A Plague of Beetles
The Arrival of the Japanese Beetle
by Matthew Powers
While the Japanese beetle is a common insect nowadays creating havoc in our gardens, it was almost a hundred years ago that this invasive species was unsuspectedly imported to the United States. The discovery of this beetle occurred in the summer of 1916 when two inspectors for the New Jersey Department of Agriculture, Edgar Dickerson and Harry Bischoff Weiss, found them at the Henry A. Dreer Nursery. The inspectors collected specimens for identification but were unable for months to determine the beetle’s identity until they consulted a coleopterist at the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Washington, D.C. It was then reported that the discovered species was a Japanese scarab, Popillia japonica, popularly known as the Japanese beetle. This was the first time this beetle was found in North America.
Dickerson and Weiss returned again to the nursery the following summer and found an infested area where the beetles were extremely abundant “on weeds along one edge of the nursery for 200 yards.” There were also places the infestation spread into nursery stock and a few feet into an orchard. “The beetles riddled leaves and ate foliage of plants in at least nine taxonomic families.”
The inspectors “deduced that the nursery had introduced the beetle as grubs around the roots of iris plants that it had imported from Japan six years earlier.” The nursery disputed that the beetle posed a serious threat and denounced the Federal Horticultural Board, the agency assigned to address the problem. It convinced government entomologists in charge of eradicating the beetle that the nursery was too profitable to destroy. During this debate, the population of beetles exploded into a plague that disrupted the region’s agriculture, transportation and commerce, and despoiled the landscape.
A Plant Quarantine Act was enacted four years earlier in 1912 and was amended a year after the discovery of the Japanese beetle in order to protect the country from the introduction and spread of exotic pests imported in nursery stock. However, it failed to appropriate funds for implementation of quarantines and to provide for indemnification of growers whose infested farms warranted destruction.” Other options, such as light-trapping and the use of insecticides, had little to no effect due to a lack of work force and “intelligent labor.” Methods instigated to combat the beetle consisted of a heavy use of lead arsenate, which sickened people and contaminated the soil for the next hundred years. The United States Department of Agriculture and other government agencies introduced predatory and parasitic insects to control the Japanese beetle. Other biological agents such as parasitic worms, bacteria, and fungi were deployed to control the outbreak. Native birds and mammals have also been credited to controlling populations of the beetle.
Where it all started: Henry A. Dreer Nursery
The nursery where the outbreak of the Japanese beetle was discovered was the Henry A. Dreer Nursery. Founded in 1838, this company “was one of the biggest and most revered horticultural establishments in the Philadelphia region.” Although it was established in Philadelphia, it later moved to Riverton, New Jersey. The company consisted of an expansive nursery, downtown Riverton offices, a 10-story warehouse on Washington Square in Philadelphia, and a retail emporium on Chestnut Street. The company shipped to customers worldwide.
A panoramic view of the Henry A. Dreer Nursery in Riverton, New Jersey.
At the time of the Japanese beetle outbreak, William F. Dreer was the president of the company. William was born in Philadelphia in 1849. He carried on the business of his father Henry A. Dreer after his father’s death in 1873. He made numerous trips to foreign countries to study growing methods and to establish relationships with foreign seed houses. He was an active member of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, treasurer from 1887-1888 and from 1898-1899. He had extensive private gardens at his three residences in Rosemont, Pennsylvania, Santa Barbara, California, and Woodstock, Vermont. William’s connection to Woodstock was through his wife, Anna Williams, daughter of Norman Williams. The Williams family had been here in Woodstock since the early days of its establishment. Anna and William Dreer had built a house in Woodstock at the site of the old golf links club house at the base of Mt. Peg in 1910.
Although at the time of the Japanese beetle outbreak, William was president of the company, it seems he was disengaged and allowed J.D. Eisele, vice-president, and C.A. Stronlein, director, to assume the responsibility for running the company. He must have been aware of the beetle situation as the Henry A. Dreer Nursery was feuding with the Federal Horticultural Board and other leading experts about what to do about the infestation. No matter what Dreer’s role was in the company, Eisele was the front man and had declared a prolonged war on those stating that the only way to defeat the beetle was to burn anything that had been afflicted by it. This would have resulted in the destruction of a significant portion of the Henry A. Dreer Nursery. By 1918, William Dreer had died of Bright’s Disease which further opened the door for Eisele, who became president of the company, to battle against the environmental policies and eradication practices of the government.
By 1919, “Eisele countered that others were to blame for introducing the beetle; that inspectors had exaggerated the size of the infestation; that extermination of the beetle would be easy; and that damage attributable to the Japanese beetle amounted to less than $5.” The battle between the government and large nurseries continued for many years. It wasn’t until three years after the discovery of the beetle that the Federal Horticultural Board was finally able to create a quarantine plan. However, there was a striking omission in the quarantine plan. It was determined that inspection and certification of nursery stock would not occur. This omission granted the beetle yet another year to spread unchecked. The Henry A. Dreer Nursery, the source of the outbreak, “would not fall under quarantine until four years after the Japanese beetle first appeared on its premises.”
By 1921, the Japanese beetle “infestation covered 81 square miles of New Jersey and 10 square miles in Pennsylvania. It included 1,164 farms and nurseries in New Jersey and 678 in Pennsylvania.” By the mid-1920s, the infestation had spread to golf courses, orchards, produce markets, lawns, pastures, and everywhere in between. By 1924, quarantine efforts covered 5,122 square miles in three states and involved 325 government workers. However, the genie was out of the bottle. In 1928, a report from the New York Botanical Garden reported that “sixty bushels of Japanese beetles were collected in one orchard in one day.” By 1932, it was estimated that the Japanese beetles has caused 75 to 100 percent defoliation in an area of more than fifteen hundred square miles.” Others estimated that a least a quarter of a million trees had been defoliated.
To date, no references have been found in local newspapers of the Japanese beetle during this early infestation period. The only person from Woodstock who is known to have purchased plants from the Henry A. Dreer Nursery was Frederick Billings; however, Billings’ order does not appear to have been a host to the pests. Woodstock, would eventually be affected by Japanese beetles, although it has not yet been determined when the first infestation occurred. The State of Vermont started reporting on sightings of Japanese beetles in the 1930s around the Montpelier area. And so, it appears that Woodstock was spared the initial impacts of this particular environmental disaster.
The primary source of information and quotes for this article derives from Kenneth D. Frank’s December 2016 article in Entomological News entitled, “Establishment of the Japanese Beetle (Popillia japanica Newman) in North America Near Philadelphia a Century Ago.” Frank’s article is one of the best compilations of information on the subject, and the author of this blog is grateful for having access to this publication at ResearchGate.net
Dreer’s Garden Book
This annual garden catalog ran over 200 pages and featured lavish, full-page color portraits of offerings. It was deduced in 1917 that Japanese Beetle grubs were hidden in the roots of the featured Japanese Iris.
