I am trying to garden without pesticides but I need help on dealing with June bugs. In mid July they infest my flower garden. I am willing to to live ...
Knowledgebase
How to get rid of June bugs? #811985
Asked September 23, 2022, 4:08 PM EDT
I am trying to garden without pesticides but I need help on dealing with June bugs. In mid July they infest my flower garden. I am willing to to live with some damage but they come out at night and destroy plants. They ate all the leaves and flowers of Becky daisies, chrysanthemums, native sand coreopsis, columbine, salvia. Lesser damage to David phlox and mostly the petals of purple coneflowers. Some plants literally had a June bug or more on every leaf. I spent hours many nights with a flashlight hand picking them until I strained my back and had to stop. I have read about using nematodes to attack the grub stage. Can you give me any information on that? Is it a good natural way to go or is there a better way to reduce the numbers?
Sorry I don’t have a picture but they match the pictures I found online—and they attack at night unlike the day time Japanese beetles.
Mason CountyMichigan
Expert Response
The adults of beetles called June bugs (more accurately called June beetles) have very weak mouthparts and rarely feed on anything, so I think you are dealing with a different pest. The adult of European chafer beetles look quite a bit like June beetles, but are smaller and a bit lighter colored. These are active at night and do feed on many plants. The immature stages of the European chafer are grubs in the soil, usually feeding on the roots of turf grasses. They are susceptible to the same nematodes that are sold for use against June beetles and Japanese beetles. The success of treating with nematodes varies greatly, they are very frail organisms which require exacting conditions for storage, shipping, and application. European chafers can be controlled fairly well with a single, well times application of a lawn grub control pesticide product (product offerings vary greatly, you'll have to see what is available locally). The best time for an application is just after the adults deposit their eggs, usually around the beginning of August. A fall application can be somewhat effective, but it should be made before we get into really cold weather.
Like Japanese beetles and June beetles, the adults of the European chafer can fly and travel a good distance in one evening, so even if you could control them well in your own lawn there might still be a lot of plant injury from beetles flying in from other places.