Japanese Beetle Food Preferences

News Article

By Laura Jesse, Plant & Insect Diagnostic Clinic

As Japanese beetles are spreading throughout Iowa and populations are increasing, more and more gardeners are dealing with these very hungry garden pests. Japanese beetle adults feed on a wide variety of plants. Their feeding damage is usually easy to distinguish from other leaf feeding insects because they do not eat the veins, leaving lacy-looking leaves.

Japanese beetle adults are difficult to control and one way to limit the impact of adult beetle defoliation may be to select plants that the Japanese beetles tend to avoid. The following list of the Japanese beetle's most‑ and least‑favored woody plants may be useful to you if you are designing new landscapes. Least favored does not mean that Japanese beetles will not feed on them, just that they don't tend to feed as much. Interestingly ash are resistant, but we do not recommend planting them due to the emerald ash borer.

Least Favored By Japanese Beetles	Most Favored by Japanese beetles
Arbovitae Boxelder Boxwood Clematis Dogwood* Euonymus sp. (burning bush, etc.) Forsythia Hemlock Hickory Holly Juniper Lilac Magnolia Mulberry Northern red oak Pine Red and silver maples Redbud Spruce* Sweet gum Tulip poplar (tuliptree) Yew	American and English elm Birch Black walnut Elm Grape Hawthorn Hollyhock Horse-chestnut Japanese* and Norway maple Larch Linden London planetree Malus spp. (crabapple, apple etc.) Mountain ash* Pin oak* Prunus spp. (flowering cherry, etc.) Pussy willow Rose Raspberry Virginia creeper Willow