If you haven’t seen them, you’ve probably heard them flying around and crashing into everything. Green June beetles are actively flying, mating and laying eggs. They often group together in clusters and are the largest scarab beetle we deal with in turf, so they are easy to spot. Adults are about an inch long with a green head capsule and body, with gold lining the sides of the wings and sometimes the thorax. Although this year, we have noticed more gold-colored adults than usual (second from right in video).
Females lay their eggs in the soil and although the larvae are considered to be white grubs, they are much larger and not C-shaped like other white grub species. Larvae come to the turf surface at night to feed and create large nickel-sized emergence holes. Green June beetle larvae crawl on their backs at night and are much more mobile than other white grubs.
In a preventative approach, neonicotinoids work well against the larvae and should be applied now. Curative treatments (Dylox, Sevin) are usually applied around the first week of September in NC.