A dear friend this morning at yoga asked me if I had anything good to say about Japanese Beetles (Popillia japonica). After giving it some thought, I can say, yes indeed. They sure are pretty!
The Japanese Beetle is a species of scarab beetle, native to Japan where they are pretty well behaved or at least kept under control by natural predators. Here in North America it is a different story, as you probably know. I was quite surprised when I moved to the mountains of central Virginia to find that these beetles eat what seems like, most anything. Not just fancy garden plants such as roses. Their larvae feed on the roots of many types of grasses. But the adults delight in eating plants in the garden such as beans, strawberries, tomatoes, goldenrod, milkweed, peppers, corn, pea and okra. Trees are another popular item, eating a broad range – sassafras, black walnut, cherry, plum, pear, peach, red oak, magnolia, pine, holly and red maple. And some three hundred other species of plants.
When the pretty little iridescent critters go after plants, this is what they leave behind. Just the veins. First discovered in the United States in 1916. Now most states east of the Mississippi are troubled by these beetles, and there is a USDA quarantine to protect the western states of Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, and Washington.
