What Do June Bugs Eat?
Emily Cortez
Learn What June Bugs Eat
Having the same name as the month of the year, June bugs belong to the family of beetles. Perhaps, it’s also because female June bugs lay eggs in midsummer. Whatever the reason behind their name, June bugs are the noisy critters found in gardens and pastures.
June bugs are highly enchanted by the artificial light fitted in your residential houses. These ground-dwelling June bugs come out of the ground searching for food. They are known as pests because they destroy and feed on a variety of fresh fruits and plants.
The grubs can chew and feed on the roots growing beneath the soil. That evokes the question “What do June bugs eat” in particular related to fruit and plants. In this post, we’ll find that out.
Fruit, Vegetables, and Plants
June Bugs and their white larva called grub to inhabit soil and take the advantage of the plants growing underneath. They feast on virtually every part of the vegetation, or a plant, within reach in soil.
Because they consume plants, June bugs are known as “leaf eaters” according to their scientific name – Phyllophaga. Although as small as 1 inch, these June bugs can devour a great deal of the vegetation.
Their plant-based diet can encompass flowers, fruit, vegetables, and other parts of plants. Hence, June bugs eat flowers, roses, sunflowers, rose bushes, and so on. As for the vegetables, June bugs eat vegetables, tomato plants, tomatoes, basil, corn, cucumber plants, and lettuce.
They are also great at taking the opportunity of newly grown or growing plants and chewing on them. The specific and exclusively plant-based diet of June bugs makes them nutritious.
That being said, June bugs eat trees, plants, leaves, tree leaves, ferns, grass, succulents, and grass. Together with these, June bugs eat apple trees, fruit tree leaves, grapes, pine trees, and strawberries.
Insects and Animals
While some June bugs eat aphids, it’s not inclusive of their plant-based diet. June bugs aren’t insectivores. Rather, they are herbivores and feast mostly on plants.
They are, however, consumed by other birds and animals around their vicinity. The predators of June bugs include skunks, moles, starlings, opossums, raccoons, and tarantulas. Many of these predators feed on the larva, white grub, of the June bugs.
Because they’re considered the pests invading your personal space, many homeowners don’t like their presence. It’s because their presence attracts predators, causing a nuisance in households.
What June Bugs Don’t Eat
The diet of June bugs excludes anything which can fly, crawl or move in the soil or above the ground. Hence, you’ll observe that June bugs won’t get attracted to several types of bugs and insects. It has to do with their origin, belonging to the family of plant-eating beetles.
That being said, June bugs don’t eat other bugs, mosquitoes, ants, bees, and caterpillars. Certainly, there is a bunch of other living and non-living things that June bugs wouldn’t consume. June bugs don’t eat clothes, fabric, wood, flies, moths, spiders, ticks, termites, and poop!