Just started seeing them two days ago. A week of blazing hot weather woke them up.

Here in SE Iowa I have only seen a couple on my raspberries and crab apple. In other years I was pretty sure they showed up earlier.

Been here and been chewing. Crepe Myrtle, Zinnias, and wild bramble bushes seem to be their favorite haunts.

Hand picking and drowning...fun, fun.

(Upstate South Carolina)

None yet, though the rose chafers are out, and the J. beetles tend to appear just as the chafers are disappearing. I am hoping that some of them will rot in the wet weather we have had (though not expecting it.)

Haven't seen any Japanese beetles yet, but have indeed seen my dreaded oriental beetles. They cause way more damage to my garden than the Japanese ones... so far. Actually, I never saw a Japanese beetle in my yard until I put down milky spore in an attempt to stop the orientals. Couldn't figure out why that happened, since milky spore is actually used for JBs, not OBs. Maybe it was just a coincidence, but still strange....

:)
Dee

Just saw the first one of the year yesterday.

Saw the first ones two days ago and yesterday/today they told all their friends!

No mosquitoes yet though!

Yes, the the little buggers have arrived here, also. Fore some reason they like my crepe myrtle bush and it isn't even blooming yet, and they also like my blue hibiscus. I absolutely hate Japanese beetles. Can someone tell me what beneficial purpose they serve on this earth?

Haven't spotted any yet, but based on these reports from GWers I expect some any day.

Given the unexpectedly low populations of the last couple years I am hoping for another mild season, but time will tell...

Spotted a few the other day while weeding. But I'm sure there are more of them lurking around. My newest echinacea has been decimated --- all the petals are gone and just the plumb dark center remains. I seem to remember reading somewheres that JB are attracted to coneflowers --- true or not?

mollie

I don't think there is any way to predict what they will go after. In my garden the only two plants affected are my rose and my brugmansia. Nothing else is touched.

Kevin

I have seen none this season and I hope it stays that way.

Doubling their numbers every day so far. While they visit many of the plants the only real damage is to roses, rose of sharon and many trees stripped of their leaves.

none here in Tidewater Va-yet-very unusual-though we have been very wet here...

Do they eat viburnum leaves and sweet potatoe vine? I have something eating both and have no idea what it is. Haven't seen anything on them, just the holes they leave behind.

I've just started getting them, but like in years past, not in huge numbers - I kill maybe 5 a day maximum. Two factors in my favor - none of my neighbors really garden and the only thing I grow that the beetles eat is hollyhocks. So each morming and evening I give it a once over and drown any beetles I find.

Well, the little barstids have begun showing up in the last couple of days.

What satisfaction one gets, spraying them with permethrin and watching them tumble drunkenly out of rose blossoms to their doom...heh, heh...

eric, permethrin is highly toxic to honeybees and other beneficial insects as well as fish. Is it all possible to use a different method of murdering the little horrors?

Personally, I use a kid's sand pail filled with water and a squirt of liquid dish washing detergent. They drown instantly.

permethrin is highly toxic to honeybees.

As I am sure many of you know i.e. our bee population is being devastated, very most likely by the use of pesticides. And so personally, as of a couple of years ago I no longer use these chemicals in my garden.

I try to spray when bees are not active.

There is no way that hand-picking will be effective unless you have nothing else to do than patrol the garden looking for bugs.

Well, my climbing rose is reblooming and still no sign of the beetles. Maybe that early very cold snap with little snow cover last winter did have some affect on the grubs in the ground and killed the majority of them off. In any case, I'm happy.

Kevin

I'm basically done with the beetles. But, a beetle muched on my geranium! That had never happened before and I noticed whrn I came home from work. So that guy got drowned but oddly enough, I never saw another beetle on that plant.

Now my hollyhocks are a different story...

I have never seen so many JBs since I've lived here. (20+ yrs) They don't seem to be particular about what they eat. In the water they go, any chance I get.

judy, where in NJ are you? I'm in Randolph (Morris county) and I got my usual number - 5 or so a day.

I go out every morming and evening and have a beetle drowning party,

Unless they are still coming, and that's unlikely since in the past we had them start in late June, I've only seen a half a dozen. Last year, we hardly had any either. Probably 4 years ago we were polluted - they were everywhere.

Don't know if it has helped, but we stopped putting the traps out 4 years ago too. It seemed like we were drawing them in from the entire neighborhood with the traps even though we put them at the end of the property. We must have collected bags and bags of them that year. Now, we hardly have any.

Linda

linlily, everything I've ever read has said that traps are a bad idea unless you have a hyge property and can put the traps far, far away from your garden. So, you definitely made the right choice.

The traps worked perfectly for me on my small lot, but I like to try things for myself before I believe the things I read on the Internet. They love the traps more than the plants!

It has been a light year here north of Pittsburgh, Pa. Saw a few JBs in mid June, earlier that usual, then none for a couple weeks. In early July they showed up in moderate numbers on just 3 of their favorite plants, a perennial geranium, a serviceberry tree and a dawn redwood tree. Several other plants that they usually destroy were not bothered to any degree. I suppose we will pay dearly next year.

The traps are working!

gazania: "I suppose we will pay dearly next year."

Well, maybe not. If there aren't as many adults this year, there shouldn't be as much egg laying this year and hopefully not as many grubs and beetles next year. One would think it would take a few years for the population to recover.

That's my theory at least.

Kevin

I have lots. Of course they are on some of our roses ("Julia Childs") but I have for the first time seen them on my Periscaria "Golden Arrows"! I was wondering why so many leaves were like this one:

Milky spore and traps have been working for me even when I only gardened on 2 acres.
My cultivated area is now about 2 acres out of 60. We hang the traps about 20-50 feet from the garden plants on bamboo tripods.

A2Zmom,

Hi Neighbor,

I'm in Flemington, Hunterdon county.

Hi Judy!

Flemington, home of outlets, furs and Japanese beetles apparently. Sorry that you were hard hit this year.

I used to head down your way to take my youngest to the skatepark there. He used to be a serious rollerblader.

Here is one of many this morning in my "Julia Childs" rose:

Nasty, rouge. I'm basically done with them for the season.

The other thread about Spring reminded me of this one I started several months ago.

I didn't see a beetle all season. If they want to appear now, be my guest. I will not complain.

Kevin

Bad bad Kevin. Now I know where all of these beasties came from!!!!! This was the worst ever summer for the Japanese beetles. They came in droves and must have emailed their friends still buried underground because more and more kept emerging. Usually they are here for 6-8 weeks. We still had them the middle of October (not as many and the damage was already done.)

They are the reason I have never tried to grow roses. They completely took away my love for perennial hibiscus and I was even thinking of pulling them all out a few months ago. SO FRUSTRATING. But I didn't because that would be admitting defeat. THIS IS WAR.

And we think we are at the top of the food chain.

This was not a bad year at all for the beasts in my yard, which is surprising. No clue why, but it wasn't, and I'm not complaining.