"Petesin" wh@tthe**** wrote in message
...
I have noticed in the last month a huge increase in beatles in my yard at
night.

anyone with the gift of raising the dead is all right by me ;-)

Tonight when i went out to put the sprinkler on (don't be jealous SE
QLDers) there was probably around 20 to 30 jumping around the path. I
googled lawn beatles a while back but all i got was some black ones.
These are much lighter in colour, more greyish. The area where I have the
light is obviously where I see them (I can't see in the dark yet but once
my carrots come up i think might eyesight will improve 10 fold) but the
lawn there is very healthy. Around the back further it is yellowing off
but I thought that may have been a fungus as it is only yellow where it
got lots and lots of water when I was establishing my vege garden.

Should i be concerned about these beatles? I love my lawn atm as I have
it very lush and green (i know there is many lawn haters out there but i'm
not one). Would rather not use a pesticide if it will kill off earth
worms as I am only just now starting to notice them around in the gardens
but if the choice has to be made between worm and lawn lawn will win every
time. Who am I to sit back and let mother natures lawn die when it could
be so easily saved?

Any ideas would be very much appreciated.

i think you firstly need to identify them for sure, because they might not
be "bad" beetles anyway. we are coming up to beetle-time-of-year, after all.
i think (?!) the csiro & others have resources on creature-identification -
do you have a local uni you can ask at? does your local library or bookshop
have any books on it? you might be able to find a good website with
pictures. _if_ they are destructive, you could think about what to do then
because the treatment will probably vary depending on the problem. i'm quite
the fan of natural selection - utilising predators :-)

i think though that anything which endangers worms is probably utter madness
& needs to be carefully considered (after all, worms are good for lawn,
too). we haven't enough worms here yet & believe me, it shows. worms are
absolute magic so think very very carefully before doing anything that is
dangerous to them.

my vote is: identify the beetles, then go from there. with any luck, you
don't need to do anything.
kylie