WA Will Be Asking to Spray Lots of Yards for Japanese Beetles

In the coming weeks, thousands of property owners in Yakima, Benton and Franklin County will be receiving letters in the mail from the WA State Department of Agriculture.

  The letters will ask for permission to treat their lands against Japanese beetles

The Japanese Beetle first showed up in the US in 1916, most likely from a cargo ship across the country.

Gradually, it, and other invasive species make their way across the country, and four years ago they showed up in WA.  Sometimes they're able to be eradicated completely, like the Giant Asian Murder Hornet in WA. Other times, not.

Now the WSDA is ramping up efforts to begin to get rid of these beetles. Three of them were trapped near Grandview in 2020, in 2021, 24,000.  Now, treatment programs are under way, and 17,600 properties in Yakima, Benton and Franklin County will be treated with landowner's permissions.

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If you receive a letter from the WSDA, read it carefully, it contains all the information you need to know. Citizens are not liable for any cost, and the treatment will not destroy other foliage or grass.  According to the WSDA:

"For those property owners who provide consent, a contracted and licensed pesticide applicator will apply Acelepryn®, a reduced-risk insecticide according to the Washington State Department of Health, to their yards early this spring.

The treatment area includes a significant expansion in the Pasco area where over 400 beetles were trapped last year after catching just five beetles in 2023. The department also saw an overall uptick in beetle catches last year, trapping a record 26,700 beetles in the three counties."

So, be watching your mailbox over the coming weeks, especially as the weather gets warmer.