Bryce: Are your leaves looking more like Swiss cheese? Newsflash: the dreaded Japanese beetle infestation is hitting Colorado.
Patrick: If you’re seeing those chewed-up Swiss cheese leaves, and you’re seeing those distinctive green and copper bugs, there’s a good chance you’ve got the Japanese beetle.
Bryce: It’s my understanding that they’ve been a problem for Colorado for years, and they continue to make their way further north, even being spotted up in Westminster this year.
Patrick: Yeah, that’s right. They typically come out around June or July, and they feed on over 300 different types of plants here in Colorado. But some of their favorites are roses, hydrangeas, fruit trees, and vining plants.
Bryce: With jaws of destruction and an appetite for your roses, they’ve come from half a world away to invade your gardens.
Controlling Adult Beetles
Bryce: So at O’Toole’s, do you have different kinds of products to address these pesky garden pests?
Patrick: Yeah, we have a great one that can help control the adult beetles. It’s called Beetle Gone. It’s an organic solution that only targets the beetles, and it doesn’t harm beneficial insects, pollinators, bees, or birds.
Bryce: O’Toole’s has the formula, the firepower, the bug-blasting bacteria to strike at the heart of their devastating life cycles.
Breaking the Life Cycle: Grub Control
Patrick: So for long-term control, it’s really important to understand the full life cycle. Japanese beetles will start laying their eggs around July through August, typically in your sod. Then those eggs hatch and become grubs, which live in the sod and eat the grassroots until they emerge again the next year.
Bryce: Treating the grubs in the soil is really key to addressing the problem comprehensively.
Patrick: Definitely, yes. So come September, we have lots of different solutions for grub control in the soil. Things like Grub Gone will help kill the grubs while they’re eating your grassroots.
Bryce: That’s key to long-term control: break the life cycle, prevent future infestations.
Patrick: Grub Gone contains Bt bacteria, a naturally occurring insecticide which specifically targets Japanese beetle grubs.
Patrick: I’m Pat O’Toole, and we’ve been a family-owned business since 1979.
Bryce: O’Tooles Garden Centers has the products and the expert advice you need to crush that Japanese beetle invasion once and for all.