Japanese beetles are on the way
Print
EmailAvoid pruning your plants in July or August. Unless, of course, you plan on serving pie to Japanese beetles.
You can expect to find Japanese beetles on your favorite flowers any day now. Unfortunately, we don’t have any non-chemical methods of protecting plants other than removing of the beetles by hand. Susceptible plants can be protected with a combination of an imidacloprid basal drench (Tree and Shrub Insect Control, or other imidacloprid products), and weekly sprays of carbaryl (Sevin) or cyfluthrin (Multi-Insect Killer, or others).
Japanese beetles can smell their favorite food plants, so keep your favorite plants as pest-free as possible and don’t prune them in July or August, because to them, the smell of crushed leaves is like a freshly baked apple pie.
Japanese beetle. Photo credit: Bruce Mackellar, MSUE.
Dr. Smitley's work is funded in part by MSU's AgBioResearch.
