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How long is the Japanese beetle season?

16 years ago

I just noticed some JB yesterday. How long do they stick around? I thought I read somewhere that it was about 6 weeks?

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Comments (15)

leslies
16 years ago
When I lived in z5NY, I had them at their worst from early July through the end of August and would continue to find a few here and there well into October.
olga_6b
16 years ago
It depends on how high is their pressure in your area. In the areas with high infestation they stay for aprrox 9-10 weeks, in the lighter areas it could be as quick as 4 weeks.
It is a regular bell curve distribution, the higher the peak the broader it will be. I am not talking about several JBs per day, I am talking about the time when they are in bug numbers, several per each bloom. If we count single JBs here and there, it will be almost all season here.
Olga
Olga
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No sign of them here - YET. In fact, my roses bloomed and are almost finished now when last year the JB ate them as fast as the buds opened and before! I expected them any day, but then again the weather has been somewhat cool up until this week. JBs love hot weather. Looks like I better get prepared for them to show up around the second week of July or so if catherinet has them at her place now. For the last two years, I hand picked beetles every morning and late afternoon and often in between. They ate roses, zinnias, the porcelain vine and tried to destroy the Virginia Creeper on the side of the garage. Started at the top and chomped their way to the bottom.
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Here are some ideas. 1) See if you can convince the homeowners alliance to put milky spore on the whole development. Anyone else there must be having a similar problem. If you can't convince them then at least do your own yard and any immediate neighbors that agree to your doing it (at your cost). 2) Buy a bag of Surround and spray that along with the sevin; cover all the leaves top and bottom. After a couple sprays you will have a thick coverage and that will make your neighbors leaves a lot more appealing than yours. I have run into many horrible problems in growing my orchard, and I have ended up winning nearly all of the battles (salt from the road poisoning my soil, rabbits knawing down hundreds of benchgrafts, swarms of cuke beetles giving melons the wilt, curculio, moths, aphids, psylla, shothole, fireblight, downy mildew, etc). In several cases I thought I was done for but I just kept plugging and found a winning plan. Don't give up yet! Scott
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GIO I'm going to look into finding the red dye as well. Are you planning on water, clove oil, and the red dye? I'd much rather use that than the Sevin... Yes, I'll be using the red dye, water, clove oil and other containers with the dye and tayuya root powder, which I have. No Sevin. The only place I could find the dental disclosing tablets was online. Your dentist might have some tucked away in a cabinet somewhere -- I'm not sure how common their use is these days, though I think they're used to help children brush thoroughly! But check to be sure the dye is #28 red, since #40 red is used sometimes. Also, about the clove oil. One woman tried it when we were experimenting but apparently put it full-strength and *some* liquid Sevin in a plastic cup. She reported that the next morning the bottom of the cup had melted away! I read later that undiluted clove oil WILL melt plastic. I used styrofoam cups and probably a greater dilution of the clove oil with water and didn't have any problems at all. Good point about the yellow containers. I got excited about making it more effective without considering the consequences to the pollinators. However, is the red dye toxic to the pollinators? The red dye will be consumed only by the insects attracted to the lure it's mixed with, and that's ONLY cuke beetles, not the pollinators or other insects. The reason is that the chemical compound, cucurbitacin , is in the lure that attracts cucumber beetles. It exists in varying degrees in all cucurbits, but the beetles flock to some cucurbit plants in droves and less to others, quite likely because of the strength of the odor. OTOH, pollinators are attracted to the cucurbit flowers, mostly through the kind of light emitted by various colors and probably the nectar in them, and cucurbitacin is of no interest to them. (Thus my reluctance to use anything yellow as a container in hopes of attracting the cuke beetles -- that might indeed attract the pollinators, too.) I hope your garden won't be as infested with cuke beetles this summer as last year! The kind of cucurbits you planted may have been the lure for so many (I didn't check your list against the list in the link), so if you can avoid growing them again, maybe the beetles will be smaller in numbers and it won't be a losing battle to keep the numbers low enough that you can harvest most of what you plant. That's about all we can ask of nature! I have Crenshaw melons, tomatoes, and beans out in the garden right now and haven't seem any insects so far except for flea beetles. So when these pests show up (and I know they will) that's when I'll set out the baited traps. I'll report back occasionally on how well it's working. It would be great if you (and anybody else who tries it) could do that, too. Report success OR failure. People have a tendency to not think about insect problems until they show up in THEIR garden, so it's possible that some who aren't interested in killing every insect on their plants will look for a solution a bit later in the season. I've never had to deal with Japanese beetles, but a zapper over a koi or other pond sounds like a great way to get rid of them! Sounds like you have some fun projects to think about!
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Ann, Thanks, I presume fire ants are not that far north? Is northern Maine at the outer edge of where JBs are living, and hence didn't take much to eradicate a few? These bugs are so persistent. In 2010 I planted pole beans, and that brought a horde of JBs into my yard. I read that the JBs didn't like the appearance of their own dead so I kept a smelly bucket of deceased JBs next to the beans. It had little effect other than on my nose. I notice that if you hit them early and often that they are a social bug, and if there aren't other JBs in your yard they are much less likely to come. So I am going to hit them early this year to see if that will prevent the horde from showing up. Also doing milky spore.
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greenthumb102
16 years ago
I saw two JBs yesterday....my first time this year also. I didn't know that they can fly. One was sitting on a butterfly bush leaf (resting? enroute to my roses?) and the other was on a zinnia bloom. I didn't have too many rose blooms at the moment. When I approached they flew away. Are they always so squeemish?
ashli
16 years ago
They aren't squeamish at all here...Most don't even move when I approach the poor Roses...the little pests look like double deckers, one beatle ontop of another...like riding piggy-back,ha.. so hungry to destroy the plants...They are trying to destroy my Dahlia's too. I've sprayed to kill them, but it only kills the ones that the spray comes in cotact with...and here comes a hundred(S) more to replace them.
banders
16 years ago
Um...how can I put this delicately? When they're piggy-backing they're making more beetles. I particularly like to interruptus that activity ;-) Wonder if they die happy? Do I care?

Barbara
carla17
16 years ago
Barbara, ha ha. I know I don't care. I have announced to everyone that will listen that I HATE them.
LOL, see Carol's post on antiques.

Carla
sunnishine
16 years ago
barbara...how long is your season....these things are driving me crazy...I was hoping it was a shorter season than all summer!
carla17
16 years ago
TOO LONG!!!!
estevinho
16 years ago
This is the first year here I've seen Japanese Beetles in June. I'm kinda bummin'.
klimkm
16 years ago
Normally here in chicagoland mine are july 4th weekend until labor day. Sporadically after that. BUT this year they came 2 weeks early, maybe that means they will leave 2 weeks earlier... hoping.
I totally gave up on having any yellow roses. Only graham thomas because it only has one big spring flush and one after that so it avoids the beetles timing wise.
And all the other ones, I have to cut and bring inside otherwise they get eaten.
The low growing dark colored floribundas (valentine) and mini floras with no scent, I have tend to get ignored until they are starving I guess. I rarely see them on those.
I have found them on yellow daylilies though, they don't eat them though. Just hanging out on them.
Knock them into soapy water or spray with bayer imidacloprid spray.
devon_gardener
16 years ago
So far, so good. I don't have them around. Last
year, I think I saw one or two the whole season. I have
seen pics on this site of them in great numbers. They seem
to be more of a problem on the east coast. Can anyone on
the west coast post if they are having a problem? I want
to know if it's becoming a problem on this side of the country.
banders
16 years ago
Carla, I'm with you, girl. I hatehatehate them too. Love the thread on Antiques!!!

Sunshine, I hate to be the one to dash your hopes, but...

...I saw the first one here last year on June 21. This year June 7. Ended last year early September. Who knows about this year? Where are you in Virginia? I'm south-central, very near the North Carolina line in the Martinsville area.

I actually have nothing much blooming right now, but almost every rose is gearing up for the next flush. Their favorite rose foliage in my garden is 'Julia Child'. They love my calla lilies, BTW.

Barbara, armed and ready with a bucket of soapy water
sunnishine
16 years ago
I am in south east...Virginia Beach area near North Carolina border too. Everyone except for Angel face is gearing up here too. I just planted julia child! ugh!

They like my double delight and melody perfume here (both yellows) Right now they like angel face since she is the only one blooming.

My first JB showed up early June too. Not a ton of them but just enough to drive me nuts.
banders
16 years ago
sunnishine, I'm originally from Tidewater but I've been in the foothills forever, it seems, LOL. I just noticed this evening that they're chewing on the foliage of Golden Celebration, too. What is it with yellow roses????

Barbara
sunnishine
16 years ago
They can probably see them better. I have read other posts that noted the same thing too. I found one tonight trying to eat through a closed double delight bud...he is now smushed beyond belief..lol

Sunni

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