Subject: Bugs in my garden .potatoes?
Geographic location of the bug: Wirtz Virginia
Date: 07/01/2019
Time: 11:13 AM EDT
Your letter to the bugman: Could you please help identify what this bug is? They come out when the day starts to heat up and I have been seeing some of them on my potato plants. I will upload 2 pictures
How you want your letter signed: Lyn
Dear Lyn,
These are Green June Beetles and one appears to be laying eggs. We do not think they are harming your potatoes. According to BugGuide food preferences are: “Adults: Pollen; ripening fruits, especially peaches; and the fruit and leaves of many shrubs. Larvae: roots of many plants including: grasses, alfalfa, vegetables, tobacco, and ornamental plants.” Adults seem to prefer sugary foods like sap and ripe fruit, and larvae are considered pests that eat the roots of laws grasses. BugGuide also notes: “The adults can often be seen in numbers flying just inches over turf.”