CIRCULAR No. 237 



Issued June 1932 

 Revised July 1936 

 Slightly revised June 1938 



UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 

 WASHINGTON, D. C. 



CONTROL OF THE JAPANESE BEETLE ON 

 FRUIT AND SHADE TREES ' 



By W. E. Fleming, entomologist, and F. W. Metzger, associate entomologist, 

 Divis-ion of Fruit Insect Investigations, Bureau of Entomology and Plant 

 Quarantine 



CONTENTS 



Infested area and trees attacked 



Nature of the injury 



How to protect the trees from injury. 

 Recommendations for different trees. 



Apples 



"Peaches 



Page 

 1 

 2 

 3 

 5 



Page 

 Recommendations for different trees— Con. 



Plums 10 



Cherries 10 



Grapes 11 



Small fruits 11 



Shade trees 11 



INFESTED AREA AND TREES ATTACKED 



The Japanese beetle is a serious pest of fruit and shade trees in 

 the eastern part of the United States. It has spread rapidly since 

 its first discovery in this coun- 

 try in 1916, and now the area 

 comprising southern and cen- 

 tral New Jersey, eastern Penn- 

 sylvania, and northern Dela- 

 ware is generally infested. 

 Outside this area local colonies 

 and isolated beetles have been 

 found in New England and in 

 other Eastern States as far 

 south as South Carolina, and 

 as far west as Missouri. 



This brilliant green beetle 

 with reddish-brown wing cov- 

 ers and white spots on its abdo- 

 men (fig. 1) feeds on a large 

 number of plants. It has a 

 marked preference for the foli- 

 age and fruit of apple, peach, 

 plum, quince, cherry, raspberry, 

 and blueberry, and the foliage 

 of grapes. It rarely injures 

 dewberries or the Black Diamond variety of blackberries, but occa- 

 sionally attacks certain other varieties of blackberries. Pears are 



iThis circular is a complete revision of Circular 237 as originally issued and supersedes 

 circular 317, Protection of Orchard and Shade Trees and Ornamental Shrubs from Injury 

 Dy the Japanese Beetle. The control of the Japanese beetle on ornamental shrubs is now 

 treated in Circular 401, Control of the Japanese Beetle and Its Grub in Home Yards, 

 utner available publications relating to the Japanese beetle are as follows : Circular 332, 

 General Information about the Japanese Beetle in the United States ; Circular 403, Pre- 

 T*t^ ing 4 lnjnry fl '°™. Japanese and Asiatic Beetle Larvae to Turf in Parks and Other 

 Large Areas , and Miscellaneous Publication 201, revised, Traps for the Japanese Beetle 

 ana How to Use Them. 



169960°— 39 1 



Figure 1. — The Japanese beetle. About four 

 times natural size. 



