North Dakota Agriculture Commissioner Doug Goehring wants home and property owners to check any recently purchased nursery stock for the Japanese beetle.
Some plants brought into North Dakota from Bailey Nurseries of Newport, Minnesota have Japanese beetle larvae. That nursery provides plants to most North Dakota nurseries. Goehring told Capitol reporters North Dakota has been listed as a non-infested state – and he wants to keep it that way. So he’s asking homeowners to check for the larvae, or the beetles themselves – and to purchase traps.
"I hate to do this to homeowners, but we don't want this guy to get established," Goehring said. "Not only is he going to wreak havoc with a lot of the residential homeowners, with cities and parks, but also with our agriculture producers."
The traps cost between $4 and $10.
Goehring said the Agriculture department is adding another 500 traps to its current 1,000 traps around the state. And he told reporters Bailey Nurseries has agreed to help dispose of the infested plants.
"We've asked them to pick it up, bag it and take it back for disposal," Goehring said. "We will also work with them over the next three years to put out even more traps throughout our nurseries, our parks, golf courses, places where we know the Japanese beetle would be most likely to thrive."
Moren information on controlling the beetle can be found on the Agriculture Department's Web site: www.nd.gov/ndda.