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Chafer beetles and pecans are the ultimate answer to questions I get every summer. “What is eating the leaves on my pecan trees”. “I’ve looked and there is nothing there but every day there are less leaves and the remaining leaves are all eaten up”.

These brown beetles have several names, May Beetles, June Beetles, Hard Shell Bugs. There are several species of Chafer Beetles in the United States. Some are native and some are invasive. They are primarily seen as a turf pest as the larval phase eats the roots on lawn turf grasses causing brown spots in lawns.

This though is about the Chafer Beetle and Pecan Trees, especially young pecan trees. As temperatures rise in the spring, Chafer Beetles emerge from the ground as adults and begin to feed on leaves. They only feed at night. They show up at twilight and have disappeared by sunrise. Thus the mysterious question, “What is eating the leaves on my trees?”

This night time activity goes unseen by most growers. We should be walking our orchards at night with a light looking to see what is going on in the darkness. That is when the bugs come out. Hidden in the night, safe from daytime predators, our insect adversaries do their work.

On young pecan trees, Chafer beetles can completely defoliate a tree. A strong tree can recover but a weaker tree might die. Any tree that loses leaves will lose vigor and not grow as fast as it should. More leaves equals more tree sooner. More tree equals more pecans sooner.

Control can take many forms. The pesticide Sevin gives good control and on small trees, you can spot spray only the trees so you don’t impact non target insects badly. Other controls might help. Beneficial nematodes con help control the grubs in the ground ate least on your property. Since the adults can fly pretty strongly, they can migrate in from the neighbors.

Bat houses might give some assistance in control. Bats feed at night when the beetles are active and I am sure they would appreciate a belly full of big fat Chafer Beetles

Chafer beetles are attracted to light. A light hung over a large shallow pan of soapy water will catch a lot of Chafer beetles.

While I am sure Chafer Beetles eat a lot of different tree leaves. We here are just concerned with Chafer Beetles and Pecans and the answer to “What is eating the leaves on my Pecan Trees