The iridescent green beetles native to Japan have become a growing menace in Italy, swarming through orchards and vineyards and leaving behind devastating lattice patterns in leaves that weaken the plants and reduce production. The Popillia japonica, or Japanese beetle, is a familiar pest in the United States, where it arrived more than a century ago, per the AP. But it is a relative newcomer to the European continent, first detected near Milan's Malpensa airport in 2014. In Italy, it has already swarmed through the northeastern regions of Lombardy, Piedmont, and Valle d'Aosta, where it appeared last year in terraced vineyards above the town of Donnas.
"We're seeing the popillia steadily advance from terrace to terrace across our historic vineyards," said Luciano Zoppo Ronzero, a winemaker who produces Nebbiolo from the terraced vines. "We're now about the 10th terrace and can already see the popillia attacks. This means they're consuming and gradually moving up the mountain." With no natural predators and an appetite covering over 300 plants and trees, the Japanese beetle has made the European Union's list of priority pests, meaning that efforts must be made to contain and eradicate outbreaks.
The beetle is already entrenched in Italy, Switzerland, and Germany, where the focus is on managing and containing expansion, while the population levels in France and Spain still allow hopes of eradication, said Daniela Lupi, an entomologist at the University of Milan. The best hope for eradicating the pests may be attacking the larvae. The beetles were recently detected near Verona's Valerio Catullo airport, and experts are experimenting by introducing a microscopic parasite in the surrounding area to attack the grubs.
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