Update... icky orgies galore. My blooms are late this year, so I was not seeing the whole picture.

Is this a bad place to ask if the Bayer drench will help kill their next stage?? I never know when and what to apply for grubs [or pre-grubs] but each year I say I will. Man!

And to ID them, they are no bigger than a nickel and clearly irridescent, mostly green to almost entirely green. There is another 'scarab' type beetle here too but he's brown and earlier.

Interestingly RE the drought... I've only seen 2 June bugs. Maybe it's still early for them as we always said they should be called July bugs. These are the big honkin' irridescent green bugs that smack into you when they fly. They never bother my roses but it's interesting if their numbers are down this year.

I'm so depressed. I didn't have any until today and last year I had just a few. But I just got home and walked around the garden and they are everywhere! There are already holes in the one bloom on my new The Prince that finally had a long enough stem to cut and bring into the house. I was going to cut it tonight. Sigh. They're all over my raspberries which are just ripening so I'll have to do the soapy water method rather than insecticides. They're on my poor tiny cherry tree too. Oh well, I can't do anything about it now (I'm streching my lunch break as it is) but I'll drown a bunch tonight.

Wouldn't you know, as soon as mentioned them they appeared today. I was right to be superstitious.

About 75 today, but I collected after a major downpour which may have made some go and hide.

Barbara

20 today. There is not rhyme nor reason to this...but after reading others' totals...I'm NOT complaining!

melanie

Got our first JB last week. Maybe 2 or 3. Today, around 25-30. I know that their numbers will increase. I saw a few on my crabapples. Saw a few on my William Baffin, Colette, John Davis and my white clematis. Got those. I know its a battle I'll never win, but it does feel good to catch them. Sick, huh? I wish all the birds that eat from our feeders would help me out here. Come on, now, don't they eat JBs? I feed our birds fresh bird seed, give them fresh water and give them shelter. Is just eating 2 or 3 beetles a day a little too much to ask for?

We had some rain last night, and today the little devils started increasing. DH got about 150 in an hour. We're ignoring the Lindens but I bet if he picked through them, the number of monsters in the jar would be much higher.

Good luck with the battle everyone!

I am in SC and the JB's have been terrible this year. I have been picking them off for 4 weeks now. I can at least say that I am finding one or two every time I look now. That is down from 50 or so at a time.
They have really been tearing up my red knockouts as well as my teas and fb's so reds are not completly out of the woods.

Just an update - when I got home from work there were far fewer beetles in the yard. I went out to buy a bucket which was not easy to find at Shopko. Does no one use buckets anymore? Anyway, when I got home I drowned as many as I saw which was about 25 of them. Most of them were on the cherry tree and the roses didn't have very many. I was surprised as they usually like to sleep between the rose petals. I have to say that I enjoyed the bucket method and I'll be using that from now on.

Bellarosa, odds are those birds are helping you more than you know. Rather than the 150 you counted (!!!!!), you might have had 300. But it's not the beetles they go after, it's the grubs in the ground that become beetles. As a backyard birder of just a couple years, I've seen an enormous decline in the number of JBs I drown daily on my hourly patrols, never getting more than 10 or 15 a day now. Since my roses are all new, they don't get nearly as much action as do the Sand Cherry, my Snow Fountain Cherry, and surprisingly most of all, my Butterfly Bush, which they had never invaded before.

Atheninwi, not sure why it had to be a "bucket." Any decent sized container will do. I use tin cans and even an eight cup Glad container!

Regards,
Bob

I found one Japanese beetle today on a corn plant. I was actually kind of glad to see it; they are so beautiful. When I tried to pick it up, it did a nose dive to the ground.

Come on guys, 300 is nothing. I would be so happy if I had just 300. I can get more then 100 from one bush several times per day. I have more then 130 bushes, so you can do the math :(
Olga

Sorry Olga. That sounds awful.

I only had about 10 today. Some extras were in my bucket with dead ones so I couldn't dump it out so my count is a little inaccurate. They're making lacework of my poor tiny cherry tree, but at least the roses are mostly okay.

Bob - I wanted something fairly large so I didn't have to worry about the beetles missing the container when I tap them. The one I got is big enough that I can get a couple from the same stem at once. And it had to be easy to carry around so I wanted a handle. A bucket seemed perfect. I did find a great one but it took a while to find it. Also, I'm kind of stubborn and this was the second attempt to find a plain old bucket. The first ended in one of those Home Depot orange things that was too large for me to carry around the garden, but it did work well for what we bought it for.

2 today. I'm loving it. I actually have a spray of blooms on Teasing Georgia that I can look at and admire without having to pick off bugs.

Our numbers are starting to great crazy here now. waaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

I snapped my own horror pic of the beetles making a porno on my hibiscus tree form. Little jerks.

{{gwi:302145}}

About 75 this evening. I've been feeding and watering and I have lots of buds. I want roses. I sprayed just the buds late this evening with Bayer Insect Spray when there were no bees around. I even got to blast a few JBs making whoopi. Did my heart good.

Barbara

They are so gross!! I live between Houston and San Antonio, does anyone know if they are ever a problem in my area?

Amy

Only eight today in my Maryland garden. That truly is a miracle. Tried to give them a swimming lesson in my bucket, but oh darn, the critters drowned yet again...

John Sheldon taught me a little trick a few years ago. Take a gallon milk jug, on the side opposite the handle, cut some out. When you see the JB's, slide the stem of the plant they are on into the opening in the milk jug, then spray. They usually fall right off as you spray.

I like this method. For the most part, it's pretty easy to use and the JB's don't go all over the garden. I've heard different stories about squishing them in the dirt, that their eggs will smoosh into the ground, at some point hatching. Not sure if it's true.

So far, I have found 1 that looks like a JB but was 3 or 4 times the size.

If someone wants a pic of the milk jug, email me from my member page with the link to this post, I will come back and post a pic.

OK, found out where the little buggers have been hiding. Was out spraying and found about a dozen or so on ZD. Not on the blooms, but eating the leaves and having orgies (yuck). Plus many skeletized leaves. I guess I've been focusing on the front and forgot about the back yard.

I managed to smash all of them except one that got away...

About the same number today, but quite a few (half?) were dead ones :)

Barbara

ZERO: I guess we've been kinda lucky in
California. None around. Nobody I know in California
has seen them in the garden. Last year, I think I saw
one or two flying around, but I could be mistaken.
I've never had them eating any roses here. I hope
they never get here, but sooner or later, I guess
they might.
They look like a gardener's worst nightmare!!! Something from the sci-fi channel.
Has anyone in CA had a problem? Let me know.

I'm sure the birds are helping with the JB populations and that's why I refuse to spray. Anyway, I caught between 50-75 today. I get the best catch after 7:30 pm, when they're are getting ready for their shut eye! What a sick delight!
They usually stay until the end of August, so I figure we have another 8 weeks of this. Oh, that's what comes with growing roses, right?

Sorry didn't see this thread sooner or I'd have posted here. JB's are driving me crazy this year. They must have all flown to Missouri. lol. ~best~bb

Here is a link that might be useful: How much longer for the JB's?

Saw the first two in my garden on Teasing Georgia yesterday.

I'm suspicious. The population has been very light so far. Maybe a dozen or so on the roses, less than 100 in the traps. Reduced by a factor of 10 from last year. Maybe they're just biding their time right now, waiting to come out in force when you least expect them. Wouldn't put it past them. :-)

Had 2 this morning on Outta The Blue. Thankfully I saved a milk jug and had it ready before I went out. Sprayed those suckers, hopefully I won't find many more :(

I pulled about 10 off my bushes today. Thankfully, not much is blooming for them to eat:) Last year, I had around 25-30 the whole time they were around. So I am guessing they will be worse this season. They're moving farther west, unfortunately...melanie

I see no difference from last year--except the ones that nibbled on sprayed buds are dropping over dead.

Barbara

I'm not counting or spraying (since I have a big population of bees), so this is a comparison. There are actually some blooms unscathed...which means a low count. On the other hand, they have made lace from the leaves of the plant referred to here as the "Texas Hibiscus". They've also skeltonized the new foliage on several of the roses. So its sort of a mixed bag, but in general I would say the count is way down from previous years.

So, here's the grain of salt. This is my first year in NC with what I would consider a mature crop of roses bushes, its been dry and we did Milky Spore early in the season.

The kicker is that now the June Bugs are out - I didn't have to cope with those in TN. While they chew on the roses a bit, they don't seem as determined to chew every bloom into oblivion as do the JBs. On the other hand, maybe it is simply the number of JBs intimidate the June Bugs. The June Bugs are just plain stupid - keep flying into my hair!!!

For some reason, the June Bugs hang out on the oriental lillies.

Don't you just love July in the South??? Heat, drought, JBs, June Bugs, weeds..........

PS...If you talk to Rosebud ask him what Texas Hibiscus are.

Saw my first one yesterday on an oriental lily (like it hasn't had a bad enough time with the lily beetles), then saw another one a couple hours later on the butterfly weed (at the other end of the yard). I wonder if Mother Nature would see fit to limit me to only two JB this year?

I returned home yesterday afternoon from a weekend camping/fishing trip. There were quite a few on certain fragrant blooms. My home made beetle traps had hundreds swimming for their lives.

Harry, did you ever figure out who took the JBs out of your trap last week? And what have you done, just substituted buckets of water for the beetle bags?

We should be approaching peak season here and I've had the fewest beetles ever. We've had severe droughts I think 3 of the past 5 summers.

Saw about 10 this morning--all except 2 were dead, due to the Bayer I sprayed, I'm sure. I figure I have so many spider mites anyway that spraying a little insecticide won't make a difference.

Barbara

Strangely enough, since that first day I haven't seen very many. I only saw two or three on my roses last night, and they were all single so I didn't bother to do anything. They seem to like Sunsprite though. The blooms weren't even open yet and they're already chewed to lace. But they haven't bothered the new bloom on The Prince or the one on Abracadabra. Maybe it's the lack of rain. The grass is all brown and crunchy.

I've seen a few more as the day goes on but not many, really. Now I'm seeing those huge June bugs. Arrrrgh!

Barbara

Seeing more around here today. At least 15. Am now arming myself with the Bayer spray every time I have a chance to walk by my roses, all 60 of them. I am hoping that if I can kill them shortly after they land, they will attract less beetles.

In my experience, JBs beget more JBs. Til you have a pileup.

Started about 3 weeks ago 1 or 2 a day on my zinnias. DH thought I was seeing things. Then a week ago Sunday he saw one for himself and immediately got his JB Coffeecan out and found about 50 swarming our dogwoods. They have totally left my roses alone... knock on wood. We've only had a few since then. But I've been seeing them on the sidewalk at work and take great pleasure in assisting them on their journey to the Netherworld.

Eight today.

Things have not been too bad with the drought we have been having. We finaly had a few nice soaking rains & 60 MPH winds, but that was enough to do the trick.

I went home to light he barbie last night for our party and: WTF!

They had descended in hordes overnight. I only had to kill about 7 the night before.

I got out my little ol' ice cream plastic pail, put in my magic dish soap and I was off and away to my happy task. (Nothing like the smell of cordite in the morning!) I tried to clean up some badly eaten petals, but others alas, no hope. At least the (OP) lillies were in full stride.

Everyone had a good time anyways!

I have used Merit granules and for the 2nd year I have no JB's. I have roses at our office and at our home and both are free of them so I know it is from the Merit. I am thrilled.

I'm still not seeing the hordes I expected. I pick off a few here and there. My neighbors grapes are getting decimated though! They are all over there!

Surprisingly few JBs here so far despite our failing to treat the lawn in late spring. Few were found in the flowers but I see more skeletonized leaves than usual that may or may not indicate JBs present.
It seems that the extreme drought prevented them from hatching. I haven't sprayed once with the hose end Bayer product (Merit) this year because I didn't think that it was warranted.

I've had only a handful so far, and this should be the peak of the season! Never seen the like of it.

I wonder if the pupae have a way of staying in hibernation when the soil is too dry and if a bunch of them might come out if we ever get any significant rain. The soil is too dry for them to reproduce, which is the only point of being an adult beetle. The other possibility is that few young grubs made it through the late summer last year. I don't know if I buy the idea that the emerging adults couldn't dig out-- they are strong critters.

I haven't seen but about 6 here all summer! Of course, I didn't have roses the previous two yrs, so I don't recall having a problem. I only have 1 rose in bloom (Robusta) and it has only had a little damage from JB's. I am counting my blessings! Brandy

I think today is the height of the season. You can't walk through the garden without beetles flying into you. By the time I walk through with my bucket, they are covering the buds where I started.

Michael,
I posted a thread on my home made traps.

Same here today Harryshoe. =( We had a soaking rain last night (yummmmmmmmmmmmmm), and today the beetles were atrocious. They're even harming the conifers they've been hanging out in. I hate leaving for a few days during this mayhem.

I'm still very light on the JB count (thank you Lord!), but one interesting note. The few I have are in love with Ebb Tide. It was in bloom a few weeks ago when they first appeared and I would find a dozen or so on it daily. Then all EBs blooms were shot (helped by the jbs no doubt), then I had very few, some on ZD leaves, my crabapples, and other roses.

Now EB is in bloom again, and the JBs are back on it! I thought they loved yellow or white roses. In fact, I do believe that because I got rid of a yellow rose (diseased) that they used to devour, that is why I don't have so many. Plus the drought, etc.

Har, Mehearty (sorry, I couldn't resist, lol).

My JB population has been very light this year. Caught maybe 150 or so the traps, there have been a few on the roses here and there, but no major damage and no hordes of the creepy little scumbags.

I've been trapping them for several years now. Maybe that has minimized the population. Plus, it hasn't been as hot and humid this year as in previous years. It seems cooler and drier overall. That might have helped.

Shhhhh, Quiet! Don't tell the fates; it might agitate them into sending a plague of late-blooming JBs to my area.

We have just had rains totaling two inches this month, mostly in 0.2" increments so ...it should be an interesting test to see what emerges this coming week.
We've had June Bugs (the bigger, ugly ones) and I watched a must-have-been-a-female June Bug trying to lay eggs in my hard clay.
Is it mean to laugh at a bug?
Clay was so hard she couldn't shove herself into it and kept on reverse scooting across the soil, until she met Mr. Shoe.