How To Get Rid of Japanese Beetles

Japanese beetles are a nightmare for gardeners and homeowners. These pests can quickly turn a lush yard into a landscape of destruction as they chew through leaves, flowers, and grass. While they might be harmless to humans, their impact can be devastating to home gardens and lawns, leaving behind unsightly brown patches.

We’ll dive into effective ways to treat a Japanese beetle infestation, along with helpful preventive measures to protect your yard. Additionally, we’ll highlight some of the top pest control companies that can help secure your home against these beetles.

What Are Japanese Beetles?

Japanese beetles might be small, but they’re a big problem for gardeners. These pests measure about half an inch long and have distinct metallic blue heads and coppery backs. While they only live for 30–45 days, they spend that time feeding voraciously on over 300 types of plants.

What makes them particularly challenging is their habit of feeding in groups. Spot one adult beetle, and there’s likely a whole party of them in your garden. These infestations can quickly spiral out of control because female beetles can lay up to 60 eggs each, leading to new generations feeding faster than you can control them.

Japanese beetle grubs burrow underground and munch on grass roots, causing damage below and above the ground. As adults, they feast on leaves, often leaving plants skeletonized. They’re also quite mobile, traveling to find new food sources and laying eggs, which makes it tough to get rid of them completely.

Understanding these habits is key. Preventing an infestation starts with early identification and management, such as handpicking beetles off plants or using traps designed to capture them. Once they establish themselves in an area, it can be difficult to eradicate them completely.

How To Identify a Japanese Beetle Infestation

Japanese beetles can wreak havoc on your garden and lawn, so it’s important to identify an infestation early. These are some key signs to look out for:

Brown turf patches: Browning or thinning grass is a sign that grubs are feeding on your lawn’s roots.
Clusters on plants: Japanese beetles crowd together on plants, so they’re easy to spot from a distance.
Skeletonized leaves: Japanese beetles chew on leaves between the veins, making foliage look lace-like. Deer and other pests don’t eat in this pattern, so skeletonized leaves are a telling sign of these invaders.
Strong, sweet odor: Japanese beetles release a honey-like scent that attracts other beetles in the area.

Check common targets such as roses, beans, grapes, and raspberries. If you spot one or two beetles, remove them quickly with tools or gloved hands so they don’t attract more of their kind. But if you see more, it might be time to call an exterminator.

How To Get Rid of Japanese Beetles

Here are a few ways you can remove Japanese beetle populations from your yard and garden.

Neem Oil

Neem oil is a naturally occurring pesticide found in neem tree seeds. This oil can be applied to your affected plants, where it’s ingested by adult beetles. While non-toxic to plants, it’s important to note that neem oil can impact fish and other aquatic life. It’s also only effective for about three to four days, so you’ll need to reapply frequently.

Manual Removal

While it sounds tedious, removing Japanese beetles by hand is one of the quickest and simplest solutions, though it is only likely to be effective for small infestations. Japanese beetles don’t bite or sting, so you can take your time removing them by hand or with thin gloves. The best time for this is typically in the morning when the beetles are sluggish. Once removed, the insects should be placed into a solution of water and dish soap for disposal.

Traps

A Japanese beetle trap works by attracting the insects using pheromones or food smells, then killing them or trapping them inside. However, most pest control experts don’t recommend traps for Japanese beetles, since they often attract more beetles than they kill and may make an infestation worse. If you want to try traps, locate them far away from important garden plants.

Insecticides

If you’re experiencing a large Japanese beetle infestation and need a heavy-duty solution, speak to your local garden center about effective pesticides. Many synthetic insecticides are effective against adult Japanese beetles. However, use caution as certain pesticides can harm plants, lawns, and surrounding organisms.

Professional Treatment

Contact a pest control expert if you’re experiencing a large infestation. A pest control company will evaluate your yard to develop a safe and effective treatment plan and prevent the beetles from coming back. Most professionals use a combination of insecticides and preventative measures.

If you’re interested in how to get rid of other common pests, read the following guides:

How To Prevent Japanese Beetles from Returning

Note that you don’t need to eliminate every Japanese beetle or grub from your lawn to protect it. A healthy lawn can sustain five or more grubs per square foot without showing damage. However, if you start to see damage, here are a few ways you can prevent Japanese beetles from overtaking your lawn:

Use row covers: Row covers are fine nets that surround plants and keep Japanese beetles out. These covers are best used during the peak summer season and come in various sizes to fit your plants’ dimensions.
Introduce beneficial nematodes: Beneficial nematodes are microscopic worms that infect Japanese beetle grubs with deadly bacteria, preventing them from reaching maturity. Heterorhabditis bacteriophora is the most effective commercially available nematode variety.
Target grubs before they grow into beetles: Different synthetic pesticides kill Japanese beetle grubs than those that kill adult insects, and they must be applied at specific times of year. If you’d prefer biological controls, both milky spore and Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) are effective against these grubs, but they often take months to work.
Dry out the turf: Japanese beetle grubs and larvae require moisture to survive, so allowing your grass to dry out can kill them. However, this method risks killing the grass as well, and if there’s rain, it will be ineffective. This method is best used with drought-tolerant, cool-season grass in areas with little to no summer rain.
Plant geraniums: Japanese beetles are attracted to geraniums, though the plant’s natural chemicals temporarily paralyze the insect, causing them to fall to the ground where they’re more likely to be eaten by predators. Place a container of soapy water beneath the geranium to catch and drown falling beetles.

Our Conclusion

If you don’t want to worry about Japanese beetle control or prevention, the job can be left to professionals. A pest control company will work with you to create an integrated pest management (IPM) solution to eliminate nuisance insects like Japanese beetles and keep them away. We recommend Terminix or Orkin for your pest control needs.

FAQs About How To Get Rid of Japanese Beetles

Are Japanese beetles harmful?

Japanese beetles don’t bite or sting and are considered harmless to pets and humans. However, they do wreak havoc on plants and flowers, gnawing away at fleshy leaves and petals. Their grubs can also kill turfgrass.

What scents deter Japanese beetles?

Some sources claim that particular scents, such as wintergreen or peppermint oil, repel Japanese beetles. However, there is little evidence to back up these claims. You’ll have better results with preventative efforts like keeping your garden plants well-maintained and removing fallen fruit before it can rot.

Why do I have so many Japanese beetles in my yard?

Japanese beetles feed on hundreds of different plants, and your yard may be attractive because of a lack of predators, well-nourished grass for grubs to feed on, and the presence of high-moisture soil.

What are Japanese beetles attracted to?

There are over 300 plants that bring Japanese beetles to your yard, including species like linden, elm, grape, viburnum, and roses.

Do Japanese beetles have any natural predators?

Many wild animals feed on Japanese beetles, particularly bird species like robins and cardinals. Some mammals, such as raccoons, moles, and skunks, eat Japanese beetle grubs. However, these mammals may cause damage to your lawn while digging for the insects.

Our Rating Methodology

We back up our pest control recommendations with a detailed rating methodology that we use to objectively score each provider. We review pest control plans, navigate the provider website, speak with customer service representatives by phone and online chat (if available), request quotes, and analyze customer reviews for each provider. We then score the provider against our review standards for plans and services, reputation and customer responses, customer service offerings, workmanship guarantees, financing, and availability to arrive at a final score on a 5-point rating scale.