June Bugs
June bugs or June beetles are brown or dark green measure around 2.5cm long and 1.5cm wide. Their undersides have a metallic green or gold colour.
Brown june beetle (left), Brown june beetle grub (right)-photos Later’s Canada
Description
June bugs are ugly suckers! They have spiny legs and that feels strange when they land on you. One night while we were outside they were landing all over us (A few years ago). These were the Brown June Bug. Green June Bugs are a little later in the spring and appear in May or June. Green June Beetles fly around in the day and the brown ones fly at night.
Green june beetle on a peach (left), Green june beetle larva (left)-photos Clemson University
Habitat & Lifecycle
June bugs are found everywhere in North America and many other parts of the world. The larvae is a white to yellow grub. They have rows of stiff short hair to aid them in movement. They overwinter as grubs deep in the soil (lawn) and move to the surface in the spring to feed. Green June Beetles mature in June and become adults in early July. One generation per year. Females lay eggs in late summer. Adults of the Brown June Bug emerge in the spring. They are nocturnal. Lifecycle is three years. (See photo below diet and damage)
Grub damage on grass (left)-University of Nebraska, Grub damage on potatoes (right)-Michigan State University
Diet & Damage
When they are adults June Bugs do little damage, however get rid of them since after they lay their eggs in the soil and your lawn the grubs do a lot of damage! Adult june bugs eat leaves of walnut, oak, and foilage from many plants. The grubs feed on organic matter in the soil and damage grass in your lawn as they eat the roots. They will eat roots of your ornamentals, weed roots and other seedling roots, corn, roses and potatoes. Lawn grasses wilt and turn brown and will eventually die from root loss.
June Bug Lifecycle-Utah State University
How To Control June Bugs
- Milky Spore Disease
Milky Spore is a naturally occurring bacterium (Bacillus popillae-Dutky) that will get rid of June bugs organically. It works on many common lawn grubs including June Bug & Japanese Beetle larvae and doesn’t harm earthworms. You sprinkle it on your lawn like grass seeds just before a rain or water it well into the soil for 15 minutes or longer right after you put it down. Don’t mow your grass until the Spore has been watered into the soil. Milky Spore has been known to last 15 years or more with only one treatment! - Grub-Away® Nematodes
– are beneficial nematodes applied to lawns and gardens. They control numerous soil dwelling pests, including borers, cutworms, flea larvae, weevils and maggots.
- Small Mammals & Birds
Skunks, armadillos and other small mammals will often be seen pulling back the turf in search of grubs. Bears have been know to do this as well but not usually in your gardens as a rule. Birds are great control on lawns….attract them with bird baths. Your chickens will also eat them but they’ll eat the grass too so it would be wise to only have them eating away in your orchards. - Hand Pick
If you see any damage, dig around in the soil or lift pieces of turf and destroy the grubs when you find them. Collect the beetles in the morning when they are not very active and destroy. You will find them on many plants and they are easy to shake them off. A flashlight in the evening will attract them and you can destroy them using stomp method or drop in hot soapy water. - Ensure a Healthy Lawn
Cut your grass higher in the summer as beetles prefer to lay their eggs in short grass. Keep your lawns well-drained and aerated. In the spring don’t water your lawns too often to ensure deep root growth.
January 24th, 2010 at 11:04 am
June Bugs!!!!! I think they are kinda pretty, But so dumb. They spend all their time flying around bumping into things, my forehead being the preferred thing to bump into. We get invaded with them each year and although I think they are a pretty beetle, they are not being tolorated well in such large swarms. I have a nectarine tree, and all I’m getting are large june bug balls on my tree. I can handle the birds, a wind chime and a few sparklies in the tree does the trick, but what do I do about these dumb beetles.
September 29th, 2009 at 6:36 pm
Some lady informed my neighbor that she was treating her lawn for years with a mixture of ammonia and epsom salts. He has lost the information on the proper ammounts and procedure.
I was wondering if anyone else uses thei method???
September 6th, 2009 at 9:20 pm
i live in hillsboro,tx and hadn’t noticed such a large number of junebugs till this year.i noticed the leaves on the elm tree were falling half chewed and unusual amount one morning after i left the porch light on one evening.that is when i started wondering if they were harmful to my flowers,lawn,trees and vegtables.i will be treating my lawn and flower beds for them now,although my two bostons seem to like to pounce on them.
July 31st, 2009 at 12:22 am
I have June bugs and I hate them. At night they hang on my brick outside my front door where the light is on. I kill at least 4 per night. I leave them there and by morning they are gone. I am feeding birds probably. They are very stupid beetles. If they land on their back they cannot turn over. I just realized who is eating my plants. I am on the attack now.
July 29th, 2009 at 4:00 pm
In N.C. we have the green June Bug. This year they were like the plague. We had little balls of mud, about the size of a b.b. falling from the sky. I could actually watch it fall into the pool and sink to the bottom, or land on the deck. I am not positive it was the bugs, but they were the only flying objects around. Has anyone else had a similar problem from these little pests.
July 26th, 2009 at 6:12 am
June beetles start at grubs, good size worms that are somewhat grey looking with a heavy tail end and pincher like hooks at the mouth. They eat vegetables or more so the roots. When they mature into beetles they fly around and eat rippened fruit and fly around flowers. I do not believe that they have any other use. They drive my dogs crazy, I get so many since my neighbor has many fruit trees. They drop intot the lawns and burrow into it to sleep or rest. So getting a treatment agains grubs for your lawn will get rid of them. They are beautiful, but they do cause harm to plant life.
July 19th, 2009 at 3:15 pm
We had junebugs even during the day. We bought bags of grub killer at Lowes and spread around the yard and haven’t seen them since.
July 12th, 2009 at 10:08 am
hi my name is kaity and i LOVE junebugs i have one as a pet
July 9th, 2009 at 6:03 pm
I would like to know if these things bite. If so are they harmful?
June 28th, 2009 at 12:02 am
Do they bite?
June 26th, 2009 at 11:58 am
i have june bugs all the time i cant even get in my pool because they are everywhere. they like the trees by my pool and the pool later i keep grabing them when i am getting in or our off my pool i just hate them.
May 20th, 2009 at 11:31 pm
June bugs are evil little creatures, I hate them with a passion!