As we enter August we are seeing another season of Japanese beetle with increasing adult populations and expanding area.

This year we are finding adult Japanese beetles as far east as Havana Street, and as far west as Wadsworth Blvd.  This expansion may be attributed to the excess spring moisture supporting a larger population.  As the large adult population emerges from the soil, the beetles will travel to find the food resources they need to survive.  With over 200 species of suitable hosts, the beetles often find good food sources around every corner. Be on the lookout for these large, green colored, metallic beetles.  They have big appetites and can severely impact your landscape before you know what hit you.

The spring moisture not only helped foster a large Japanese beetle population, but also created conditions that have produced large amounts of foliar diseases.  We are now seeing the results of the spring disease activity with early leaf drop in several species of trees and shrubs.  Most noticeably, we are seeing large amounts of leaf drop in the Cottonwood trees.  Many landscapes are also seeing excessive amounts of leaf drop from Crabapples, Apples and Maples.  Because these foliar infections began in the spring there is nothing that can be done now.  It is important to clean up all the infected leaf material, as the disease will overwinter on dead leaves and infect new leaves next spring.