Q.June bugs
The last two mornings we have found 10-15 June bugs on our garage floor. We don’t seem to see any outside in the garden, just in the garage. They are all puffed up and look like some of them have just blown up and died. What can we do to get them out of the garage? Thanks.
June beetles are nocturnal and will gravitate to a light source so if you have lights on in your garage they will enter. They also have as a natural enemy a very common fly which will lay its eggs on the back of the beetle and the larvae feed off the beetle causing sudden death like you've described. After pupation - short of introducing a natural enemy like the wasp - the only way to eliminate June beetles is to spray or fumigate with an insecticide. Knocking them individually into a small jar of gasoline will also kill them. Though you may not think you have any in the garden the larvae are burrowers and you may have an infestation. Check your garden for stunted or wilting plants and over water areas around these. The abundance of water will cause the larvae to gravitate to the surface and they can be manually removed at that point.
