A Remedy for Japanese Beetles
Posted by Val Thies on Jul 25th 2019
The Japanese beetle is an unwanted garden pest causing massive damage to our beloved plants in its adult form and our lawns in its larval/grub form.
The Japanese beetle is not native to Minnesota and has no known predators in its adult stage, making it difficult to get the large numbers of these destructive beetles under control. They are voracious eaters, destroying leaves, flowers, vegetable plants, and fruit trees. You have probably seen one of their meals of skeletonized leaves in your own yard.
Once they are done feasting on your precious plants, the females fly off to lay 1 or 2 eggs in a sunny turf location. Over the course of their adult life, a female Japanese beetle will lay between 40 and 60 eggs. These eggs hatch in August and immediately begin dining on the roots of the turf grass where they were laid. The damage to our lawns by the larval or grub form of the Japanese beetle can be more devastating than the visual unsightly defoliation caused by the adult beetle. As the grubs feed on the roots of grass, they leave irregular shaped brown patches that lift when pulled on. This damage is usually seen in late summer or early fall. Grubs also attract animals such as raccoons, skunks, and moles which dig up our lawns in search of their next meal.