June Bugs or May Beetles…Which is It?
Background
May beetles, or June bugs are usually brown, rusty, or black, without patterns such as spots or stripes, and rather hairy beneath. They are nocturnal and are attracted to lights at night. They walk and fly clumsily.
May beetles belong to a large family of beetles called scarabs. As with other scarabs, they are oval, stout, and have clubbed antennae with segments that can press tightly together or can be fanned open like a feather.
The larvae of most scarab beetles are whitish, C-shaped grubs that live underground. The heads are often brownish, and they have three pairs of legs. They are often called “white grubs.”
Size
Length: ½–1 inch (adults); ¾–2 inches (larvae) (varies with species).
Habitat
It wouldn’t be a late-spring Missouri evening without May beetles flying clumsily around porch lights, crash-landing, lying on their backs and waving their legs helplessly. Though they chew plants, they cannot hurt people.
The white larvae are well-known to anyone who digs in the soil.
Because May beetles can damage crops, control measures are often taken, but rotating
crops, strategically timed plowing, and nature’s own controls can keep heavy infestations from being an annual event.
Food Sources
Adult May beetles eat plant leaves (the genus name, Phyllophaga, means “leaf eater”) and flowers. Larval May beetles (grubs) eat roots and decaying plant material in the soil. When they are numerous, they can damage lawns, gardens, and crops.
Types
There are more than 400 species of May beetles in North America north of Mexico, including about 86 in eastern North America. The many different species are difficult to distinguish.
Entomologists usually avoid calling them “June bugs” because “bug,” in its technical sense, refers to a completely different group of insects that are not beetles. Common names can be confusing in many ways. People in some parts of America use the term “June bug” to refer to mayflies, since those insects in certain regions are much more abundant in June.
Life Cycle
After mating, females dig a few inches into the soil to deposit their eggs, often near trees. The grubs live underground for 1–4 years (depending on species), feeding on plant roots and descending much lower into the soil to overwinter. When fully grown, in late spring the larvae pupate for a few weeks, each within a small cavity in the soil. They complete pupation but stay underground for another year until the following spring, when they crawl to the surface to fly, mate, and lay eggs.
Human Interactions
During years and in places where these beetles are numerous, their feeding can cause serious damage to lawns and crops. Meanwhile, grubs are famous as a free, live fishing bait, being one of the few types plentiful in spring.
Other Interactions
Many animals root out the grubs and eat them, including skunks, moles, and birds such as crows and grackles. Many other animals, including birds, bats, and frogs, eat adults. Several types of flies and wasps are parasitic on the adults and larvae, laying eggs that later hatch and devour the host. One example are scoliid wasps.
How to get rid of June bugs and grubs
June bugs can be tough to exterminate, especially once they’re established in a certain area. Still, there are a few things you can do to get rid of them:
- Put out traps. Commercial beetle traps will lull them in and keep them from crawling out. These can be effective by capturing many at once.
- Take them out. If you only notice a handful, you can pick them directly off of affected plants and place them in a container of soapy water, which easily kills the insects.
- Change up your outdoor lights. Try swapping out your white light bulbs for yellow LED bulbs.
The situation is slightly different with grubs, but there are still things that can help eliminate them:
- Watch the water. Try to avoid over-watering your yard as June bugs are attracted to moisture.
- Limit how much fertilizer you use. Fertilizer can lead to some intense root systems happening below ground—and grubs love to feed on those.
- Call Millette Pest Control