It seems to me that there hasn't been as many beetles around this year. I'm not complaining. That's one insect who's numbers I wish were on a steep decline.

Just a few here, but 20 miles north a gardener mentioned being inundated.

tj

Maybe the drought conditions just weren’t optimal for their survival?

If that’s the case...I’ll take the beetles.

Agree, normally in July there are hundreds. I'm thinking the roses, at least in my case, bloomed and then stopped blooming a little earlier than usual this year. Could be the JBs moved on cause there was nothing else too interesting to eat. I do have damaged foliage on some other plants tho, but only found JBs on the Porcelain Vine which they riddled, and the re-bloomer rose Charlotte.

Up until this year, we never had more than a handful on our 2 1/2 acres. We are isolated out in the country, so thought that might be the reason. Ha !!!! We have them literally by the thousands ( maybe millions) We finally broke down and bought the traps. Being over 1/2 mile from our nearest neighbor, I think these are all ours and not drawing from the neighbors. We do have a lot of damage, but I shudder to think what it would be like without the traps. The main damage was to the pussy willows. So far., we have filled 7 bags and counting. This summer has been a real challenge with the drought and now the JB,s

SW PA All of them are in my yard. I moved in 4 years ago and this is the first time I seen them. I was polluted with the SOBs. With an all over spray of Neem oil every 14 days and spot spraying of Pyrethrum everyday I am keeping them under control. Their favorite is my knock out roses, and pussy willows. I can't wait for their mating to be over and they go away for the year.

Yep, I have them but they are not gangbusters this year. Although the ones I have are doing plenty of damage. The adults prefer to lay their eggs in green grass. They don’t tend to as much when it is dry like this year. I imagine maybe last year was just dry enough for them not to lay as many eggs maybe? Which means next year I should see ZERO japanese beetles with this drought we are having lol. But I imagine we will be seeing LOTS of june bugs instead.

They were here---and I never have them.

They were here as well, and LOTS of them, my roses were damaged by the weird winter we had this year and to top it off, these little monster did a thing on them too.

I've had asiatic/oriental beetles. Just as bad as JBs, and they ate EVERYTHING I just planted. You can have them :)

I've seen a handful in my yard -- on the rugosa roses and the basil (yuck!). My relatives from Missouri said they have thousands of them this year, they are absolutely inundated.

"Where are they?"

They are all over our "Campfire Roses".

How gruesome. Like gdinie, I’ve seen maybe 8 or so - each of which immediately got a swift blast of my fornication spray. I watched with a somewhat crazed and focused glee as they churned inside out and fell, decimated, off my lily plants, to oblivion.

No spray here. I just go around once a day, if I remember, and shake each affected flower. They tumble into a container of soapy water never to escape.

Having said that I am contemplating removing these roses and planting something else but the time, effort and lost monies has me undecided right now.

LaLennoxa, I can relate. I walk around with my spray bottle of death and kill those evil SOBs. My husband the other day was yelling out the window "Killer, Killer" as I was spraying. lol Good thing our neighbors aren't close.

Rouge thats really unfortunate, I’ve always admired those roses. Have they been JB magnets every year?

Lol function!! Your hubby is a character :)

What a nasty sight, Rouge. I am so sorry that you have them now. I always do the bug patrol with soapy water too. JBs and lily beetles. If you don’t get them every year on your roses, I would wait it out and see next year.

gdinie, we have had them for the last 3 seasons consecutively :(.

Ouch, Rouge, that is discouraging! And you no doubt had a colder winter than we had. I will see how long our JB freedom lasts. But if they aren’t in the roses, they are in the Persicaria polymorpha or in the Filipendula...

I had a couple of them in my yard this year but the population does indeed seem very low for some reason. They mostly targeted my basil plants.