What eats a Japanese beetle? What do Japanese beetles eat?
Japanese beetles, as their name implies, were accidentally introduced from Japan in the early 1900s. Unfortunately, they eat a lot of vegetation that we humans enjoy looking at or eating ourselves. They eat the leaves of flowers, vegetables, and shrubs. And, in the United States and other places where Japanese beetles are an invasive species—meaning that they are not native here, but were brought by humans from someplace else—they do not have many predators, or creatures that like to eat them.
But, a few creatures do eat Japanese beetles from time to time. Some species of wasps eat them, as do a few avian predators. In addition, some mammals such as opossums will dig up Japanese beetle grubs and eat them.
However, as most gardeners will tell you, there still are never enough predators eating enough Japanese beetles!
