Crieff Hills ECO"LOGICAL"

Grub Control  

  GRUB DESTROYED!

 

Control for Grub is Best Done as a Preventative Measure in JUNE or JULY.

Grub - not really what you want in your lawn! Over the last several years, grub have become a major problem in certain areas throughout our region. Commonly called "White Grub", these pests are the larvae of several beetle species. As the common name implies, they are white to white-greyish in colour with brown heads and dark hind parts. While the adult beetle stage of White Grub differ in size, colour and life cycle, the larvae are very similar in appearance - usually "C" shaped and somewhat distasteful.

Adult beetles usually begin to lay eggs in lawns in late June through early July in our region. One female beetle can lay as many as 40 eggs, wih the eggs staying 10-14 days in the soil before hatching. (eggs need water to survive - so draught will cause mortality while watering your lawn may increase hatching)

The larvae of June Beetles and European Chaffer Beetles are the prevalent pests, with the larvae of the Japanese Beetle not yet a major concern.

European Chaffer larvae are similar to the June Beetle larvae, but smaller in size. Problems in lawns occur when the turf is infested with large numbers of Grub that feed beneath the surface on the roots of the grass. When Grub populations are very heavy, areas of the grass can be lifted and rolled up like a carpet. This is because the Grub have eaten the roots so there is nothing holding the grass to the soil.

A sign of Grub activity killing your lawn is the browning of the grass and a sponginess to the turf when you walk on it. This occurs when the Grub devour the root system, leaving space for soil compaction, so when you walk on the infected area, it sinks slightly.

Another sure sign of the presence of Grub is the increased visitation by skunks or racoons. These animals consider Grub a delicacy and will rip and tear the turf to find a delicious meal of the larvae. While this is a good natural control of Grub, often the lawn is so badly torn by the animals that the grass will die and will take hours and hours of grooming to get your lawn back into shape.

 USING BENEFICIAL NEMATODES FOR GRUB CONTROL AND JAPANESE BEETLES

Nematodes are microscopic, non-segmented worms which occurr naturally in soil all over the world. Thousands of strains exist with different lifestyles. Beneficial Nematodes attack only soil-dwelling insects and leave plants alone. Beneficial Nematodes and the bacteria they spread are not known to be harmful to humans, animals, plants, earthworms or other non-target organisms, but they do aggressively pursue insects like Grubs. When they sense the temperature and carbon dioxide emissions of soil borne insects, Nematodes move toward their prey and enter the pest through its body openings. The Nematodes carry an associated bacterium (Photorhabdus species) that kills insects fast (within 48 hours). Several generations of Nematodes may live and breed within the dead pest; they emerge and seek more pests in the soil. Beneficial Nematodes have shown to be as much as 96% effective against Japanese Beetle Grubs in field studies. Although many species of Beneficial Nematodes are available, Heterorhabditis bacteriophora (Hb) Nematodes are most effective against Japanese Beetles, European Chafers and other Grubs that are lawn pests. They are more efficient than the Steinernema species. Hb Nematodes work better because they are crusier Nematodes that burrow down in the soil searching for deep soil-dwelling pests. They also have a special "tooth" that assists them in entering the Grub.

NOTE: Applications comply with: