You Are Here: Management Updates 2006 Archive July 14, 2006

Date: July 14, 2006
Category: Insects
Subject: Oriental Beetles

Lions and tigers and oriental beetles, oh my!
We have witnessed some rather remarkable flights of oriental beetles over the past few days. Beetles are active in very high numbers, and while they are not normally considered to be strong fliers, they certainly have been swarming and moving about on turf surfaces. The textbooks (including the one I wrote!) describe the beetles as becoming more active at twilight, and having limited activity during the day, but we saw thousands of beetles moving about on the turf surface during the day earlier this week on a fairway in southeastern Massachusetts.

My observations may be skewed by the fact that I was putting out some oriental beetle pheromones (hoping to confuse the males so that they cannot find females efficiently). As a result, I picked up the scent of the pheromone on my hands - and a cloud of males followed me everywhere I went for the rest of the day, rather like the pied piper. So I no doubt am seeing more beetles than some of you will, but many other people who have not been "contaminated" by the pheromone are also reporting large flights.

So this is a "heads up" - it looks like many turf managers in southern New England may see elevated numbers oriental beetle adults flying and more eggs than usual this year. If soil moistures continue to remain moderate to high throughout the region, grub hatch from those eggs may be high as well.

Submitted by: Dr. Pat Vittum

DISCLAIMER - As always, it is the responsibility of the applicator to verify the registration status of any pesticide BEFORE applying it. Different states have different regulations as well. The author and the University of Massachusetts are not liable for any consequences of any pesticide "recommendations". Mention of any trade name is not to be considered endorsement of a product.

Links followed by the symbol are external links that open in a new window.