Series: Managing Japanese Beetles

A growing nuisance to gardeners, farmers, landscapers and homeowners across the Midwest, Japanese beetles devour ornamental plants like birches, crabapples and roses, and likewise feast on crop plants like apples, pears, beans, corn and many other fruit and vegetable species. Although this invasive species of insect was identified across many parts of in Wisconsin through the 1990s, it was first detected in the state in the 1960s. While certain methods of managing this troublesome beetle can yield some success, warmer winter conditions could mean larger populations in the future.
 
Just when a garden looks good, ravenous Japanese beetles can promptly emerge in the heart of summer to devour the gardener's favorite plants.
Ask any gardener or landscaper in the Midwest what their least favorite insect is, and the Japanese beetle will probably be near the top of the list.
Move over Popillia japonica, there's a new "Japanese beetle" in town.
With the first green shoots of spring appearing across the state, Wisconsin's insect populations are likewise emerging and preparing for the warmer months ahead.
The Japanese beetle population in Wisconsin typically peaks in mid-summer. This invasive insect is a defoliating species that devours multiple landscape and garden plants
When it comes to these blood-sucking pests and other creepy-crawlies, each year can be a different experience, with weather patterns and other factors playing important roles in the behaviors of insects and other arthropods like spiders and millipedes, as well as other invertebrates.
Reports of Japanese beetles chewing through the landscape are up in 2018, and their numbers are likely to be higher in Wisconsin than in previous years.