What is this???

[blupit007]

Here's a new one.  They like buds and sometimes make them fall off.  Have been found underneath the leaves as well.  Don't seem to do a ton of damage other then the random bud drop. (unfortunately on my seedlings that I am waiting for...) They kinda stink like a stink bug when you touch them.  And they are sorta pretty... What are they and how do I get rid of them.

[Doll]

Kristen, they look like Japanese beetles. Here is an article about Japanese beetles.
http://ento.psu.edu/extension/factsheets/japanese-beetle

[Charlie]

I think Doll may be right, although the Japanese Beetle is a pest more common in the northeast than the southwest and I've never seen one. If there aren't many you can collect them by hand but if the problem is big enough you can spray them and/or treat with Bayer products containing imidacloprid or use Safari. I found another page with more details about controlling them from Ohio State University:

http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/2000/2001.html

Charlie

[Yashodhara]

Hi Kristen!

What you have there is a Green Stinkbug Nymph, not a Japanese Beetle (JBs are turning my outdoor garden into Swiss cheese, so I KNOW what they look like)  

http://www.fcps.edu/islandcreekes/ecology/green_stinkbug.htm

http://fyi.uwex.edu/news/2012/06/08/japanese-beetles-remain-frustrating/

Deb  

[blupit007]

Yes Deb!  Thats them.  I have a bunch.  We have Japanese Beetles also so I know those very well... they eat through my buds leaving them ragged!  But they are the stinkbugs.  I have a bunch of them.  I need to figure out how to kill them... now that I know what they are.  Thanks!!!

[Yashodhara]

I just ordered a 15amp Black & Decker Dustbuster, soon to be a "Beetle Buster"... Yes, it's all out war     My garden is the only green & thriving place in our complex (they don't water & rain is scarce)... So where do you think all of the bugs go to chow down?

Deb

[blupit007]

Check out what I just read... in the entire list of things that may not kill theses bugs, because they are really hardy, this is at the end of the paragraph.  I think I will try it.

"Nicotine will also kill stink bugs when sprayed on them. To make your own spray crush up about 10 cigarettes in a half gallon of water and let it sit over night. Strain the solution through some cheesecloth saving the liquid and adding a teaspoon of dish soap to it. This can be sprayed on plants and it will kill stink bugs quickly, just be sure to thoroughly wash any edibles you get it on and to not get it on yourself. Insecticidal soaps will also work on stink bugs but be careful if you try to use regular liquid soaps. Some dish washing or hand soaps can be too strong and can burn plants."

[blupit007]

I hear ya sister!

[blupit007]

They say the best way, other then killing them with nicotine is to fill a cup with soapy water and knock them into it individually.

[Yashodhara]

The nicotine solution is interesting... Although I'd buy loose tobacco (ciggies are $7.00 a pack these days)  

I also read about the "knock them into a cup of soap water" solution... Might work on stink bugs, but problem with Japanese beetles it that they can fly.  I've been popping a plastic bag over a bloom they're on, knocking them into it, and zipping 'em up.  There are sooo many now, though!  

[blupit007]

JB are awful!!!  And they come from grubs in your lawn!  So chances are your lawn is gonna die because of the stupid things!  I went through each and every plant today.  Left no leaf unturned and knocked them into a warm soapy cup.  Kills them instantly!  Easy too.  Not as many as I had originally thought! 

[stplong]

Kristen,

Hope you get rid of your bugs but don't send them down this way.



Patrick & Donna

[farmer d]

I've grown up with Japanese Beetles here in So Cal and they are a real pain with my fruit trees.  They are all over my figs and grapes.  They are so big that they are really clumsy and slow so I - don't get grossed out actually grab them off the fruit and throw them on the ground where they are stunned a few a few seconds.  Long enough to squash them.  I even bat them out of mid air with a broom or something sometimes too.  Kind a like backyard baseball for gardeners.

I do see their grub cases on the ground so that is when I know they are hatched.  I'm not sure what eats them at night but I do see scattered remnants of them so I'm thinking the possum maybe?

Either way they suck.

Farmer D

[Yashodhara]

I  was out inspecting storm damage this morning, and managed to catch both an adult stinkbug and a Japanese beetle in the act (RIP).

Darren - I didn't know JBs were a problem in SoCal... Thought they were just a Northeast US problem, so my sympathies to you.  Mine seen to prefer white/light blooms and foliage of any kind, but my roses are being the hardest hit.  Oh, and I don't think twice about dispatching them the same way you do (grab/shake/squish).

Deb 

[farmer d]

Deb my main strategy is decoys.  The JBs here seem to prefer fruit over my blooms.  Then to make it even better I have a smaller green fig tree that the fruits aren't anything to die over and they seem to love it so if I can't kill them all which is impossible at least they're eating stuff I can live without for the most part.

Maybe you could get a few decoy dwarf somethings and see if that will take the pressure off.  Also I've learned thru the years the hotter and drier the weather gets the worse the JBs are in eating and multiplying.  Kind of like spider mites I suppose...

JBs - public enemy #1 for me along with Bermuda grass

Farmer D

[Charlie]

Darren, are you sure you have Japanese Beetles? They are rare west of Alabama and big efforts are made to detect and eradicate them when they reach California via airplanes from infested areas and commercial plant shipments into CA.

Here is what the CA Dept of Food and Agriculture says on its website:

"The beetle is currently found in coastal and adjacent states from Maine to Alabama with small infestations westward beyond the Mississippi River. Three infestations of this pest have been eradicated from California."

Charlie

[roadrunner]

Darren - based on your description of the size of your beetles ("They are so big that they are really clumsy and slow"), the fact that their food preference is fruit, and most importantly it would be major news if there was a Japanese beetle infestation in California I think it is likely that you are dealing with the green fruit beetle (Cotinus mutabilis) also known as the fig beetle.  Can you post some pics?  This beetle is much larger than Japanese beetles at about 1 1/4" in length.  Japanese beetles are 6/10" in length.  Japanese beetles also have very distinctive white spots on the sides of their abdomen.  If you'd been dealing with Japanese beetles all these years I'd think the agriculture people would have been in your area like a swarm of locusts.  

The GFB is a very common beetle here in Arizona as well as much of the west and is a real pest on many fruits for a few weeks in normally late June into July here.  They can really make a mess of peaches, nectarines, and plums to name a few of their favorites.  

Both are scarab beetles and if memory serves David in Vietnam had quite a time with a couple of different scarab beetles eating blossoms last year for a few weeks.  I have my annual few weeks dealing with at least 3 different species of rose chafers making mincemeat out of my rose blossoms. (also scarabs)

Here are links for each beetle:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Figeater_beetle
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_beetle

dave

[davidwood]

Dave or anyone, do you know of a trap you can buy for these Scarabs, I did go on eBay and all I can see is for Japanese Beetle, not sure if that would work for Scarabs.

I keep a very close eye on my Samba Dancer cv, on a few occasions I have discovered [usually on the underside of the leaf] these very tiny little black wormy things, they are wriggling about and I assumed that they have developed from eggs and will become beetles[about 30 or 40, maybe not and they become something else but since I have been destroying whatever they are I have had less beetles[or scarabs].
Very strange that I only ever have them on Samba Dancer, I first noticed them buried in a developing bud, they are black, about an eighth of an inch long and thick as a pencil lead.

[farmer d]

Charlie and Dave you guys are awesome.  Thank you for pointing out my big error on this one.  What I have grown up observing is definitely the green fig beetle.  I didn't realize how much larger and mostly green these are compared to the JB.  Those small pics on the front of the home garden insect spray bottles of the JB they always show was what I was basing it on.  Good to know the difference.  Too bad the JB isn't slow and clumsy like the GFB - total organic killing by hand can occur then.  Only problem is sometimes there are so many you can only get so many at once while the rest fly away.  But they'll be back...

Check out the pic - these guys can really be intimidating just by their looks, size and numbers but again they're really clumsy and slow...

Farmer D

[roadrunner]

Good grief Darren that's quite an attack in that pic.  Fortunately here the adults only hang around for a few weeks.  My neighbors with fruit trees have the most trouble.  How long do you have to put up with them in your area?

dave

[blupit007]

Gross!!!!

[roadrunner]

David I found some traps online doing a search for rose chafer traps.  Rose chafers are a type of scarab beetle that feed on rose blossoms as well as other flowers.  There are many species.  Insect traps are not my field of expertise so I have no idea if they would work for your species of flower feeding beetles.  I remember that they were scarabs but couldn't come up with a specific species ID.  Many types of traps use specific phermones to attract the target pest so they may not work for yours.  I've used the hand picking and destroying method which can be effective if you don't have a major infestation.  Doing this can decrease the following year's adult population.  I know in my rose chafer case I've had a remarkable reduction in this year's population after spending several nights removing and destroying the little monsters from my rose blooms last summer.  I also don't have enough expertise with pesticides for a recommendation.

dave

[roadrunner]

.

What this forum needs is a good entomologist.