Holy Cow! It's a Japanese beetle invasion!!! Eeek!

Last Thursday I saw some bugs swarming around my crepe myrtle bush in the front yard, and upon closer examination, I saw piles of them on the bush. I also found some on my new little Rose of Sharon bush that I'd planted in an adjacent flower bed, and a few on a daylily plant on the side of the house nearby. Come to find out, these were Japanese beetles.

Now, the Japanese beetle is spread all across Kentucky, and they are worst from June to July. I have never had any problems with them before that I know of, but this year they seem to have made my crepe myrtle the object of their affection. (Which is interesting, because the crepe myrtle bush is not a known favorite of this beetle, however the Rose of Sharon is one of their favorite lunches, as are roses. My roses, however, have no beetles on them, neither do my Rose of Sharon plants in the backyard, only in the sunny front yard. Sunny locations are the prime location they seem to favor, for what it's worth.)

Japanese beetle infestation will kill a plant if you are not careful. And, there's no way to get rid of them totally in any given season. CONTROL is the main thing to concentrate on, and I'm using a product called Bayer 3-in-1.

Read about Japanese beetles and their control here, and then go out and check your yard plants. If the leaves look like something has been stripping them, then examine for Japanese beetles. The beetles are most prevalent in sunny locations and in the heat of the day, say noonish or later. By the way, note at the URL that they do NOT recommend using Japanese beetle traps, as traps can actually draw more beetles to your location and hence increase the damage to your plants.

If you are using the Bayer 3-in-1, you will have to re-spray each time you see more beetles until the 6 weeks of agony is complete (this could mean spraying on a daily basis in some cases). The 3-in-1 will actually kill the beetles after you spray them but you have to re-examine the plant each day for new beetles. Subsequent days will likely not show as many beetles if you re-kill them each day. After that, I recommend that you start watering the plant at the base periodically with the 3-in-1 product during the fall and spring next year, which hopefully will deter re-infestation somewhat (however, there are no guarantees).