Japanese beetles In My Maryland Garden

Posted Feb 23, 12 -Filed Under Nature: plant and animal identification, garden (gardening info and eco-friendly project ideas) 

Japanese beetles Popillia japonica are native to Japan. They skeletonize the leaves of many of the plants in my gardens. Even if you are not a gardener, surely you have seen them before. For, they are ubiquitous.

This is Japanese beetle damage on my edamame plants.

Japanese beetles are really quite cool looking. I love the metallic green of its head and thorax. I’d really like these beetles if they didn’t much so heavily on my apple tree (and so many other plants).

This picture shows relative size.

I combat them by hand picking them off in the mornings when they are slower moving. I then feed them to my chickens; that snatch them up. If I don’t get them off in the morning, then I capture them in a jar that I keep handy. (I do this because the beetles will often fly away before the chickens can gobble them down.)

Mating Japanese beetles.

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