population spikes are recurrent ... and vary year in and year out ...

but i doubt they are gone...

what they should have said... is that you will have minor populations ... THIS YEAR ....

did you know ... the difference between grasshoppers and locust ...

one is a grasshopper ...

hordes of them.. become locust ....

[so i heard.. i and i dont have time to look it up and confirm] ....

so if they said.. no locusts this year ... one would suspect.. that there will still be grasshoppers around ....

ken

I didn't see any last year, so your news is great to hear. If they somehow made it through OUR winter, they must be drowning now with all the rain we've had. I haven't seen a one.

Doesn't a lot of rain also kill the baby hoppers? It would be nice if they were gone for the season too.

Kevin

What's a baby hopper?

Grasshoppers

My Hollyhock and I would both be grateful if there were no JBs this year!

Well, they are here in central NC.

They are in SC as well.

Hubby and I were just discussing how we hadn't seen a single JB yet. :knock on wood: I hope we do get a break, even if it is just one season.

It was doozy of a winter!

Lots of things are late this year (just today I saw the first sprout on my Amorphophallus), so the Japanese beetles may yet emerge. Hopefully the populations will again be down as in the past couple of years.

Well, this is just what the weather people said for NW Illinois and Iowa so I'll let you know if they are right.

Populations were NOT down in IL and Iowa last year!!!! My worst experience with them ever.

Populations were NOT down in IL and Iowa last year!!!! My worst experience with them ever.

Ditto for our neck of the woods. Their presence the last couple of seasons were not good for many of our plants.

There are insects that specialize in eating Japanese and other herbivorous beetles:

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Parasitic wasp? What is that Juju?

Posted by GreenHearted 5a (My Page) on Mon, Jun 23, 14 at 14:24

That masculine insect could not be parasitic. You see, the "fly" physically overpowered the Japanese beetle. This one is Cophinopoda chinensis. The "fly" eats herbivorous beetles.

This post was edited by jujujojo on Mon, Jun 23, 14 at 17:25

Thanks for the clarification.

Please post a clear pic of a japanese beetle. I have at least 6 hibiscus plant. There are some holes in their leaves, I figured snails were the culpits. I sprayed all of them with sevin but the holes continues.

Hey Glen, here's a link to a pretty clear picture. They are easy to ID because of the white dots along the sides. In my neck of the woods (N. Illinois) they travel in swarms and feed in clusters. The buggers have been so thick on my roses, the entire plant flopped! They tend to 'skeletonize' leaves, leaving the midrib and veins intact.

Here is a link that might be useful: Japanese Beetle

Our infestation last summer was so bad that there was hardly a leaf or bloom left on my huge Rose of Sharon (also a hibiscus). Then, after the awful winter we had, those bushes had so much die-back that I cut them both down to the ground. I had die-back on several other things (Juniper, Forsythia, and Weigela) but with the Rose of Sharon, I wonder if the Japanese Beetles weakened it to the point they couldn't over-winter.

Got all excited when I read this a couple of days ago, but knew I'd have to wait a while to see if it is true here. They normally show up just when I am starting to pick raspberries. I need one bucket for berries and one for beetles.

Yesterday I was out picking black raspberries (the reds will be at least another week I think) and what did I find but some JBs gettin freaky in the raspberry patch! Found about ten of them there and on my black chokeberry. I hope at least some of them died or these are just travelers because they have been REALLY bad here for the last several years. I am just a little west of Chicago in 5a.

I'm in the same area, molanic and I'm sorry to hear you found some! But some is still better than the hordes we've had in years past. I am holding out hope that we'll get some relief. I don't think my crab apples can take another year of destruction :(

Saw my first japanese beetle today on a shasta daisy. :(

Starting to show up here.

I saw only one last year. I hope to see none this year. I rarely saw them in the seven years I lived in NW Ohio. Could be that the area I lived in just wasn't infested with them. Prior years living in Michigan they were rampant.

Karen

Flies of the type Juju posted are commonly called "robber flies" or "assassin flies". They are predatory and typically catch their prey in the air. Unfortunately, they do not discriminate -- they will kill beneficials as well as pests. They have piercing/sucking mouth parts.

Posted by paul_ z5 MI (My Page) on Tue, Jun 24, 14 at 22:05

Species of this large family Asilidae naturally occur in all continents except for the Antarctic. So, there are many naive American species "robber flies".

Well they are getting into full swing here now just as usual. Every time I go outside for any reason I bring my bucket and pick at least 25 off the raspberries, chokeberry, grape, and now hardy hibiscus too. Arggh. They like the stuff that is in blazing sun of course and the hotter it gets the more they come. Picking in the morning or evening would make me a mosquito buffet unfortunately.

Even with the past harsh winter we have had an abundance of these critters this season. I took this photo yesterday showing a rose bloom with multiple beetles inside...yuck.

Yeah, us too. Our grapevine, roses and crabapples are turning into skeletons :(

It was a sweet dream, a summer with no JB...

Yup, this year was no better than usual. At least here it has been a lot cooler than average and the skeeters haven't been bad at all. So, beetle picking hasn't been as unpleasant of a task as past years.

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I noticed the strangest thing. Around 4th of July they made their annual appearance, right around the time they usually do. I made a note for myself to start eliminating them (the soapy water method), but never got around to it - too busy with other things. So I'm moseying around outside the other day, and NO BEETLES! They are normally all over one rugosa rose in particular, it's like home base for them, but they were all gone. They weren't on any other plants, either.

No clue what went on there, but I have never seen that happen, they're usually orgying it up well into August, sometimes even a bit later.

Wonder if it's a sign it will be another harsh winter - ?. Or maybe I just had a lot of hungry birds hanging around the yard this year :0)

I haven't seen a single one this year. I did get rid of my only rose which was the only plant they munched for me, so maybe that's part of the reason. The squirrels this year haven't been doing any damage either, so all in all, I have no complaints.

(We do need rain which is hard to believe after the drenching this spring, so I guess I can complain about that.)

Kevin