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Health & Fitness

Japanese beetles: plague or pest?

Is the infestation of Japanese beetles a Biblical plague, or science?

In 100 degree weather, life in rural Iowa goes on. People are baling hay, tending gardens and trees, and getting ready for Independence Day activities. In some parts of the area, people plan to stay home on the Fourth of July, as it is hot and dry. In nearby Morse, the group that usually puts on a July 3 fireworks display decided to cancel. No one is sure whether there will be the usual parade, but they never seem to know whether there will be one, fireworks or not. Without the fireworks, a parade seems more doubtful than in most years, but I still plan to show up at the community club around 5 p.m. this afternoon to see what happens.

While driving over to Tipton yesterday, the air was filled with Japanese Beetles (Popillia japonica). Not enough to darken the sky, but multitudes of them plinking against my windshield.  The people I know who are afflicted with the beetles have tens of thousands of them on their properties, and they devour the leaves of favorite plants like roses, fruit trees, blueberries and grapes. The situation is plague-like.

An infestation of insects is not new in the upper Midwest. In Lincoln County, Minnesota, where my ancestors settled in the 19th Century, swarms of grasshoppers invaded the landscape from 1874 until 1876. The story of that infestation is quite similar to the Japanese beetles in that it tells of grasshoppers laying eggs everywhere. If one observes the modern pests, they seem to do little besides eat and mate, with the female laying eggs multiple times in her lifecycle. Without a natural predator, Japanese beetles are flourishing.

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We don't call the recent invasion of the bugs a plague, but it might be. I mean plague in the sense that it is a direct punishment by God, like the ten plagues of Egypt mentioned in the Book of Exodus. At the same time, if God is punishing us, it is not clear for what the retribution might be. In Biblical times, Yahweh was attempting to persuade Pharaoh to release the Israelites from slavery. It is not so clear now, and seriously, if God is putting a plague on us, what would be the point of doing so without telling us? I suppose he/she has reasons.

I prefer the scientific explanation of the rise of the Japanese beetle, that it was introduced  accidentally before the first world war, discovered in Riverton, New Jersey in 1916, and without natural predator, spread west until hitting our area.

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One can't help but wonder about a religious explanation. Is God punishing eastern Iowans for something? Perhaps the religious among us are not giving enough praise and God wants to get their attention. Perhaps too much politics and not enough compassion for neighbors. I don't know, but both the religious and scientific explanations seem plausible. With the scientific approach, society seems more likely to do something about the problem.

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