Beetles on my trees

[John Pratt]

I found a few of these babies on my oak trees (shumard, pin, and red). Are they Japanese beetles? June bug beetles? What kind of damage are they going to do to my tress and what is the best method to get rid of them? I put down Sevin dust around all the trees, but there has to be a better method. They don't appear to be boring or eating the leaves (yet), but they do like to sit in the crotchs of the trees and appear to be sucking up the sap. Sorry about the picture quality, taken with my phone.

John

[Larry Frank]

I do not think it is the emerald ash borer. I would check with either a county extension office or a university and find out what it could be. There are a lot of bugs like that are killing trees and it is better to catch them early.

[Jeff Nicol]

It looks like what they call a "Green" June beetle and do not normally do damage to trees but will attack feild crops like corn etc.

Green June Beetle (Cotinis nitida) Found on the web, Jeff

[Greg R Bradley]

Fig Beetle, at least that is what the insect experts around here call them.

Do you have any rotten fruit around? I get them hanging around if I let figs, peaches, or plums rot on my trees. They ignore my citrus.

They are mostly a hazard when they accidentally hit you while on their way somewhere else. They are the klutzes of the insect world.

[Dan Hintz]

Jeff has it (green June Beetle, not a Figeater).

Cotinis notida

[John Pratt]

Nope no fruit. Looks like the Green June Beetle Jeff posted. Shouold I treat for them or just let them do thier thing? Don't June Bugs create a problem of grubs that could possibly eat tree roots or grass roots?

[Greg R Bradley]

Seems the two are very similar and closely related. The June Beetle is Eastern and smaller. The Figeater is Western and larger. They supposedly both exist in Texas.

[Rick Potter]

I had some that looked like that last year. Ate all my apricots and peaches. Hundreds of them on the tree. My tree guy called them Japanese beetles, and said they laid eggs in the ground near the trees and we should put Sevin down to kill the eggs. Only saw a few this year.

Rick Potter

[Steve Peterson]

We had some similar looking beetles that took up residence in a small pine tree. They were about 1.25" long by 0.75" wide and maybe 0.5" thick. They were very heavy, to the extent that they looked like they could barely fly. A couple hundred of them would hatch from the one tree every year. Or maybe they were hovering around the tree while they were mating. I never saw them anywhere except around that tree.

Steve