Do Japanese Beetles Fly?

Japanese beetles can technically fly, but they are clumsy and not very good at it. They spend most of their time crawling instead of trying to fly.

Japanese beetles do have wings but they are built for short bursts of flight rather than for long distances. They are not very nimble when flying and have difficulty making quick changes of direction even when it is necessary to avoid a collision.

When flying, Japanese beetles have a tendency to slam head-on into walls or other barriers, and then fall straight down to the ground.

This is the reason why the bag type of Japanese beetle trap is designed the way it is. The bag hanging down with its opening facing straight up acts as a convenient repository for Japanese beetles that fall straight down into it after colliding with the face of the trap above.

Japanese beetles aren’t quick to take off in flight, and you can usually catch them with your bare hands before they fly away without too much trouble.