They are migrating all over the US and thrive in sandy or light soils.
I have a friend that has tons of roses but no JB because he's in an
area that is heavy clay soil. Lucky bum!

We are "lucky" to have sandy soil here but are surrounded by an area that is largely clay, I guess we'll be the first in our county to get the beetles when they migrate farther south.

I just tried planting 4 bareroot roses I ordered from a guy in WI and had a HELL of a time digging through the clay! Then, after I did manage to break a hole big enough & deep enough, I can't use the original soil as I can't break it up fine enough to pour back into the hole! GAH! I HATE CLAY! And Claybusters is only good for grass, not for roses (at least that's what I was told).

That sounds grim. I had that kind of soil in Piedmont. Digging was exclusively winter work. I used to dread it when my cats got sick in summer. Too hard to dig graves for them in case they didn't recover.

Can't dig in winter... Ground's frozen. That's why I try Roger everything done before July as that's when it turns into ceramic. I like digging in April, ground's squishy, but that's also when the centipedes come out of hibernation. Any idea what would be eating the top 1/2 inch of the rose buds? Has to be a critter at night that's not a bunny... No distinct pattern of what kind of rose, but seems to prefer my darker, perhaps smellier roses. My purple passion got nibbled as did my Scentimental, but Europeana, who's betwen the two, was unscathed.

Roger?

Can't say I've run across a critter that eats the top half-inch of a bud.

GAH.. iPhone changed whatever I had wrote to Roger. What on EARTH could have that word been? lessee.. ah, to do, but instead, I typed todo, whereas my phone thought I was saying "roger".

Simple, doncha see? Can't you see Roger from to do?

:P

I'll try to get a picture of an eaten bud.. maybe someone will recognize the damage? I know definitely I don't have any bunnies.. my liatris is still in full flower and that's usually one of the first things to get munchied.

Actually ...roses like clay bacause it retains moisture.
You should see my friends roses....GORGEOUS
and he does nothing to amend the soil.

I think your phone changed "to get" to Roger. That makes a little more sense.

"That's why I try (to get = Roger) everything done before July." Maybe you hit the "r" instead of the "t" in one spot or both. I'm trying to think like a phone here.

CR, I've heard that about clay soil, and now that I think back to my garden in Piedmont, the roses were spectacular although I never paid much attention to them.

I love my sandy soil when it comes to digging holes in it, but it does not retain moisture or nutrients well. However many of my roses survive despite my neglect, some even thrive! The old garden roses seem to tolerate me better than most, the hybrid teas not so much.

Do some soils harbor more pests than others? I'm totally overwhelmed at times with earwigs and centipedes... I think that it's because of the extreme amount of mulch I use (6-12" deep for cold protection). I know that centipedes are attracted to damp wood, but earwigs? And I have some slugs.. I don't think that their rose slugs, I think that they're just sluggy slugs. They're nasty.. gross. I just squish 'em when I see 'em.

No Japanese Beetles here in AZ either Yeah!!!

I've got slugs, but gratefully, no Japanese beetles. Not that they'd have much to eat after the voles and deer are done with the roses. The voles, I think, eat roses and slugs, both; so the trick is not to trap them completely to extinction. Got two in the last three days, though.

Centipedes I'd not seen for the first two years here. Then we had an exterminator come and treat the whole house and suddenly we have carpenter ants, centipedes, scorpions, and whatnot coming out of the woodwork. So to speak.

Not sure how soil type (sand vs clay) affects japanese beetles, centipedes, and earwigs. I would guess that poor soils lacking organic material would not support pests whose larval stage depends on getting food from the soil, JB's for instance.

VERY happy to report that summer #3 after putting down Milky Spore I'm see significant reduction in the numbers of Japanese Beetles!

YAY!!!!!!

Spoke too soon again!
They were really late to emerge this year.
Guess M.S. isn't all its cracked up to be.

You know, we don't have them here, so I really know nothing about them, but I do use Spectracide for some of the bugs in my garden and it lists Japanese beetles as one of the things it kills. Is that a lie or are all of you that are plagued with JB's each year ultra-organic gardeners who would never use chemicals in your gardens?

I don't like to use chemicals as it kills beneficials, especially since Honeybees are endangered, around here anyway....but I gotten soooo angry at those F'ing beetles that I have literally speeded to the store to buy Sevin then evilly killed them with much pleasure. Sevin unfortunately leaves an ugly white film all over the flowers and foliage and makes the roses look like crap.
Got to find something that doesn't do that.
Sick of those damn beetles!