The ground is all a-buzz with the critters you probably tied strings to as a child, watching them fly around your head like tiny remoteairplanes. Fayetteville resident Bobbi Kramer says she finds them ratherannoying.
The green buzzers known as June bugs are typically at least one-and-a-half times the size of a Japanese beetle. They sound likebees, but they don't sting.
Agricultural Extension agent Kenny Bailey says the adult beetles feed onshrubs, but it's difficult to tell which ones they like.
By the time a June bug reaches adulthood, most of the damage it does has already been done. An adult lays its eggs in the grass, and whenthose eggs hatch the infant beetles feed off the root system, oftenkilling the grass.
Bailey says by the time the bugs are all grown up, the worst is over.
The kind of heat we've been experiencing lately is just what June bugs love most. That's why you may have seen more of them this year. It's also likely your lawn and bushes aren't entirely in the clear yet, since allof them may not have hatched yet.
Extension agents say you can protect your lawn from the larvae byspraying pesticide on your grass in the fall and again in the spring.
Photographer:Mike Joyner
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