Japanese Beetle Control
Above: Japanese Beetles on Soybean Leaf, my photo, July 31, 2020
Biological Control of Japanese Beetles
Artful is not always good. The Japanese Beetle is a very destructive plant pest, but the lace-like remains of a beetle-chewed leaf can still be a thing of wonder.
I spied these mating beetles in a soybean field during one of my early morning walks. From an artistic viewpoint, I thought, wow, that soybean leaf would make a dramatic cover for a volume of the LibriVox Short Nonfiction Collection, of which I am the coordinator, and also the cover artist.
Soybean field, July 30, 2020
My curiosity about these insects led me to record an informative short selection about the biological control of Japanese beetles from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
You can listen to my recording here:
You can read what the USDA has to say here:
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