Tag Archives: Grass Grub Beetle

News

GRASS GRUBS: NOW IS THE TIME (Wally Richards)

Leave a comment

I am often asked is it the best time to do certain things in the garden and more often than not when asked it is not the best time. Gardeners sometimes miss the boat and only later when the damage is done or the plants are out of season, that they look for the solution.

When I had a garden centre I would have newby gardeners coming in during the spring looking for daffodil bulbs/plants, cause they saw them flowering in people’s gardens.

This also applied to tulips and other spring flowering bulbs. Now is the time to buy your spring bulbs and plant them.

Lawn problems caused by grass grubs are noticed in the spring when patches of lawn die.

Treatment then is a total waste of time and money because the grubs are in most cases deep below the surface in cocoons waiting for the right conditions to emerge as beetles.

Any treatment applied in the spring may catch a small amount of grubs and not worth the expense.

What has happened is way back in October through to about December (maybe January) the grass grub beetles were on the wing chewing up the foliage of your plants in the evening and laying up to 300 eggs per female back into your lawn or gardens.

As these eggs are laid deep in the soil and when the grubs emerge they start eating the roots of the grasses (or some other plants) this is way down about 200 mm under the soil. The grubs are small and the damage done is not great.

The grubs grow and keep working their way upwards as the roots are eaten out at the lower depths.

If the soil becomes dry during a summer drought, the grubs go into a semi dormant state waiting for the moisture to return.

This normally happens with the autumn rains and the grubs wake up and start feeding again getting closer and closer to the soil surface.

Now if we cut a square in the lawn with a spade about 50mm deep we are likely to find a number of the white grubs in the area we have lifted.

These grubs curl up when disturbed. Any greasy looking caterpillars found are the porina.

If you lift turf in different areas of the lawn you can see where the worst problems are in other words where the most grass grubs are.

These are likely to be found in areas where there has been past problems or in areas near where lights shine at night, because the beetles are attracted to lights in the early evening when they are in flight.

You may find that in some areas in the turf you lift there are either no grubs or only say under 6 per square foot. In other areas you may find lots of grubs in a square foot. Its those areas you should concentrate your efforts as that is where damage will occur and be noticed.

There are currently two non chemical treatments available.

The liquid one is Wallys 3 in 1 for Lawns.

The product consists of Eucalyptus oil and Tea Tree oil along with natural plant foods in the form of manures and seaweed/fish extracts.

Available in 1 litres containers which cover 50 square metres of lawn or gardens.

Follow the instructions for mixing with water and it is best applied to the lawn in a device called a Lawnboy.

After application the lawn is further lightly watered with the hose or a sprinkler to wash the oils off the grass and down into the top 6 to 10cm of the lawn. It is there that it does its job.

Often lawns are the home of garden slugs which emerge out of the soil and thatch to invade our gardens during moist times. The product knocks them out also.

Worms will happily live underneath the oil layer in the top soil without any known adverse effects.

Worms that are near the surface when applied may not fair so well.

This means it is best to apply the product when the soil is moist but not after a good amount of rain which tends to bring worms to the surface.

I have found that these oils will control other soil insects such as eel worm, centipedes, root mealy bugs, porina etc.

Even the likes of earwigs and slaters can be given the old hurry on if they are causing problems.

The manufacturer informed me that the oils act as an irritant to the pests and they succumb as a result.

Imaginative gardeners may find this product an interesting tool in assisting in the control of some pests such as wire worm in the soil by treating the area a few weeks before planting (say) their new seasons potatoes.

The product is only recommended for lawn use and ideally should only be used for the control of pests in the lawn areas.

Used for any other purpose is not recommended but being two natural oils I cannot see any health concerns as you are not likely to spray over any food crops and eat them without first washing as normal.

Being a oil based product, it can of course burn foliage and grass if applied in sunlight.

For lawn applications it is recommended to use early in the morning or late afternoon and washing in with the hose, the oils off the foliage and into the soil.

Safe for your children and pets unlike the previous mention products.

The other natural product is Wallys Neem Tree Powder.

I suggest powder as it is less easy picked up when mowing the lawn.

Once again after you have done your spade tests on where the most grass grubs are then you really only need to treat those areas.

Spread the powder at 50 to 100 grams per square metre onto a recently mowed lawn and when the soil is moist.

Lightly water to settle the powder off the grasses and get it down to the soil surface.

If you have a roller or can hire one then roll the areas treated to press the powder into the soil.

It will breakdown and release the Neem properties which will be taken up by the roots of the grasses.

Thus when Mr Grass Grub takes a bite of the root he gets some Neem into his gut and it turns off his ability to eat any more. Thus he starves to death.

Most effective and safe for children, pets and soil life.

Now is the time to treat Grass Grubs

If your lawn problem just involves porina caterpillars then the most effective and less expensive treatment is applications of Wallys Super Neem Tree Oil applied late in the day on a freshly mowed lawn.

You should use a lawnboy to drench the grasses at the rate of 5 mls of Wallys Super Neem Oil per Litre of water or a boom spray nozzle on your back pack sprayer.

You are looking to get a coating of the Neem Oil to the base of the grasses where the porina is going to feed that night. Once they get some Neem in their gut they will stop eating and starve to death.

Treatment for porina can be done anytime of the year as they are a all year round pest.

FOOT NOTE:

Each week along with the gardening article I am going to make a product on a special price for you, for one week only.

The special will end the following Sunday when I dispatch the new article.

This week it will be  Wallys Neem Tree Powder 1kilo Normally $15.00 this week only $10.00

Also Wallys Neem Tree Powder 3 kilo bag Normally $28.00 This week only $20.00

Order on the Mail Order Web site at www.0800466464.co.nz  (any problems registering then phone me)

In the comment place please put the words NEEM SPECIAL so I know to deduct the special off you order before I phone you to arrange payment and any freight costs.

Remember Freight is free  in North Island for Orders of $100 or more (excluding bulk items) South Island it is orders of $150.00 or more for free shipping. (excluding bulk items)


Phone 0800 466464
Garden Pages and News at www.gardenews.co.nz
Shar Pei pages at  www.sharpei.co.nz
Mail Order products at www.0800466464.co.nz

New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990. Part II of the Act covers a broad range of Civil and Political Rights. As part of the right to life and the security of the person, the Act guarantees everyone:

1The right not to be deprived of life except in accordance with fundamental justice (Section 8)

2The right not to be subjected to torture or to cruel, degrading, or disproportionately severe treatment or punishment (Section 9)

3The right not to be subjected to medical or scientific experimentation without consent (Section 10)

4The right to refuse to undergo any medical treatment (Section 11)

 Furthermore, the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990 guarantees everyone: Freedom of Thought, Conscience, and Religion.
This includes the right to freedom of thought, conscience, religion, and belief,
INCLUDING THE RIGHT TO ADOPT AND HOLD OPINIONS WITHOUT INTERFERENCE (Section 1)

Gardening, News

December Gardening (Wally Richards)

1 Comment

This week I received two emails which maybe of interest to some gardeners. The first was from a gardening couple, which read:

Hi Wally, Your advice and weekly email’s worked great. I got first in the Veggie Section and my wife won in the Rose categories. Jerry.

What can I say? If you use natural products that enhance the soil, giving the plants all the possible minerals that they may need to be healthy and stop using chemicals that are harmful to both soil, plants and yourself.

Over the years I have received a few similar stories about how gardeners have turned their gardens into award winners by simply observing and using the above information.

The second email is of concern this time of the year and it read;

Hi Wally, I have a problem with a brown beetle infestation. I was finding the leaves of my newly planted plum trees and almond tree were getting stripped bare almost. I wasn’t sure what it was but think the culprit is this brown beetle.

I have since found hundreds (literally) in one of my raised beds and quite a few wherever I have placed the garden mix I bought a month ago.

Is there something I can do to get rid of these beasties? They are now attacking my raspberry plants and feijoa trees. Because they are in the soil – and potentially quite deep (some of them were 20cm deep) – I’m not sure how to fight them. Please help!

The writer sent me an amazing photograph which shows hundreds of these brown beetles drowning in a container of water, along with photos of her plants badly damaged.

The beetle is the Grass Grub beetle and this is the time of the year that they emerge from pupating deep in the soil to feast on the foliage of a number of plants, mate and lay eggs back in lawns for future generations.

In my first book, Wally’s Down to Earth Gardening Guide, I suggest a trap to aid control of these pests.

Here is an extract from the book:

‘Grass grub adults emerge in October, and are active until about mid-December, depending on weather conditions and exactly where they are in New Zealand. The cooler the temperature, the later they emerge.

The adults will start to emerge in mild conditions, when the soil temperature reaches about 10 degrees they then mate, fly, eat and lay eggs in the short space of time between dusk and early evening.

As they tend to fly towards light, you are most likely to know they’re there when the flying beetles hit your lighted window panes.

This very attraction for the light has become one of our best weapons in controlling the pest in its adult stage. You can set up a grass grub beetle trap by placing a trough, such as the one used when wall-papering, directly underneath a window near a grassed area.

Fill the trough with water to about two-thirds of its capacity, then place a film of kerosene on top of the water. Put a bright light in the window, the beetles fly towards the lit window, hit the glass and fall into the trough.

The kerosene acts as a trap, preventing the fallen beetles from climbing out.

You can extend this method to areas away from the house by using a glass tank, such as might be used for an aquarium.

Place the empty tank into a tray containing several inches of water (and the kerosene), and position a light inside the glass tank.

By adding a sheet of ply or something similar over the top of the tank, you will ensure that the light shines only through the sides of the tank above the waiting water and kerosene.

It is better to use a dome-shaped battery-powered light rather than an ordinary torch for this job as the bigger light makes the trap more effective.

If the tray and tank are raised off the ground and placed on something like a table, you will get an even better result.

However you set up your beetle trap, this is a very good method to dispose of the pests. Simply get rid of all the beetles caught the next morning.

Run this system (call it Wally’s Grass Grub Beetle Catcher, if you like) from just before dusk to about 2 or 3 hours after sunset.’

Spraying the plants that are been attacked with Wallys Super Neem Tree Oil will help to also control the populations.

This should be done late in the day after the sun is off the plants. When a beetle chews on a leaf they get some Neem into their gut and that shuts off their ability to eat.

Problem arises, if there are hundreds of beetles then there needs to be hundreds of bites.

With the likelihood of more beetles emerging every day it is an on going battle over the next month or two.

Another way is to go outside just after dark with a torch and check your plants for beetles.

If you see a good number on any plant then a spray at that time with Wallys Super Neem Tree Oil and Wallys Super Pyrethrum added, sprayed to hit the beetles rather than the plant itself.

Another very good natural spray to use late in the day is a solution of Wallys 3 in 1 for Lawns.

This is a combination of Eucalyptus oil and Tea Tree oil, nice to use and deadly on pests.

If you repeat your nightly spraying and use a light trap also, then you will make a big dent in the grass grub beetle populations and thus suffer less damage to your plants and lawns.

The season is still poor weather wise which helps keep insect populations lower than normal but care should be taken with your potatoes and tomatoes by placing Neem Tree Granules on the soil in the root zone and spraying the plants occasionally with Wallys Super Neem tree Oil.

Visit your local garden center to obtain some good ideas for Xmas Presents.

Phone 0800 466464
Garden Pages and News at www.gardenews.co.nz
Shar Pei pages at  www.sharpei.co.nz
Mail Order products at www.0800466464.co.nz

New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990. Part II of the Act covers a broad range of Civil and Political Rights. As part of the right to life and the security of the person, the Act guarantees everyone:

1 The right not to be deprived of life except in accordance with fundamental justice (Section 8)

2 The right not to be subjected to torture or to cruel, degrading, or disproportionately severe treatment or punishment (Section 9)

3 The right not to be subjected to medical or scientific experimentation without consent (Section 10)

4 The right to refuse to undergo any medical treatment (Section 11)

 Furthermore, the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990 guarantees everyone: Freedom of Thought, Conscience, and Religion.
This includes the right to freedom of thought, conscience, religion, and belief,
INCLUDING THE RIGHT TO ADOPT AND HOLD OPINIONS WITHOUT INTERFERENCE (Section 1)