Update on Japanese Beetle

This post is about a new invasive insect pests that we talked about last fall; Japanese Beetle or Popilaria japonica. On April 8 2019, CBC News informed the public that the Vancouver Parks Board had commenced spraying about 70 hectares within the city of Vancouver to try to control Popillia japonica. This shows how much concern there is over the Japanese Beetle. If this pest gets out into the Fraser Valley and into the small fruit acreage, we could see catastrophic skeletonization and defoliation on a widescale level of not only our 30,000 plus acres of berry crops, but the 20,000 plus acres of forage grass, crucial to the Fraser Valley dairy industry.

So again, if you see any unusual copper-orange beetle or “C”-shaped larvae, bring them immediately to the attention of the BC Ministry of Agriculture, your grower association, or to TerraLink Horticulture.