European Chafer Beetles

[Branching Out]

Not sure if any of you have this pest where you live, but European Chafer Beetles showed up in our area about 20 years ago and they have been reeking havoc ever since. The adults look like small brown flying humbug candies, resembling a moth when in flight. In June they swarm around our Ginkgo tree, or along the edge of our roof. If there are a lot of them it can be quite creepy to hear their wings flapping against the Ginkgo leaves. They lay eggs in lawns, and then in September when the eggs become grubs racoons, skunks, and crows come to dine on them--thrashing the lawn in the process. You never know who's lawn will be hit. When I was out walking today there was a lot of crow activity, and a few patches of grass that were just decimated.

 

[Pulsegleaner]

We've got some, as part of the "chafer quartet" of pests, European Chafer, Asiatic Garden Beetle, Oriental Beetle, Japanese Beetle (we get a few May/June bugs here as well, but never so many that they count as pests). While Japanese are probably the most destructive, it's the European and Asiatic that are the most annoying, for their habit of becoming little SUPER LOUD, buzz bombs inside of the house in the summer as they try and make love to every overhead light (same problem I have with the stinkbugs, I'd let them be if they just stunk, but they are so NOISY.)

 

[baymule]

Will Milky Spore work on their grubs? It is a disease that affects grubs, not earth worms.

 

[flowerbug]

Not sure if any of you have this pest where you live, but European Chafer Beetles showed up in our area about 20 years ago and they have been reeking havoc ever since. The adults look like small brown flying humbug candies, resembling a moth when in flight. In June they swarm around our Ginkgo tree, or along the edge of our roof. If there are a lot of them it can be quite creepy to hear their wings flapping against the Ginkgo leaves. They lay eggs in lawns, and then in September when the eggs become grubs racoons, skunks, and crows come to dine on them--thrashing the lawn in the process. You never know who's lawn will be hit. When I was out walking today there was a lot of crow activity, and a few patches of grass that were just decimated.

no, we've not seen those here yet, perhaps they can't tolerate the cold we get? i hope not, we don't need yet another grubby beetle like that aside from the Japanese Beetles. i'm still trying to train the birds to eat them... haha. not making much progress...

 

[meadow]

I've not seen anything like that! Wow!

 

[Branching Out]

Will Milky Spore work on their grubs? It is a disease that affects grubs, not earth worms.

I have never heard of Milky Spore so I looked it up, and sadly it appears to only target Japanese Beetles. And Flowerbug, the beetles are smart and burrow deeply in the winter so the cold does not kill them in our area. You likely have frozen ground for many months, and that may be enough to make things inhospitable for them where you live.
So far I have not seen damage to lawns across the border in Washington State, but given that the beetles fly I suspect it is only a matter of time. Britain apparently uses pheromone traps to lure the adults, however so far we have not been able to find those in Canada.

For the last 15 years we have purchased beneficial nematodes that parasitize the larva. It costs $200 a year, and when we apply them in July we have to water our lawn every day for two weeks (unless it rains, which rarely happens in July). The city issues us a special watering permit because they are hoping to make a dent in the population, but in years with extreme drought preceded by low snow pack there is no water permitted-- even for the nematode application. It is a pain to move sprinklers around (we are on a cul-de-sac, with a huge front, back and side lawn-- all triangular in shape...you can imagine how fun it is to water large triangular sections of lawn...) but much MORE of a pain to have the lawn thrashed. Our grass was hit hard the year we bought our house. We had to stare out at the clumpy brown muddy mess all winter, and then it took a lot of elbow grease and about $500 to repair the damage the following spring. Now we just move the sprinklers around and after 15 years we are accustomed to it, kind of like a bad habit. It is the only time we ever irrigate our lawn, and ever since we started applying these nematodes we have little to no damage. No moles anymore either; I suppose with no grubs in the lawn there is not much there for moles to eat. I still find the occasional grub in the flower beds every now and then.