanese beetles.

They've been speading steadily westward. I know this map is out of date, because they have been present in Michigan for several years now.

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