| |

Dear Marion: What Is that Bug Eating All My Plants?

dear-marion

Dear Marion,

We have bugs eating our Catalpa tree leaves. I’ve never seen this bug
before. It started out on our lilac tree but now prefers our young Catalpa
and it is infested. Do you know what kind of insect this is and how to get
rid of it? I doubt this tree will survive if this continues.

I look forward to your response.

Thank you,
Wayne

japanese beetle bug

Hi Wayne

I think it is a japanese beetle. Usually I pick them off and let them swim in a bucket of water. If it grosses you out to pick the bugs off, there are strips you can buy that are impregnated with a scent that draws them to it. They then get stuck to them very much like the sticky fly strips we used to hang. I have purchased them at TSC and feed stores. Probably available at good garden centers, too. This seems to be a good bug year, weather wise, so we are seeing big booms in bugs that usually do not enter on the radar screen.

Hoping this helps.

Yours in conservation

Marion Robertson.