Photo by Bruce Marlin
The California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) is currently working on a pair of Japanese beetle eradication projects in Sacramento County, in the communities of Carmichael and Fair Oaks.
The beetle has been called perhaps the most devastating pest of urban landscape plants and turf grasses in the eastern United States; that region is generally infested with the pest, while California is not. The Japanese beetle poses a double-barreled threat – grubs remain underground, feeding on grasses, while adults roam above the surface, feeding on roughly 300 species of plants and trees, including fruit trees. As you will see, it is a voracious pest.
CDFA maintains a commitment to keeping Japanese beetles out of California through inspections of plants entering California, and through inspections of cargo aircraft landing in the state. The pest is drawn to the planes and will frequently fly aboard during loading and unloading.
There are three videos below with more information about Japanese beetles. The first two were shot by a resident of Montreal as part of a multi-part series she has made available on You Tube. They are an accurate representation of the beetle’s destructive impact in the east and what we’re protecting against in California. The third video is a short informational segment from the University of Illinois Extension Service.