John waht do you grow that attracts the J. beetles? I see very few in my area, ever!

Terry, they usually just munch on the high, top leaves of my bananas, but so far they haven't touched them at all.....maybe because they're so much shorter this year than usual?? And I seemed to have a whole lot more of them at my Trussville home than here in Alabaster. Last year when I had huge bananas I had a few beetles, but nothing close to the numbers I'd seen every year at my Trussville home.

Terry, they haven't found your hibiscus yet or they'd mow them to the ground. Like John said, they love to eat the ends of banana leaves, too. I'm constantly spraying those, along with my crepe myrtles, hops vine, porcelain vine, passionflowers, mexican bamboo,wand loosestrife, etc. They may be late but they're no less hungry!

I've seen one single beetle. He's floating in a jar of soapy water in my garage for a week... I'm afraid if I dump out the water and clean up the jar more will show up. ;)

I didn't see very many last year, but this year a few more. I had not seen any until I checked one of my perennial beds the other day and found them munching on my knockout roses. They had done a fair amount of damage. So far I've only seen a few others in the veggie garden and none around my JMs, which they usually love.

Will systemic herbicides kill the JBs? I've thought about treating my crepe myrtles with it since not many desirable bugs feed on those and the JBs love them. Haven't seen any JBs in several years, though. (Knocking on wood!)

I meant systemic insecticides, of course

Google turned up information that it is effective against JBs. Since it doesn't kill insects unless they eat the leaves, it won't hurt things that just light on the plant. Here is one quote, but I encourage you to do more reading:

To kill JBs "A systemic insecticide containing imidacloprid (Bayer Advanced Tree & Shrub Insecticide) can be applied 20 days before adults appear. This chemical is not very effective as a contact insecticide. It is not transmitted to flower petals, so rose blooms may suffer while leaves are protected."

Catbird, that is interesting. I have used imidacloprid for a few years now on some of my shrubs (azaleas, cleyera, etc). I started using it to combat shot-holes and then I went to a class at the Botanical Garden after that bad late freeze we had 2-3 years ago. Since many of the surviving shrubs, such as azaleas, could be more suscepetible to disease and insects, imidacloprid was recommended. I started giving most of my shrubs and my JM a dose every spring. Maybe that's why the JBs haven't been bad and I didn't even think about it! I did not put it on my knockout roses, but will next year!