Iowa
They’re back: Japanese Beetles
We returned from our three-week sojourn to Alaska to find our property overrun by Japanese Beetles. Dang! Just what I didn’t need, along with everything else that required immediate post-vacation attention: a weedy garden, a tub full of mail, plants to water, bills to pay, laundry to warsh, groceries to buy because there was nothing to eat in the house, Buddy and Stormy to pick up at the vet boarder, phone calls to return, sleep to catch up on, and an Alaska high to come down from. Japanese Beetles pulled me back to reality real quick.
The beetles seem to be a little early this year. I thought they were more of a mid-July nuisance. It must be the weather. And I thought that maybe I had gotten rid of the annual Japanese Beetle infestation by spreading grub control on our yard, since they come up out of the ground near by. Guess not.
I decided this year I would spray them. Last year I set up these Japanese Beetle traps around the property, and they were effective. I must have captured 10 jillion Japanese Beetles, and gave them to a neighbor to feed her chickens. However, I ran into another neighbor who thanked me for keeping the Japanese Beetles away from his property.
He told me that the pheromone the traps use attracts beetles in a 5 mile radius. I didn’t want to do that again. But I hate using insecticide because it also kills the insects you don’t want killed, like butterflies, bees and praying mantises. Then birds eat the dead insects. Hmm. The dilemma. But I had to do something fast. Literally, a major chunk of our vegetation was being destroyed before our eyes: the aronia bushes, grape vines, fruit trees, rose bushes, hydrangeas, even our rhubarb, asparagus, and pin-oak tree. I went for the insecticide.
This year, I have a sprayer that attaches to the rear of the tractor. I use it for spraying weeds and fertilizing the lawn. It’s a lot faster than using a water-hose sprayer that I have to drag all over our yard. The tractor sprayer made short work of the Japanese beetles.
It got me to thinking about locusts. Where are the locusts? This was supposed to be the year of the two different kinds hatching at once. I have seen or heard nary a locust on the Empty Nest farm. I’ve seen a few in past years, but none this year. I know other areas of the state are seeing the swarm (ha, ha) of locusts. Pictures are all over Facebook, I mean, Meta, excuse me. I have fond memories of locusts as a kid.
We lived on a tree-lined street, and the evening air would be filled with the buzzing of locusts. It was a comforting sound, one that I remember going to sleep to, in the days before air conditioning, when we left windows open at night. Some of the locusts would even visit during the night, and be clinging to the screen when I woke in the morning.“Wake up, sleepy head!” I collected their empty shells and stuck them on my finger like a ring.
The field across the road from us has something green and grassy looking growing in it. For the life of me, I couldn’t figure out what it was. Finally, while getting the mail, I walked over to the field and had a look-see. What in tarnation? I pulled a stem of the plant, laden with bearded heads pointing down. It was something I didn’t recognize. I took it into the house and showed Ginnie.
She has an app on her phone that identifies plants, flowers, shrubs and trees. She held the plant up to her phone. Voila, it’s oats! Gee willickers, I haven’t seen oats since I was a kid. Back in my day, most of the farmers raised oats. There was what we called, “Kennedy Oats.”
It was part of the Soil Bank program (a forerunner of CRP). But oats have taken the back seat to the dual powers of corn and beans. I’m wondering what the farmer is going to do with these oats, sell’m, feed’m or seed’m? Hmm.
Japanese Beetles, locusts and oats. More rain and we’ll all float boats.
Have a good story? Call or text Curt Swarm in Mt. Pleasant at 319-217-0526, or email him curtswarm@yahoo.com. Curt is available for public speaking.
With June rapidly finishing up, that means the Iowa high school softball season is preparing to enter the stretch run of the year.
The Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union State Softball Tournament will begin Monday, July 20, in Fort Dodge at Rogers Park, bringing together many of the top teams and players in the state. High School On SI Iowa currently provides a Top 25 state softball power rankings, so now, we need to see who the top players are.
Below are the nominees for the High School On SI Iowa Class 1A Softball Midseason Player of the Year in each classification. Stats listed with the player are from Bound and based on those numbers imputed as of June 26, 2026 at noon CT.
Feel free to vote as many times as you like, with voting set to close on Friday, July 3, 2026 at 11:59 p.m. CT.
High School On SI Iowa Class 1A Softball Midseason Player Of The Year Nominees
Rachel Eglseder, Edgewood-Colesburg, Senior
Eglseder owns a 16-5 record, striking out 225 batters with a 1.66 earned run average while adding 11 extra-base hits and 40 RBI at the plate.
Rylee Mudderman, Kee, Junior
Mudderman continues to be a difficult out, batting .488 this season with two homers, 11 doubles and four triples. She has driven in 38 and scored 35 times, stealing 10 bases.
Faith Shirbroun, St. Edmond, Senior
Speaking of tough outs, Shirbroun owns a batting average of .606 this season, recording seven homers, 17 doubles and five triples. She has driven in 36 and scored 37 times, stealing 22 bases while setting several school records for hitting.
Sydney Lovrien, Clarksville, Senior
The ace for the defending state champions, Lovrien is 13-5 with 100 strikeouts in 86 innings pitched. She also has 23 hits and 21 RBI at the plate.
Sam Kruckenberg, Mason City Newman Catholic, Senior
A veteran now, Kruckenberg owns an 18-4 record with 227 strikeouts and a 1.23 earned run average. She is batting .440 with five homers, 11 doubles and 23 RBI at the plate.
About Our Midseason Player of the Year Voting
High School on SI voting polls are meant to be a fun, lighthearted way for fans to show support for their favorite athletes and teams. Our goal is to celebrate all of the players featured, regardless of the vote totals. Sometimes one athlete will receive a very large number of votes — even thousands — and that’s okay! The polls are open to everyone and are simply a way to build excitement and community around high school sports. Unless we specifically announce otherwise, there are no prizes or official awards for winning. The real purpose is to highlight the great performances of every athlete included in the poll.
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The Iowa chapter of the Land Improvement Contractors of America (LICA) officially opened a new facility on its 80-acre demonstration farm in Marshall County Thursday.
Iowa LICA President Scott Bohle said having classroom and meeting space will make it easier to educate the next generation of professional contractors, along with government employees, lawmakers and students, to help conserve soil and water in the state.
Bohle said the building “gives people a place to gather, collaborate and continue the important work that defines our association.”
Just outside the new space are wetlands, terraces, sediment control basins, bioreactors and other features, which members have built since LICA purchased the farm near Melbourne in 2000.
“We call it the one-stop shop, where you can see anything being put to practice by our landowners,” said Kelby Kiefer, executive director of Iowa LICA.
Together, these “edge-of-field” practices remove 50% of phosphates and almost 100% of the nitrates from the runoff of a 1,000-plus acre watershed, according to the association.
Adding more wetlands, saturated buffers and bioreactors across the state are a key part of Iowa’s Nutrient Reduction Strategy. It aims to cut nitrogen and phosphorus losses from farm fields by 41% and 29%, respectively.
The strategy is part of a broader effort to reduce nutrient pollution in the state’s waterways and the Gulf of Mexico by 45% compared to the 1980-96 baseline period. It does not include a target date.
Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig said the state has accelerated edge-of-field practices in recent years, in part through the Batch and Build model. The approach bundles projects in a targeted watershed to reduce costs and save time for farmers and contractors.
Nearly 150 nitrate reducing wetlands and around 500 saturated buffers, bioreactors and multi-purpose oxbows had been built in the state as of 2024. Thousands more will be needed to meet the state’s nutrient reduction targets.
“[Clean water is] something we need to be focused on, and we can be proud of the work that’s happened, but we know that we need to do more,” Naig said. “Buildings like this help.”
Naig said scaling up conservation infrastructure across the state will require more skilled contractors. He described them as the “critical link” between concepts and “getting things on the ground.”
“It’s from that point where you say, ‘We have a design that’s ready to go, a willing landowner,’ but somebody needs to make it happen,” Naig said. “The land improvement contractor sits in that very important spot.”
IOWA CITY, Iowa — Mark Roering returned to Iowa City Regina 30 years after serving as an assistant coach, and in just two seasons, he has transformed the Regals into one of Class 2A’s most dangerous teams.
“I was a senior in college. I just had finished playing baseball myself and was doing high school in the summers. Had one of those magical seasons here losing in the state finals,” Roering said. “I was just ready for something new.”
Prior to being hired at Iowa City Regina in 2024, Roering coached nine seasons at Dowling Catholic, where he helped the Maroons reach the state tournament six times. Regina was below .500 in three of the four seasons before his arrival. His first season at the helm, Regina went 22-6.
“I think the biggest difference is practice. Everybody is so much more locked in. Really that just comes from him. He gets on us everyday, he has to make the drive and hour and a half every day so we want to give that back to him for all the time and effort he’s put into us,” junior Trey Streb said.
Streb also described Roering as a very emotional coach who cares deeply about the team and winning.
The Regals’ bats have become a significant threat. Regina ranks fifth in the state and second in Class 2A with a .379 batting average and has the fourth fewest strikeouts among state teams.
“It’s like nothing I’ve ever experienced and it’s been super competitive and it’s nice to be with people who want to win and will do whatever it takes to win,” senior Emmett Burke said.
The team already sits at 20 wins with eight regular season games remaining.
Roering said the transformation comes when players start believing they can win in any situation.
“Winning is contagious just like losing is contagious,” Roering said. “Kids they start believing and it gets really dangerous you know that they can win no matter what situation they’re in.”
The turnaround has positioned the Regals to make a postseason run. With only one senior on the roster, the team could remain a threat next season.
“No matter what, we’re going to fight and we’re not going to roll over. We’re going to do what we need to do to win,” Burke said.
“We’re big competitors. We don’t accept defeat and I think that’s one of my favorite parts about this team,” Streb added.
Copyright 2026 KCRG. All rights reserved.
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