Beetle battle in your yard? Here’s what to do.

What is less lovely than a summer blossom? The sight of a Japanese beetle on that blossom, shiny as an oil slick. “We’re hearing quite a few reports about the beetles this year,” according to Sharon Yiesla, plant knowledge specialist in the Plant Clinic at The Morton Arboretum in Lisle. The iridescent bugs feed on about 300 different species of ornamental plants, but especially favor roses, grapevines, and crabapple, cherry and linden trees.

The adult beetles eat the tissue between the leaf veins, leaving just the skeleton of a leaf. In the larval stage of their life cycle, they are white grubs that live underground and eat the roots of turf grass. “If you have a lot of grubs, they can eat so many grass roots that you can peel patches of grass up like a carpet,” she said.

The eggs and grubs thrive in moist soil, so rainy springs and overwatered lawns lead to both grub damage and beetle damage. Adult Japanese beetles have oval, metallic green bodies about 1/4- to 1/2-inch long, with coppery brown wing covers. Originally from Asia, they entered the United States more than a century ago and are now considered an invasive pest.

Here are some tips from the Plant Clinic for coping with Japanese beetles. Learn more at . Japanese beetle traps use sex pheromones to lure beetles, which are trying to find mates.

“The problem is that the pheromone in the trap will attract beetles from all over the neighborhood, far more than the trap can hold,” she said. Fill a wide contain.