Larvicide treatments for invasive agricultural pest planned for St. John’s area
The Department of Forestry, Agriculture and Lands is working with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, industry stakeholders and citizen scientists to monitor detections of Japanese beetle in the City of St. John’s.
The department has contracted a landscaping company to carry out larvicide treatments starting the week of Monday, June 29. Treatments will take place throughout the week, weather permitting, using the larvicides Acelepryn and/or Mamba. These larvacides are registered and approved for use by Health Canada and have proven effective against Japanese beetle larvae with no impact on mammals, birds, bees, pollinators, or other animals.
For information visit Environment and Climate Change’s Pesticide Control website here.
Treatments will focus on downtown and other areas within the Area of Concern released by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, where beetle detections were recorded in 2024 and 2025. These areas will include Government House, the War Memorial, as well as a portion of land owned by the City of St. John’s including Bannerman Park, Bowring Park, and other identified properties within the area.
More information, including the Area of Concern and survey sites, is available on the Canadian Food Inspection Agency’s website.
Homeowners, landowners, and property managers within the Area of Concern will be contacted to discuss how they can assist in eradicating this invasive pest.
Signage will be placed on treated sites once treatment has occurred indicating re-entry times. Larvicide treatment days will be weather dependent.
Japanese beetle can spread quickly, especially via wind, or through transportation of soil and plants. If not controlled, this insect poses a serious threat to agriculture, horticulture, landscaping and forestry industries, and may result in damage to lawns, sports fields and golf courses. Japanese beetle is known to feed on more than 300 plant species and has no natural predators.
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