GardenBanter.co.uk - View Single Post

07-07-2005, 09:19 PM

(paghat) wrote:

Stephen Henning wrote:
We getting lots of Green June Bug swarming over our lawn this year. It
is their mating time. They aren't eathing anything, just making lots of
grubs. Lots and lots of grubs. Is their any non toxic control for the
grubs. We have a shallow well and can't use any thing like diazanon.

A two-prong attack will be a permanent control:

Milky spore (Bacillus popillae) permanently limits the activity of grubs
(& if population can be kept always to one to three grubs per square foot,
the lawn & garden will be perfectly healthy).

Purdue University states: If you use the grub control product Milky
Spore, be aware that these natural bacteria will only control the grubs
of Japanese beetles.* In our area, it's highly unlikely that the
majority of the grubs in your lawn are all Japanese beetle grubs.* Using
this product won't control the majority of the insects damaging your
lawn; nor will they make a dent in next year's Japanese beetle
population.

Steinernema nematodes are also a permanent control which takes two years;
by the third year the june beetles will be incapable of a major explosion,
the population pretty much permanently infected with the nematodes & never
able to recover in any big way. Application of nematodes can be done once
or multiple times from about mid-July to to August or September, & that
may be enough to last for decades, though sometimes it should be done a
second year.

Michigan state found: Insect parasitic nematodes were inconsistent in
grub control tests.

Also available as an effective biological control are parastic wasps
(Tiphia intermedia), which parasitize beetle grubs as their first choice.
Some of the finer independent nurseries will seasonally sell parasitic
wasps in early autumn, or they can be obtained from any number of mail
order sources.

These sound good.

Starlings are also super-qualified white grub controls, so if the
starlings have ever annoyed the bejabbers out of you as garbage-birds,
think of them in the future as the white grub police. Robins also do a
pretty darned good job of yanking white grubs out of the lawn. Birds in
general should be encouraged.

We haven't seem many starlings for a while. The robins will have to do.
We have wild turkeys, perhaps they will eat the grub and the ticks.

Moles & skunks are the less often welcomed white grub predators.

These are the main reasons I want to get rid of the grubs. When the
moles come along the destroy the deep roots and the lawn become very
fragile.

Using the lawn mower to reduce their numbers sounds like fun. But I use
a mulching rear-discharge mower, so bagging isn't an option.

--
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Cheers, Steve Henning in Reading, PA USA
http://home.earthlink.net/~rhodyman