June Bugs or Japanese Beetles or whatever you call them

Yesterday afternoon my husband comes running into the house. He said the next door neighbor was spraying his river birch tree, which is right next to my big old pine tree. The neighbor told him that there were Japanese beetles all over his tree - hundreds of them. He went to a nursery and asked what to do. They mentioned applying "Sevin" to the tree. It's a poison that kills them after they start eating the leaves that have the Sevin on them. I guess these little bugs eat certain things, such as birch leaves down to a skeleton. I looked online and found that they love roses and Norway maple trees too, as well as other things. I went and checked my roses, and yep - there they were. My rose of sharon bushes were LOADED with them - those are the pictures that I took. No wonder my blooms were dropping off of the bush like crazy. I didn't know the damage that these bugs can do. And my Noway maple is right next to my rose of sharons! Cripes - the poor tree has had enough. It was struck by lightening a couple of years ago.

Anyway, the nursery lady told our neighbor to spray with Sevin, but not near vegetable gardens. She said they have come out in droves this year because of all the rain we've had, so unlike past years that I remember. She said the only good thing is they are supposedly going to be gone in another couple of weeks! Yep -can't wait for that!