A pest was found in Germany.
The plant protection service is alerted.
Certain locations are now to be monitored more intensively.
Freiburg - The fear was there already in the summer, now it has been confirmed: In Germany there is probably the harmful Japanese beetle.
One specimen fell into a trap.
This was announced by the Freiburg Regional Council.
Previously, the authority had not been able to verify isolated indications of the species.
The male was discovered in early November in a so-called pheromone trap near the Freiburg freight yard.
It was already dead by then. But it must have been alive to get into the trap.
Japanese beetles in Germany: Farmers are threatened with feeding damage
This find and a previous one in Basel show that the probability of Japanese beetles (Popillia japonica) is increasing in Baden-Württemberg.
The official phytosanitary service will monitor the site and other risk locations such as freight yards and truck parking spaces more closely when the flight time begins in May next year, the spokesman announced.
Video: Japanese beetle discovered
According to the Agricultural Technology Center (LTZ) Augustenberg, Japanese beetles can cause severe damage, especially to fruit trees, strawberries, beans, maize, vines, roses and many other shrub and tree species.
The grubs - i.e. the larvae - in turn feed mainly on grass roots and could destroy entire lawns, meadows and pastures en masse.
What do Japanese beetles look like?
The main features
According to the LTZ, adult Japanese beetles are around one centimeter tall and look similar to domestic garden, May or June beetles.
The Japanese beetle, however, has five white tufts of hair on each side of the abdomen and two at the end of the body.
The pronotum has a noticeably green-metallic shimmer.
Restrictions on plant transport, tight nets, insecticides and fungi could be measures to prevent the Japanese beetle from spreading.
The risk of importation was particularly high via travel and goods traffic on the traffic arteries on the Upper Rhine or the highways on Lake Constance.
(dpa / frs)