Japanese Beetle

 

THIS is why people don’t like Japanese beetles. This one is “skeletonizing” a leaf on my grapevine, that is, eating the soft parts between the veins and leaving behind a big lacy hole. They do this to a wide variety of plants that range from linden trees to roses. Click here for the USDA’s National Invasive Species Information Center’s entry about them.      Click the photo to enlarge.

Adult Japanese beetles are easy to recognize. They are shiny metallic green scarabs about one-half inch long with bronze-colored wings. Five pairs of white hair tufts project from under the wing covers on each side of the body and another pair decorate the rear end of the abdomen. Kind of pretty.

Just get off my grapevine, eh? And stop looking at the linden tree.