CDFA - Plant Health - Japanese Beetle - Damage Caused by Japanese Beetle

Residential and Urban Environment

Do you like your lawn, apple and other fruit trees, crabapple, Japanese maple, grapes, raspberries, strawberries, sweet corn, other vegetable and ornamental plants? Do you enjoy your landscape and tree canopy? So does the JB. The JB has severe impacts on our urban environment affecting homeowners.

The following is from USDA’s Program Aid No. 1599, “Managing the Japanese Beetle: A Homeowner’s Handbook, 2004.”

“Both as adults and as grubs (the larval stage), Japanese beetles (JB) are destructive plant pests. Adults feed on the foliage and fruits of several hundred species of fruit trees, ornamental trees, shrubs, vines, and field and vegetable crops. Adults leave behind skeletonized leaves and large, irregular holes in leaves.

The grubs develop in the soil, feeding on the roots of various plants and grasses and often destroying turf in lawns, parks, golf courses, and pastures. Today, the Japanese beetle is the most widespread turf-grass pest in the United States. Efforts to control the larval and adult stages are estimated to cost more than $460 million a year. Losses attributable to the larval stage alone have been estimated at $234 million per year—$78 million for control costs and an additional $156 million for replacement of damaged turf.”

The $78 million for control costs represents increased pesticide use in areas east of the Rocky Mountains where JB is established and there is no attempt to eradicate it as it is not feasible. These are the pest control management costs that come with having to “live with” the JB.