Japanese beetle

   The Japanese beetle is a small destructive beetle that feeds on the leaves and fruit of many plants , including roses, grapes, lindens, and peach trees. The Japanese beetle is native to Japan, but it was accidentally brought to the United States in a shipment of iris roots. The beetles were first seen in New Jersey in 1916. Within a few years they had become widespread and today they are serious pests in much of the eastern United States.
   The Japanese beetle has a stout oval body, which is about three-eights of an inch long. Its wings are red, and its body is greenish with white spots near the end of the abdomen. During the summer the female lays small clusters of tiny eggs in the ground. About four to eight weeks later the eggs hatch into tiny white wormlike larvae, called grubs. The grubs live, in the soil where they feed on decaying vegetation and the roots of grasses and other plants. They spend the winter deep in the soil below the frost line. The following spring they work their way to the surface and begin to pupate. The adult beetles emerge in late June or early July.