A well-known pest of turfgrass and landscapes in the United States is making its presence known in parts of Iowa.
Iowa State University Extension and Outreach agronomists have taken many reports of the Japanese beetle showing up in southwest Iowa crop fields. Aaron Saeugling with ISU Extension says the pest has been reported from 72 different counties in Iowa since 1994. The adult beetles eat the foliage, fruits and flowers of over 300 plants, and can also be seen feeding in many corn and soybean fields.
?One of the biggest challenges we have with the Japanese beetles is that we really only visually see them about two months of the year,? Saeugling said. ?So, that time is now ? starting typically in late June or early July ? and they will stay here through probably the first part of September. This is the adult version of what I will call a white grub.?
Foliage is consumed by the beetles by eating the tissue between the veins, a type of feeding called skeletonizing. Flowers and fruits are devoured completely, often by a horde of a dozen or more beetles at a time.
?This year compared to other years we are probably a little bit ahead based on kind of the numbers we tracked in the Fremont, Mills, Montgomery, and Page County areas,? Saeugling said. ?It looks like they?ll then go north from that area and then east. That?s kind of the hot spot. These are the dark, shiny beetles and they kind of have a metallic color to them and they have little white tufts. They have a ferocious appetite.?
Saeugling noted the Japanese beetle can often be mistaken for June bugs due to their similar appearance. A full list of management practices against the Japanese beetle can be found linked here on ISU Extension?s website.
You can listen to Saeugling?s full interview below.
