Cathy, that's a good sign if they're gone in Ohio. Unfortunately, they're still here and in great numbers in central Illinois...like unwanted guests they came two weeks early in June and are staying late.

Terri,
Knock on wood, but I haven't seen any for 2 weeks. No more bloom damage, either. I do agree that they hung around for an extra couple of weeks longer than normal.

Still going strong here:0(

Still here. They have completely defoliated some of my roses leaves. Just certain ones though. weird. Most untouched: the very low growing roses.

Last year they were here til the first week of October I was still seeing one or two.

We have been very lucky this season so far. Only seen 3 JB's total.
Two back in June & one the other day.

They seem to have left NY as well. I gather this was a light infestation this year? In my yard, they mostly chomped on basil. I am thinking of planting lots of basil next year for a trap crop.

You want a great trap crop, try strawberries! My hubby planted a strawberry plant in a hanging basket this year and they were ALL OVER that! It kept my roses a lot less holey this year because they were all feasting on the strawberry plants. :)
Basil works too...

Still going pretty strong here, have been since the last week of June. They are supposed to have a 6-week season but it seems that the more established they become in an area, the more they linger almost til fall. :(

Not as many here, only been drowing a couple a day instead of twenty or thirty. My rose blooms look better now too, not full of holes or completely decimated!

I still have plenty here, although the numbers are dwindling. I'm picking about 50 a day, down from about 80-100 a day. They are lighter than previous years, but still refuse to go away. Most years they're still around right until the killing frosts, so I do hope I can manage a few unblemished blooms before summer wraps up. Some summers I was picking HUNDREDS each day, so I feel this year I'm getting off easy.

Funny thing is, everyone says that if you grow grapes the jb's will leave your roses alone, since they prefer grape leaves. I have grapes, and they don't touch them. I grow strawberries right next to a huge rose garden too, and they don't touch them either. My dad has grapes and the jb's are all over his grapes. 'My' jb's prefer roses to anything on the earth. Perhaps its because I have so many roses, not just a few, but hundreds. I'm the only one in my area that grows roses, and in fact, the only house for miles that even has a lot of gardens since its mostly woods around here. I feel like every beetle in a 5-mile radius comes here to enjoy the smorgasbord.

Veilchen, it's been my experience also that the JBs hang around here until Halloween.

Celestialrose, I've noticed JBs eating the wild grape vines, but like you, they'd rather eat my roses. I've often wondered what the local wineries use to kill off the JBs...I should stop someone and ask the one down the road. I know grape vines are so sensitive to insecticides, but JBs in the wine? Yuck. Seems they would have to use something or their crop would be lost.

They were quite a challange here this year, but they are finally gone!!

Before I had roses, they were all over my basil. Now that I have more roses than basil plants, it appears they prefer the roses.

Of the basil plants I have, they seemed most attracted to the dark purple variety. They also liked the garlic chives, which I thought was weird. Had heard that they hated garlic. Maybe my JBs were mutants.

Mine are mostly gone, if not completely gone. Now I'm dealing with cicadas zapping me in the head.

We were in Bar Harbor Maine on Saturday, July 31 and we stopped for an ice cream. At the table at the BBQ joint, I turned around a roll of paper towels to get a 'napkin' and there on the roll was a female Japanese Beetle.

They ARE darned near everywhere.

The vineyards around here (IL) put screen nets over the vines. I am assuming to keep the beetles off. I am wondering if something similar would work for me. I will have to stop in there.

I have lots of wild grape vines in the property next to mine. Doesn't matter, they still eat the roses. I did let a patch of smartweed (polygonum?) grow one year. There was so many of the beetles on there, then I just mowed it over ewww...

SC_Gardener - I haven't noticed any netting @ the Mackinaw Valley Vineyards but I'm driving past them on Monday. I'll drive a little slower and maybe stop in and ask about the JBs...and maybe get a little wine while I'm at it.

sc gardener,
Thats exactly been my experience. Like I said above, my jb's prefer my roses to my grapes. My dad's grapes are covered with jb's BUT he doesn't grow any roses. So my conclusion is that if given the choice between roses and grape leaves, most jb's are favoring the roses. Even more strange, my beetles favor David Austins over any other rose bloom, especially the light colors, and the LEAVES of the old hybrid perpetual 'Vick's Caprice'. That rose is nearly naked from top to bottom and the jb's are still flocking to its tattered remaining leaves. Such gross,
perplexing and despicable creatures....yuk. Nobody around
here will even grow roses on account of the long reign of
terror from early-July til frost. There are days when even I feel defeated and just cut the flowerbuds off before
the beetles can ruin them.
Celeste

Celeste, I SP'd 'Rose de Rescht' exactly for the reasons you mentioned; it was such a JB magnet and would absolutely crawl with JBs. My hopes were temporarily raised last week when an oriole was perched on 'Marvelle' and appeared to be pecking at some JBs, but alas, it flew away and didn't return to dine again.

My wife says the birds were busy eating beetles this year--we had a number of light fragrant flowers that were well placed to act as bird feeders next to a large wooden structure for birds to perch.