Japanese Beetles eating away at plants in Halifax again this summer

A small beetle is wreaking havoc on some Halifax-area gardens this summer.

The Japanese Beetle isn’t new to Nova Scotia, but has been moving into the municipality in larger numbers in recent years as it spreads across the province.

“Japanese Beetles have been in Nova Scotia for more than 80 years, they were first spotted here in 1939 as a stowaway on a person who came from Maine on the ferry to Yarmouth,” Paul Manning, assistant professor at Dalhousie’s faculty of agriculture, explained.

“This is a beetle that’s coming into a place with tonnes of food, they feed on hundreds of types of plants, so there’s plenty for them to eat, very little that eats them, and they’re getting really abundant.”

The beetles are only active for a few weeks every summer, but hot weather can help them develop into maturity faster, the professor explained. He said the summer of 2023 saw a boom in the population around Halifax.

Although they’ll eat away at leaves, Manning said Japanese Beetles are unlikely to kill plants, especially those that are more mature or large.

“These guys don’t usually kill plants, you’d need to have a really severe infestation for the plants to die, but if you have really strong infestations with a lot of leaf loss year after year you can actually see death of the plants,” he said.

Some commercial traps available aimed at getting rid of the pests can actually end up attracting more of the beetles to yards. He recommends going outside once a day in the early evening and picking up as many of the beetles as you can.

“When you remove them it’s important to make sure they’re good and dead,” he said. “The best way to do that is with a big bucket full of hot water with soap in it, basically that clogs up their ability to breath.”

The early evening, Manning said, is the best time to remove the Japanese Beetle as they are typically less active by that time and won’t be as difficult to catch.