Our poor Dolgo this year :(

This was to be a special year for us and the fruit. Fellow DG'er JoanJ has waited one whole year for me to send her a box of these delicious dolgo crabapples.

This happened over the course of 3 days.....no matter how we picked or sprayed with soapy water the Japanese Beetles just will not leave this tree alone. First time it's ever happened and this is it's 4th year. They are literally swarming in the air around it 24/7. We spray with soapy water, we pick them off but there are too many to contend with - we have never seen the JB's like this in all the time we've lived here :(

What could be causing this?


PS - we are so, so sorry Joan :(

Oh No,, I'm so sorry for your tree! Don't worry about me. I'll survive, but will your tree?

Waiting for answers for more knowledgeable folks than us

Hopefully you just had a record hatch this year and they will slow down in the future. They are easy to control if you are willing to use insecticides. Long term, Doom applied to the lawn will severly reduce them. Their larvae stage is a lawn grub.
http://web.extension.uiuc.edu/champaign/homeowners/000708.html
http://www.uky.edu/Agriculture/Entomology/entfacts/trees/ef409.htm
http://web1.msue.msu.edu/vanburen/japbet.htm
http://www.uri.edu/ce/factsheets/sheets/whitegrub.html

Thanks Fd for all the good info - much appreciated. So strange, we had vole/mole city this past winter which was mild so we figured they ate all the larvae.......no such luck.

Dea, I have had your Dolgo tree on my mind. Is it okay still? Are they just eating the apples, or the leaves and all?

I can imagine how heartbroken you are. Trees take a long while to grow, and then to have something like this happen.

The tree itself looks like it will make it :) Almost all the fruit has been eaten and about 15% of the leaves skeletonized. I'm going to do some branch pruning in the fall. This is one of the trees that we are digging up in the spring when we move. Hoping it's not going to be too stressed out !

Thanks

I'm glad it sounds like it will make it. :)

Dea, I was thinking about your Dolgo tree a little while ago, and thought I'd ask about it? Did it survive the brutal ravaging it took?

Pretty chewed up, but yes, it survived :) Hoping to move it in November when it's dormant.

I'm so glad to hear that it survived. :)