If you’re a gardener, you’re probably familiar with scarab beetles. In fact, I quite enjoy them most of the time. But there are situations in which you need some scarab beetle control. And just in case, we’ll cover that today.
Scarab Beetle Control: Overview
Scarab Beetles are any of roughly thirty thousand species of beetles. They’re heavy-bodied, robust insects with oval outlines. These are insects that vary considerably inhabits, with many species feeding on manure like the iconic dung beetle. Decomposing plant materials are also the favorite food of these bugs. In fact, many of these species are beneficial insects.
Some of these beetles can appear metallic or have patterns and stripes on their bodies. Scarab beetles are, once again, highly beneficial and important to healthy ecosystems. For example, the dung beetle I mentioned above keeps pastures from becoming toxic dumps by their removal of literal tons of waste. That’s probably why this insect was actually sacred to ancient Egyptians.
However, there are multiple agricultural pests in this family of beetles. June bugs rose beetles and the Japanese beetle in particular to Florida residents. But there are over a hundred species of these worms in the United States, and plenty of reasons you may eventually need some Scarab Beetle Control.
Japanese Beetles
Now, we’re going to go ahead and pull up right here to talk about this pest. If you’re in Florida and looking for pest control for a beetle, this is likely going to be the one. So to start, a quick history lesson.
These beetles were first found in the U.S. in 1916. They were accidentally introduced through a port in New Jersey and were restricted to Japan in the past where it was a normal part of their healthy ecosystem. However, in the U.S. this is an unwanted and invasive species. You’ll mostly find them in farther north parts of Florida, but they’re a tough group of pests and can occur throughout the entire country.
To identify this beetle, they’re about a third to a half an inch in length with a metallic green head and thorax, with copper to brownish wing coverings. The sides of their abdomen are striped, and they have five white patches of hairs, and the tip of the abdomen has two small patches of white hair.
Looming Lawn Threat
The few invasive and infestation-causing pests in this family cause tremendous damage every year. The larvae of these beetles, called grubs, are the most common lawn infesters in the state. Most often you’ll find the Japanese beetles mentioned above, as well as May beetles which are also known as June Bugs.
Beetle larvae are often called white grub worms from their light color and wormy C-shape. Most grub worms have a bright white body with a brown head. All grub worm larvae have three pairs of legs, which let them walk and burrow rather than crawl like a true worm. Larvae sizes range from ¾ to 1 ¾ inch long while adult beetles average about 1 inch in diameter.
Beetle species in this family lay their eggs under the ground. There, the larvae grub worms feed on the roots of your lawn grass. Grub worms that hatch in fall can bury as down deep as five feet under the surface of your turf, where they lay dormant in the winter. In Florida, however, they don’t have to. The winters are mild and the grubs enter a much shorter dormancy stage. They also bury themselves less deeply in the ground. But even as adults, you won’t often see these bugs often, as their most destructive phase is easily their larval one.
Life Cycles
Most of these beetles spend their winters underground as I mentioned above. It’s usually in the soils of lawns, pastures, and other grassy and less wooded areas. In springs, the grubs move up near the surface of the soil to finish feeding and pupate into adults. And then the adults emerge from the ground in late June to July, with the ability to easily fly between pastures and lawns for several miles.
Adults of this family do feed on leaves, which release feeding-induced odors that attract other beetles to the plant. This leads to large clusters of beetles feeding and mating on plants in droves, meaning that it likely will only be a handful of healthy adult plants affected among many. The females even produce a sex pheromonal smell that’s specifically for attracting males from long distances away.
After mating, the females tunnel under the soil to lay eggs. They’ll lay several different times between July and August and totally lay about sixty eggs. Dry soil conditions reduce the survival of eggs, however, which hatch in about two weeks. And in this larval stage is where damage is done.
As the beetle goes through three different growth stages, they’ll feed primarily on the roots of lawn grasses and lead to needing some Scarab Beetle Control.
Scarab Beetle Control Methods
Scarab beetles are easiest to spot at the grub stage because of their thick, white, segmented bodies and large heads. Their bodies curl into a distinctive C shape at rest. They are in this larva stage for about 4 to 6 weeks from late spring to mid-summer. Adults hatch from pupae in June and July in southern Canada, and about a month earlier in the United States.
You can find the adults quickly at night, as they fly to any light source. They have a large oval or nearly round bodies, in colors ranging from light green to dark brownish-black. Check them for fan-shaped antennae, but be careful, as their pincers can deliver a painful bite. The June bug is the most common North American scarab beetle. Any beetle you see that resembles a June bug is probably a scarab beetle.
And when you find them, honestly, the best thing to do is look into getting professional help with the problem. These pests are tough to deal with and reproduce quickly enough that chemical pesticide resistance can be built up in a few short generations. So do the smart thing and make sure that you’re ahead of the issue, and check regularly for these grubs.
