Beetles on my fruit trees

Question

I have some plum and peach trees and have noticed several of these beetles on each one. There are also a lot of holes in the leaves which I assume are the beetles eating them. Now if that’s just cosmetic I don’t mind, but if not, should I get rid of them and how? Located in Illinois

Answer 1

These are Japanese Beetles or Popillia japonica. In my yard they eat roses and last year was really bad.

Control is all a matter of timing. As wikipedia suggests

when present in small numbers, the beetles may be manually controlled using a soap-water spray mixture, shaking a plant in the morning hours and disposing of the fallen beetles,[13] or simply picking them off attractions such as rose flowers, since the presence of beetles attracts more beetles to that plant

Pheromone traps seem to attract more beetles than caught in the trap. A bucket of soap and water seems easier