Lone beetle found in Am.F. spurs new traps

AMERICAN FORK — One lone Japanese beetle found in American Fork is spawning new trapping efforts in the area and increasing countywide monitoring.

"We have always considered the possibility that another pocket of Japanese beetles existed in the state," said Larry Lewis, Public Information Officer for the Utah Department of Agriculture and Food. "Our task now is to determine the extent of this new discovery."

The winged, herbivorous pest was first discovered by an Orem resident in August 2006 and subsequent trappings revealed nearly 650 adult beetles in the area.

The first finding outside of Orem came when a tree-trimmer in American Fork found one male insect in the area of 700 N. 900 East in American Fork last summer.

He kept it, thinking it was a Japanese beetle and brought it to Utah Department of Agriculture and Food officials earlier this week. They confirmed it was the dreaded bug.

Officials aren't sure why the man waited so long, but as survey entomologist Clint Burfitt said, "better late than never."

"We're asking people to be alert and to be on the lookout for the Japanese beetle," Burfitt said.

The state has received as many as 30 different calls about suspicious insects, but none has turned out to be the plant-eating bug until now, Burfitt said.

Japanese beetles, about a half-inch long with a metallic green body and copper wings, grow underground as larvae and pupae until the summer, when they come out to feast on leaves, trees and lush lawns as fully grown adults.

The department will begin setting traps on May 1 in a 25-square-mile quadrant in the areas of question, near the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' Mount Timpanogos Temple.

The bugs won't start coming out until June, but there's a lot of work to do before then, especially since the department also will be setting up detection traps throughout the rest of Utah County — three every square mile, with a specific focus on airports, post offices and other mailing businesses or anywhere with a thick green lawn.

This summer, Orem and state officials will be spraying to eradicate the beetle in the area from 400 South to 800 North and from State Street to 1050 West in Orem.

Because of the spraying, Orem residents in those neighborhoods will not be able to grow gardens or eat fruit from trees, because the pesticides will be absorbed by the fruit.

---

E-mail: sisraelsen@desnews.com