I can't figure out why the person who wrote the article was giving people advice on making their compost heaps the perfect breeding ground for Japanese beetles. Everyone I know is trying to wage war on them, and this woman is telling people to lay out the welcome mat for them and encourage them to breed in their backyards.

Strange,

She's taking about the native "fig eater" beetle Cotinis mutabilis, the relative of the June Bug, not Japanese Beetles (Popillia japonica).

http://www.desertmuseum.org/books/nhsd_beetles.html

"Another conspicuous beetle that plays an active role in the decomposition of plant materials is the green fig beetle, Cotinis mutabilis. The buzzing flight of this scarab, a relative of the nocturnal June bug, fills the days of summer. It is easily distinguished by its matte green back and conspicuously shiny underside. Green fig beetles feed upon soft fruits, but are also encountered around mesquite and desert broom wounds that are oozing sap. Females search for piles of organic matter in which to lay their eggs. The c-shaped grubs, which prefer to crawl on their backs and may grow up to 2 inches (50 mm) in length, are commonly encountered in compost or dung heaps. The pupal cell consists of a hardened shell of soil and larval excrement."

About the author of the composting article: "Emily Green was born in 1956 in Covina, California. She studied French at the University of Grenoble and history (and ACC basketball) at the University of Maryland, College Park. "

She runs her compost operation, very similar to the way that I do mine. I consider beetle larvae an integral component of the composting process.

In the Southeast, we call the Cotinis nitida, a June Bug. It is the cousin of the Cotinis mutabilis, and the two cross breed in Texas where their ranges overlap. They both look almost exactly like a Japanese Beetle and causes the same damage to plants.

The larvae grubs of all three eat the roots off your plants. The adult of all eat three leaves and fruit off your plants. Earthworms and beneficial bacterial and fungi will all three break down your compost without eating your plants. I still don't understand why people would want to encourage either kind of June Bugs to breed in their yard any more than they would want Japanese Beetles to do so. Unless you like making compost for some use other than growing plants, it seems to me it would make sense to take measures to discourage them from breeding in your compost pile than than trying to encourage them.

It sort of reminds me of an old joke where a young boy notices a farmer going back and forth past his house with truck loads of manure. When he asks the farmer what he was doing with all that manure, the farmer said he was putting on his strawberries. The young boy replied, "I like sugar and cream on mine, but lots of people say I'm strange."

The only use I've ever found for either June bugs or Jap Beetles was when I was a young (decades before the iPod, Facebook, or Twitter), me and other kids in the neighborhood would catch June bugs and tie a lasso of sewing thread around their abdomen. We would then set on the grass in the middle of the yard and watch the pesky buggers fly around in huge circles at the end of a long string. The object of this endeavor was to see who could catch the biggest June bug that could fly in the biggest circle for the longest time. Don't ask me why we thought it was fun. I guess we took our aggression out on bugs instead of beating homeless men to death as kids do nowadays for entertainment.

Popillia japonica - Japanese beetle
{{gwi:2101741}}
--------------------------------------
Cotinis mutabilis - Western June Bug - Green fruit beetle - Figeater beetle
{{gwi:2101742}}
--------------------------------------
Cotinis nitida - Southeastern June Bug - Green beetle
{{gwi:2101743}}

Even though there are slight difference between the two June bugs, the damage they've done to the leaves of the plant in both pictures is very similar.

So who do we believe ... the guy from Tennessee or the entomologist from the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum?

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