Japanese beetles will chomp on just about anything, so, yes. That said, I haven't found tomatoes to be their favorite. They seem to prefer eggplants and peppers to tomatoes in my garden, although they prefer cucurbits above those and the rose bush over everything else.

I just hand-pick them as you're doing when I see them. AFAIK, they don't spread diseases to tomatoes and don't ruin fruit, so really, unless their numbers are some kind of out-of-control plague, their damage to tomatoes is going to be relatively minor and only cosmetic.

Yes, in case I wasn't clear, the "yes" was to JB eating tomato leaves, not "yes" to spraying to prevent that. I agree with Dave that spraying against JB is probably worse in the long run than the minor damage they will cause.

I have never seen a japanese beetle on tomato plants. NEVER. I would not spray your tomato plants.

they do love flowers like roses.

I have been keeping the soapy bucket by my shrub. I heard somewhere that the smell would act as a deterrent. I think it's something that's attractive. Anyone have an opinion?

What I mean is, the soapy bucket with the dead bugs in it, to clarify.

KBAV, no idea. They may just have been seeking water, or they might just be accidentally falling in while attempting to land near their favorite food, as JB are slow and clumsy.

gardendawgie, I have occasionally seen JB on my tomato plants. As I think I made perfectly clear, they're by no means the most common pest of tomato or something to be concerned about as a tomato pest specifically. But it happens sometimes. JB are generalists that are documented as feeding from hundreds of different plant species. They have their preferences, but they can eat almost everything.

Yuck, yuck, yuck! I found some trying to burrow into my lettuce boxes. EEEEESH! The lettuce is now gone. Harvested, pulled up and put away. I hesitate to put anything else out (fall plantings) until these things die off.

One more follow-up. I find the JBs flying around the tomato plants, but they haven't attacked them. Thank goodness.

This year Im finding quite a few beetles on tomatoes and my goldflame. I just go around with my soap bucket and let them fall in. JB is more likely to drop than try to fly away so I just place my bucket under where they are and my hand over the top and tap down and they usually just fall in my bucket.

I am pleased to say my tomato leaves were not damaged last year by JBs. They were too busy chewing up my flowering shrub. Poor thing. But JBs wound down in early August and my shrub reflowered and bounced back.

I just now found one JB on a tomato plant. First time I ever found one on a tomato but they devastate corn after it tassels. I’ve only found one way to get rid of them and that means using Sevin. I don’t like to use that but between Japanese nettles and coons I won’t have any corn at all. Coons seem to know just when to beat me to my corn.

Where did that HU number come from?

I know they like marigolds. Just killed one chomping down my marigold plant leaves. The marigold is right next to a tomato plant. I think they have also been tasting my tomato plants as I see some good chomps on some leaves. It's not bad though. I just use Neem oil as a preventative. Not sure it works on JB though. If I do end up having a real issue, I will start using diatomaceous earth.

This is my first year growing tomatoes, though I have been gardening for decades in shade. I also planted hazelnuts, and the Japanese beetles are almost exclusively chewing on the hazelnuts. I even have raspberries, which I thought were absolute favorites of JBs. The tomatoes haven’t been touched.

Martha

We have been finding several tomatoes with quarter sized holes from an unknown eater. We thought it may have been rats, as we have had some in the past, and we recently trapped one near the tomato plants. However, we haven't had any luck with the traps and something is still eating the tomatoes. Finally, my wife was in the garden and caught the culprit red-handed, well green-handed actually. The JB loves our tomatoes in Southern California.

HU, that's not a Japanese beetle. It's a green fruit beetle, Cotinis mutabilis.

Japanese beetles aren't fruit-eaters, and they're not that common in CA.

And the presence of insects feeding on fruit doesn't mean the primary culprit isn't something else. A lot of insects will be attracted to wounds in fruit made by other creatures like rodents. Rats are pretty great at avoiding traps. Also, caterpillars are often the first pests to attack tomatoes, after which many other insects will take advantage of the wounds.

We get *&$@#! Stinkbugs here. They don't make huge holes, per se, but they make multiples and yes, then other opportunistic creeps take advantage of that. However, we had a handful of almost-to-colorbreak tomatoes with large holes. THE BIRDS!!! Grrr.

Gorbelly is correct, Japanese beetles haven't spread west of the Rocky mountains yet. You will know when/if they get there as there will be thousands. They don't bother my tomatoes but they like pole beans, asparagus, fruit trees, roses, horseradish, and a few other things. They also really like to chomp on corn silk.

I used the JB traps this year and they seemed to do a good job. I placed them about 50 yards from the garden.