A3*—Lancaster Fanning, Saturday, May 22,19C2
BY DEBBIE KOONTZ
LANCASTER Get ready for
the Japanese beetle invasion.
Every summer this voracious
pest works its way out of the grub
stage in the soil and, fully mature,
flies into fields and gardens to feed
on leaves and fruits of over 300
plants.
The Japanese beetle has already
caused more than $2O million in
damages to plants, flowers, crops
and lawns, reports Health-Chem
Corporation from New York.
According to Jay Irwin, senior
Extension agent from Lancaster
County, the largest concern to
homeowners at the present time
should be their lawns, as the beetle
is now in the grub stage, existing
entirely in the soil and feeding on
grass roots. Mid-June through
August is the time to worry about
damage the adult beetle can cause.
The female beetle usually lays 40
to 60 eggs, but can lay as many as
130. The eggs are laid from July to
early September, and take from 10
to 21 days to hatch into beetle
larvae or grubs, according to
Health-Chem. The grubs move
down into the soil when cold
weather comes and remain
inactive; but they stay within the
top eight inches of soil Then they
begin feeding on roots again in the
spring. Next they change to the
beetle form and come to the sur
face to begin the cycle again.
The grub, whitish in color with
brownish hard ends and brown
hair, feeds on the roots and un
derground stems of a wide variety
of grasses and plants, especially
the roots of sweet com, beans and
tomatoes. If grubs are numerous,
they can cause injury to the turf.
This can be noticed by areas of
dead grass in late summer.
Grub injury to lawns usually can
be controlled with application of
chemicals.
The transformation of a grub to
an adult takes place in the upper
layer of the sod. The adult is ap
proximately '/z mch long and has a
bright metallic
green body with coppery brown
wings. It also has five patches of
white hairs along each side and
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. OF WORK HORSES
JJ & DRIVING HORSES
-aSk* SAT., MAY 29th
1982
10 A.M. sharp
Tack to be sold at 8:30 A.M.
Keister’s Middleburg Auction Sales, Inc.,
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Middleburg, PA
Owners
DON & WALT KEISTER
Ray Long & Dave Imes, Auctioneers
Terms: Cash Restaurant Open
Japanese beetle
|wo patches in the back, just under
Bie edge of the wings.
The adult beetle’s flying activity
lasts for 2 to 3 months, but has a
peak period of 4 to 6 weeks. On the
average, the beetle will live from
40 to 50 days. In the Pennsylvania
region, these beetles begin to
emerge in mid to late June.
Though beetles rarely eat
unripened fruit, they will feed on
ripe fruit until nothing edible is
left. They also attack leaves,
chewing out the vein. All that is left
is a lace-life skeleton, says Health-
Chem.
Damage to com can be intense
also, according to Irwin. The
beetles eat the silk as fast as it
grows, keeping kernels from
forming.
The November issue of
Agricultural Research, a
publication of the United States
Department of Agriculture,
reports that the Japanese beetle
originally made its way to the
United States in 1916, probably in a
shipment of iris. The beetle, first
identified in Riverton, New Jersey,
has spread north into southern
Maine and southward into Georgia
and the Carolinas. Kentucky,
Illinois, Michigan and Missouri
have all reported major invasions
also.
According to Agricultural
Research, the beetle now has a
force covering more than 300,000
square miles. The beetles are
working their way into Canada,
destroying as they go: lawns, golf
courses, pastures, com, tomatoes,
strawberries, soybeans, grapes,
roses, and the list goes on.
Though the number of beetles is
increasing, so too are the amount
of controls available to the farmer
and homeowner. Nature’s natural
control for the beetles is the bird;
specifically starlings and
sparrows.
But more effective than thirds
are the vast variety of chemical
insecticides available which
combine two attractive,
irresistible lures for the pests; food
and sex.
One of the best basic lure
materials currently in use is
phenethyl propionate, called PEP.
It was developed by Agricultural
Research Service scientists at the
Japanese Beetle Research
Laboratory, Ohio Agricultural
Research and Development
Center, Wooster, in 1970, patented
by USDA, and licensed by com
mercial companies.
According to Agricultural
Research, “The lure materials are
attached to two metal or plastic
jplates fastened to each other at
right angles with a funnel-shaped
piece at the bottom. The beetles,
not noted for their grace and
agility, fly along following all the
smells until they bang into one of
the plates, fall down the funnel into
a bucket or plastic bag, and are
trapped. When the sun shines on
the container, it heats up and the
beetles normally die of heat
stroke.”
The synthetic sex attractant was
produced originally by ARS. Since
then they have added the drawing
power of the rose’s smell and the
sex attractant to the trap
According to research conducted
by the ARS, the combination of
attractants during the peak period
averaged 2,507 beetles per trap per
day. Traps baited only with the sex
attractant averaged 1,186 beetles
and those baited only with food
attractants caught 652 beetles per
trap.
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veins, leaving a lacy skeleton. They often mass on ripening
fruit, feeding until nothing edible is left.
gi .pei tt .<re stage in
the soil feeding on roots of plants, particularly grasses. The
damage often goes unnoticed until the plants are per
manently stunted or die. Photos courtesy of Agricultural
Research Service.
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