Good morning, 

The Oregon Department of Agriculture has completed its main treatment operations for Japanese beetle for 2018. From April 2 to June 1, ODA and General Tree Service, a contracted pesticide applicator, treated approximately 5,800 residences, 5 schools and 4 parks, 2 shopping centers and 1 golf course for Japanese beetle in Washington County. This number was increased from the 2,100 homes treated in 2017. In addition, an area of Portland International Airport  and about 30 homes in Oakland, OR we also treated due to beetle detections in 2017. 

Community support for the project is very positive. We received consent to treat from over 5,100 residents! This success of this project depends on this kind of support from the community. We also served around 400 administrative warrants to residences from which we had not received a response. Residents have been sending in reports of beetle sightings. Thankfully, almost all of the reports of "serious infestations" of Japanese beetle have been determined to be box elder bug or other pests. 

The project has entered trapping and detection phase for 2018. Seasonal survey staff are in the process of deploying 5,900 traps to detect Japanese beetle throughout the greater Portland metro area and the northern Willamette Valley. In addition to placing traps to detect Japanese beetles, ODA is also deploying traps for Gypsy moth, Oriental beetle, and other pests that could be harmful to agriculture in the state. 

It's still too early to make any conclusions about success of the project from this season's data, but early numbers are very encouraging. Our first detection of JB in Washington County this year was on June 17. There are nine "phototraps" in the treatment area that upload images of trap catches each evening to the web (An example image can be seen above). As of July 21, 2018, we have captured 386 beetles total in the 9 traps. At the same time in 2017, we had captured 2961 by this time, a difference of 86.97%. Again, these numbers are early are there are many more traps to check, but a reduction is good news, especially in the most active beetle areas. Final trap catch numbers will tell the whole story, and will be available late Summer/early Fall (or as soon as our diligent trapping crew can complete the enormous task of checking, collecting, and getting a final tally from the nearly 6000 traps mentioned earlier - no small feat!)

Our containment operations are also in full swing. Curbside yard debris bin contents are being redirected to Hillsboro landfill, as they were in 2017. Debris moved offsite by landscapers working in the quarantine area are being reminded and encouraged to take debris to our drop-off site at Northwest Landscape services. Residents in the area and landscapers that we have contact information for have been sent two reminders this season. Flyers in English and Spanish are also available on our project website, JapaneseBeetlePDX.info/prevention. 

The Oregon Department of Agriculture would like to express its sincere appreciation to the residents in the Japanese Beetle treatment area for their cooperation, as well as all of the partner agencies that have offered support, advice, time and energy to the project. This eradication is one of the largest ever undertaken by the department and would not be possible without the help of the community and partner agencies. This is a multi year project, and is proposed to continue until 2021. As soon as details for next year’s operations are known, we will begin reaching out to everyone with information. In the meantime, please contact me with questions or check for updates on www.JapaneseBeetlePDX.info. 

Thank you again, 

Chris Hedstrom