Japanese Beetles, right royal pain in the #&&*^$%! Can't tell for certain from the picture of the beetles, but the damage and description is consistent. They USUALLY don't kill, but they do weaken and disrupt the normal development. Certain species they LOVE, and I guess blackgum is one of those. No much you can do but use something like Sevin (carbaryl). Generally last about 6 weeks or so before adults die. I saw our first one today, and tomorrow I will be mixing our first batch of Sevin. NOT looking forward to the daily battle, while trying not to kill everything else.

Arktrees

I Googled pictures of Japanese beetles but they looked a brown/green color to me. These beetles are tan.

Alabama: The bugs in your photo aren't Japanese beetles. Japanese beetles are bright green and orangy-brown, shiny and iridescent. We have JB's but I've never seen them eat black gum leaves.

According to this article (link below), the tupelo leaf miner (Antispila nyssaefolia) and forest tent caterpillar (Malacosoma disstria) attack blackgum causing growth loss and occasional mortality.

Do you see damage on other nearby tupelo trees?

Here is a link that might be useful: Black Gum Tree

But those beetles aren't either leafminers nor caterpillars.

Seems I recall that you folks have a nasty chafer.

Where's rhizo when you need her?

It looks like all of my blackgum trees are being eaten, not just one. This is first year I have seen this happen. I've looked at the oaks, maples, hickories, cherries, and magnolias and don't see any damage on any of them. I hope it's not some new invasive insect.

Wow...everywhere I read they are relatively pest free. I've never seen one this bad before. I hope it's not something new. I'd send it on to the local cooperative extension service just to be sure.

I just started having problems with the exact same beetles. They are really attacking my young North Star cherry trees as well as my established black cherries. They are less problematic on my plums and apples, and a couple although sparse on a couple maples. They haven't done as much damage to my trees as it appears they have done in the pictures above, but I'm afraid they may kill many of my young cherry trees. If someone can ID these beetles, please do.

Actually, I might have found the answer. It looks like the Rose Chafer Beetle shown here: http://www.weekendgardener.net/garden-pests/rose-chafer-beetles-060906.htm. Seems to fit the bill for me also since we have sandy soil. Unfortunately, it sounds like I'm going to need to take a closer look at my grapes, blackberries, raspberries, strawberries, peonies, etc, etc, etc.

I used to have chafers in Sacto, and the fotos above from here don't look like that insect (nor does the linked foto).

Maybe some sort of chafer in the foto but chafer damage is inconsistent with the damage patterns above, which look like leaf miners and maybe tent caterpillars (per Pam Chesbay); chafers munch on soft flower tissue - my white fls in the yard were hit by chafers every year.

I'd say these pictures of the beetles are incidental and caught the critters using the surface for sex (although I see no cigarettes...) and rest. If you see no tents in the trees, it is another chewing insect larva.

Let us know if you find tents and look closer at the leaves in the third foto - that's leaf miner and the damage in the others is something else.

BTW - that's a good attack; what has changed in the culture or environment of the tree to weaken it to leave it open to such attack? Drought?

Dan

There are no caterpillars to be seen, and my black cherry trees are unaffected. It is these beetles that are eating the leaves, these Blackgum trees are covered with them, and they're not in the rest of the trees.

As for the environment, we had plenty of rain this spring, so the trees shouldn't be stressed. These trees are in a wooded area, so no root damage or anything like that.

I sent an email with pictures to the extension office, so maybe I'll hear something back soon (although it's too late for the trees).

Rose chafers.

Hmmmm, I've never seen one of these guys this far south. And Alabamatreehugger is a lot more south than I am!

But it looks like a rose chafer and the damage is the same....walks like a duck, talks like a duck?

Let us know what the extension office says, okay?

Well, I'm going to correct myself since no one else will ;o) . I can go with a chafer. The skeletonization is new learning for me, as is their being found so far south. I bet the Extension Agent is interested as well...

Dan

I put 'rose chafer' into google images, and got two very different insects came up; Macrodactylus subspinosus which looks exactly like the insects in a.t.h.'s pics above, and Cetonia aurata, which looks very different (glossy metallic green, shorter and broader).

Resin

Haven't heard back from the extension office yet.

I looked up Macrodactylus subspinosus and it does look like it. It also mentions that rose chafers like sandy soil which I do have. The strange part is I have roses, grapes(muscadines), and crabapples but they haven't been affected. Maybe the bugs just haven't found them yet.

'Bug' the extension people. Sometimes they have to be prodded. ;-)

Yes, please do bug them. In your areas, these trees are fairly common. Do you see similar damage to black gums trees in other areas of your neighborhood?

Well the extension guy didn't know what they were for sure (he thought maybe blister beetles, but I don't think so) so he forwarded my email to someone else. I haven't went around town and checked other trees, but I need to do so. The ground under my trees is now carpeted with these shredded leaves.

Why not try emailing directly to Auburn's plant diagnostic lab? Perhaps the entomologist (see attached link) will offer insight just from your images and the history of the damage.

Here is a link that might be useful: Worth a try!

These are rose chaffers. We have these alot in Michigan. They love to eat roses as well and as much as Japaneese bettles do.

It does look like rose chafer. They have been recorded in Florida before (although they're not a common problem as far as I've seen), so I assume Alabama is in their range as well. They have been reported feeding on Nyssa before.

As bad as it looks, I would expect the trees to survive and recover.