I don't know but I HATE them. I can't take any pictures because they are munching away. Let's formulate a nekid turle goodbye beetle dance. Just don't look at Olga or Harry's sex beetle pics! Talk about grossing out, aye yi yi.

Carla

You know, there are a lot of ecologically minded people on this forum, and I admire them for their convictions. As for me, I am selfish and want my roses to be free of JB chew marks. So, I spray with Sevin whenever they get out of hand. 2 or 3 beetles, I can pick off. More than that, and they get nuked. Amazingly, once I spray, it's often a good many days before the population climbs again to the point of having to spray. I've read that they send out some pheromone chemical signal that tells the other JB's that they've found something good to eat. I think when you get rid of them, surely the others don't come as fast. And, last year, I was pretty diligent about keeping them gone (spray and soapy water combo), and I don't think that I had as many grubs this year to become adults - just the ones that flew in. My 2 cents, no scientific facts, but just to make the rest of you Sevin sprayers feel less guiltily alone.

I have seen a few; maybe 6 or so on the roses and roughly 50 in the various JB traps around the yard. Either the population is light this year or they're off to a slow start.

They are pretty intense for about 3-4 weeks or so, then they gradually diminish once their reproductive jobs are done. They should be mostly gone by mid-August, in zone 5 (just in case JBs are zone-sensitive). Some years are worse than others.

It amounts to 4 weeks of pure JB hell. After that, their numbers start to decrease markedly and, eventually, you find only the occasional stragglers. Agents of satan, they are.

Ok, well, I guess I can stand it for 3-4 weeks. I would be afraid to use traps unless I was completely overrun by jbs. I would think it might attract even more of them!

Yeah, Rochesterroseman, the traps are one of those "damned if you do, damned if you don't" options. I figure that the roses are already attracting beetles from far and wide anyway, because the little buggers will fly quite a distance to get to their favorite "food", so for the past few years I've been using the traps.

Since there are only 2 of us in the neighborhood who grow roses, we seem to get everyone else's JBs anyway. :-)

I mostly use the traps to keep them off the roses -- and there are certainly a lot more in the traps than on the roses. Plus I like sending hundreds of JBs to a certain death when the congregate in the traps. :-)

Hang in there! They'll dwindle away eventually.

About when did you notice your first JBs this year? Ours came about 2 weeks earlier than usual, so I'm hoping that maybe they'll leave 2 weeks earlier too! :0) Phyl (Syracuse area)

I's say at least another 3 weeks, rochesterroseman. I've never had JB's as bad as this year. In the past they'd eat my roses but not the leaves. This year they're ruining my lawn and the leaves on my roses are so skeletalized, I'll have to practically have to cut them down to the ground to get the ugly brown lace gone. I'm certain the leaves aren't taking in nutrients after the JB's have their feast on them.
I broke down and bought traps three day ago since I figure I've got them all in my garden anyway. They're filled by noon everyday. I've emptied them at least six times in the two days. So now I trap, sudsy water and spray once a week w/ Merit. best, ~bb