The Japanese beetle can attack more than 400 plant species within 95 families. This pest damages ornamental herbaceous plants, shrubs, vines, trees, small fruits, tree fruits, row crops, and many other plants. Beetle grubs also attack turf and the roots of various crop and ornamental plants.

Symptoms of infestation include the grubs primarily feeding on the roots of grasses and other plants. Beetles consume leaves and flowers, eating the leaf tissue between the veins and giving the foliage a lacy appearance.

The beetle's life cycle typically takes one year, except in the northern extremes of the United States, where it can take two years. In Oklahoma, adults emerge from the soil mid-summer (June to September). After mating, the female lays eggs 2 to 6 inches in the soil to repeat the cycle.

The Japanese beetle is less than half an inch long and brilliantly colored, with coppery wing colors and fine longitudinal lines. Its body is a beautiful metallic green. Distinguishing characteristics include five tufts of white hairs projecting from under the wing cover on each side and two patches of white hairs at the tip of the abdomen.