Agriculture officials in Washington state are working to obtain consent from residents in Yakima, Benton and Franklin counties to treat target properties for the invasive Japanese beetle.

The State Department of Agriculture’s Pest Program is hoping to build on this year’s success after having its first year with a decline in beetle catches this summer. While receiving responses from less than half of target properties, the program was still able to reduce the number of trapped beetles from 23,944 in 2022 to 19,655 in 2023.

“We’re starting to see progress from the work we’ve undertaken,” Camilo Acosta, the WSDA Japanese beetle eradication coordinator, said. “But to really knock back the number of beetles, we need a lot more people to sign up to have their properties treated. We need everyone in the impacted communities to pull together with us to eradicate this beetle.”

WSDA Pest Program representatives said they will be attending local events in Yakima County beginning this month.

“We’ll have forms and maps with us. You can see if you are in a treatment area and sign up for the free treatments on the spot,” Acosta said.

Japanese beetle adults are metallic green and brown and have little tufts of white hair on their sides. They emerge – usually from lawns or in other soil – and feed on more than 300 types of plants.

The beetles were first detected in Yakima County in 2021, when WSDA trapped just three beetles in Grandview and Sunnyside. With extensive trapping the following year, WSDA trapped over 24,000 beetles.

The next round of treatments will begin in April. For information, click here.

Source: Washington State Department of Agriculture