I'm not sure I remember when I saw my first one but it might have been around June first. I actually thought about posting about seeing that first one. what really got my attention was that I only saw ONE. Well, they are causing plenty of damage now but it does seem to be much less than in the other five years of my experience here. I am wondering if perhaps they have just spread themselves around my garden more evenly. They seem to be on several things. In the past they have focused on particular crops and then moved to the next.

It would be super if there are far fewer.

Is it true that self-rising flour is as powerful against them than more environmentally questionable things? I saw my first one today ravaging callas, so they must be on the roses, etc too.

Found this on the internet:

One gardener reports success at killing Japanese Beetles by dusting their plants with self-rising flour from their kitchen. The bugs ingest the flour while feeding on the plants (causing some plant damage) and then die when the baking powder in the flour reaches their acidic stomachs and burst their digestive tract! It was reported that the next day after such a dusting numerous dead beetle lay on the ground around the where the flour had been used. (I would be interested in hearing from anyone who tries this control method or who has other organic methods which they have found to be successful

Yes. In Oklahoma we use corn flour or meal - especially for grubs. :)

To answer your original question....YES....I was just thinking the other day that the Japanese Beetles have not been nearly as bad this year. Not sure why....we did have a colder than normal winter here.

We have very few JB's this year - about the only plants being bothered are the hibiscus and they are few enough that we can hand pick them. In past years we have found them to leave right around this time of the year in our area .....

Lynne

My vote is that there were far less JBs this year.

I hardly noticed them this year on my roses.

i haven't even seen them this year and that's a first, for sure.