Waging " Grub " war

[BaitDropper]

Dead set.....

With the buffalo lawn looking fairly good now, after a long process of getting it back to a reasonably looking piece of greenery,  The Curl grubs have come to play !!.

This is my back lawn, the front is still in the process of a Ricardia weed battle, ( I'm winning, slowly).

But the back lawn, Well, if anyone has had issues with an infestation of these damn things, You'll know what I mean.....

After carefully choosing the appropriate artillery, the war has begun..

[Green Hornet]

No curl grubs in my lawn. The bandicoots make sure of that, LOL.

[BaitDropper]

3 minutes ago, Green Hornet said:

No curl grubs in my lawn. The bandicoots make sure of that, LOL.

Our bandicoots can't keep up with them....

An example.....  2 raised vege gardens, 1.2 x 6 meters..... everything had finished, so set about turning it all over,  Got 450 ish out of each garden bed 😁..

Thought something was going on here !!   I pick up, of an evening, about 30-40 of the little bugga's popping up for a bit of a surface nibble on top of the lawn. 

One test is to saturate the ground and lay a sack or old bit of carpet on it overnight, check next morning, it makes them rise up,  counted 150, its an infestation..

They haven't damaged the lawn as such yet, but with those numbers it won't take them long at all, so it's battle stations before they do....

I've never seen the likes of this before, they say with the sack trick, it's acceptable for there to be 15 or so per square meter. I dug near 70 meters of trenches for Agg pipe when I first arrived for drainage purposes and there was bugga all, maybe find 1 or 2 every 2-3 meters I guess..

So I've spoken to a bloke over Sydney way who is a green keeper and he was telling me because of our weather this year, they too have had an issue, the beetles are still about and dormant eggs laid when we had rain are hatching like crazy, which is no good on putting greens or fairways !!. He also said, because you have turned a crap lawn into something pretty good, the o'l beetle will head for the best lawn.. Either way it's damn frustrating. But he's put me on to some pretty effective stuff, but it will still take best part of 6-12 months to end the cycle....     

[Steve0]

Thanks for the reminder.

My lawns weren't a problem until I planted about 9 square metres of Sir Walter. With plenty of chook poo dug in, it went berserk, needing two mows per week with grass deep enough to lose sight of the hose. Within months the grubs went crazy and then I noticed it in other lawns. I lost patches of the Sir Walter (self-cured this year). The rest of the lawns weren't bad but there were some muddy balls. The problem made me very suspicious about the supplier. Anyway, all done last Spring, it is due for another batch, but I may be a month or two late. I think the advice is to spray in August and February.

 

[Green Hornet]

1 hour ago, BaitDropper said:

Our bandicoots can't keep up with them....

An example.....  2 raised vege gardens, 1.2 x 6 meters..... everything had finished, so set about turning it all over,  Got 450 ish out of each garden bed 😁..

Thought something was going on here !!   I pick up, of an evening, about 30-40 of the little bugga's popping up for a bit of a surface nibble on top of the lawn. 

One test is to saturate the ground and lay a sack or old bit of carpet on it overnight, check next morning, it makes them rise up,  counted 150, its an infestation..

They haven't damaged the lawn as such yet, but with those numbers it won't take them long at all, so it's battle stations before they do....

I've never seen the likes of this before, they say with the sack trick, it's acceptable for there to be 15 or so per square meter. I dug near 70 meters of trenches for Agg pipe when I first arrived for drainage purposes and there was bugga all, maybe find 1 or 2 every 2-3 meters I guess..

So I've spoken to a bloke over Sydney way who is a green keeper and he was telling me because of our weather this year, they too have had an issue, the beetles are still about and dormant eggs laid when we had rain are hatching like crazy, which is no good on putting greens or fairways !!. He also said, because you have turned a crap lawn into something pretty good, the o'l beetle will head for the best lawn.. Either way it's damn frustrating. But he's put me on to some pretty effective stuff, but it will still take best part of 6-12 months to end the cycle....     

I think you live down around my way. If you’re collecting the grubs without the use of poison, I know the local wildlife rehab center is screaming for them to feed their injured animals, if you’re that way inclined. You can call them on 0418 427 214 for more information.

[BaitDropper]

20 minutes ago, Green Hornet said:

I think you live down around my way. If you’re collecting the grubs without the use of poison, I know the local wildlife rehab center is screaming for them to feed their injured animals, if you’re that way inclined. You can call them on 0418 427 214 for more information.

The magpies are struggling to get airborne with the extra tucker they've been getting, so unfortunately, I do now have to throw an insecticide down now to control them, of which the lawn got it's first dose this arvo. there was an alternative insecticide I could have used in spray form, but that was way way to strong for my likings...

Big bucket load went down to a Neighbour who has chooks, which they were very grateful for..

Saving grace in a way is that buffalo especially Sir Walter is about the most resistant grass to handle grub attacks....

That will teach me to have the best patch of lawn in the Neighbour hood....

 

[Fab1]

Bifenthrin and Acelypryn always win wars.

[mrsswordfisherman]

I have much to say on lawn problems. 
We are in the middle of a lawn that was wiped out by army worms. 

I might make a whole post on it.

The lush green is what it normally looks like. 

[BaitDropper]

38 minutes ago, Steve0 said:

Thanks for the reminder.

My lawns weren't a problem until I planted about 9 square metres of Sir Walter. With plenty of chook poo dug in, it went berserk, needing two mows per week with grass deep enough to lose sight of the hose. Within months the grubs went crazy and then I noticed it in other lawns. I lost patches of the Sir Walter (self-cured this year). The rest of the lawns weren't bad but there were some muddy balls. The problem made me very suspicious about the supplier. Anyway, all done last Spring, it is due for another batch, but I may be a month or two late. I think the advice is to spray in August and February.

 

Hi Steve,  So, what I've found out. a product which was only made available out side of the commercial industry, called " acelepryn "  which is what all the green keepers use at race tracks and golfing greens. It's expensive, but applied twice a year in granule form, basically it gives all year round protection..

The beauty of it, is that it's not classed a grade 1 insecticide, won't harm birds or animals but applied at the heavier rate ( 2kg per 100 sq meters) it stays in the soil and deals with problem. a 4kg bucket did my back yard at 1.25kg per m2 this time round, but doing it again in September will nail the buggas. Couldn't find the larger bag size of 10kg any where in NSW, all sold out..

So it came recommended from this green keeper, so I'll run with that. maybe have a research on the product, super easy to apply the granules, just quite expensive on initial purchase  HTH

[BaitDropper]

2 minutes ago, mrsswordfisherman said:

I have much to say on lawn problems. 
We are in the middle of a lawn that was wiped out by army worms. 

I might make a whole post on it.

The lush green is what it normally looks like. 

Hi Donna, Yep, I've heard about the plague with army worm too..

I will point out, this same product deals with them too... just using a different application technique.. Rather than watering the granules in straight away, you leave the granules on the grass for 24 hours first, then water it in..  the product I got was called Grub Guard ultimate ( the big hardware store can get it in for you special order)  but as mentioned, acelepryn and its active ingrediant in granule form is the go...  The green keeper I know advised me to use a spray version to really kill whats there now immediately, but after looking at the specs, it also nails termites, extremely dangerous to pets or aquatic and you have to suit up fully to use it !!, I decided to use the Acelepryn and I'm happy to not to have such an instant kill......     Isn't it dissapointing when you see a result like that from these damn pests....

[Fab1]

9 minutes ago, mrsswordfisherman said:

I have much to say on lawn problems. 
We are in the middle of a lawn that was wiped out by army worms. 

I might make a whole post on it.

The lush green is what it normally looks like. 

If you and stewy are not on to it Acelypryn is your friend and make sure you destroy the cocoons under eaves etc.Keep an eye out for moths also.

[Mike Sydney]

Ouch @mrsswordfisherman that hurts. I am battling critters in my lawn too - first time I’ve had to deal with funnel ants. Lawn is only a year old after we did a knock down rebuild. Dozens of these little mounds of dirt they’ve pushed out from their tunnelling. Started on the edges but they’re everywhere now front and back.

We’ve an exterminator coming to deal with them next week, they inject something down into each hole.

[Steve0]

1 hour ago, BaitDropper said:

Hi Steve,  So, what I've found out. a product which was only made available out side of the commercial industry, called " acelepryn "  which is what all the green keepers use at race tracks and golfing greens. It's expensive, but applied twice a year in granule form, basically it gives all year round protection..

The beauty of it, is that it's not classed a grade 1 insecticide, won't harm birds or animals but applied at the heavier rate ( 2kg per 100 sq meters) it stays in the soil and deals with problem. a 4kg bucket did my back yard at 1.25kg per m2 this time round, but doing it again in September will nail the buggas. Couldn't find the larger bag size of 10kg any where in NSW, all sold out..

So it came recommended from this green keeper, so I'll run with that. maybe have a research on the product, super easy to apply the granules, just quite expensive on initial purchase  HTH

Thanks

I was out of granules but had some Bifenthrin and just gave it a dose. There were a few mounds on the older lawn (not bad) but nothing showing in the new bed. So, the new bed probably has some residual effect from it's second spray around December last year.   

We're on the edge of the bush, but don't get Magpies or Bandicoots that dig in for a feed but we do have a large family of Kookaburras. One of those likes to keep close company when I dig in the garden and he cleans up any grubs turned over. It sneaks under my guard for worms too and will fly in the path of my petrol blower to grab anything it turns up. Here he is checking my work when preparing the new Sir Walter bed in 2022.

 

Edited April 1 by Steve0

[BaitDropper]

Hi Steve, yeah it was bifinthrin that my mate recommended to do an intial 1 or two sprays then go to the acelepryn granules..

Please be careful with that stuff, it's a class 1, which you really need to be careful with.. we live with the bush next door too, but the big reason I didn't use it, is 2 doors down we have a bee keeper we get all our honey off, and that stuff is lethal to bees. We have a run off area 50 meters from our place with a decent sized, small, pond type thing and a huge number of wombats, so I decided best to go with the Acelepryn... Its a twice a year application and isn't toxic to bees, birds pets etc.  Bifinthrin, on all accounts, is used for extreme infetations, so if your careful, it will nail them, the  Acelepryn, is more a preventative...

Cute kooka, we have our resident kooka's here too, not as daringly close as that one in your photo, but quite a few regulars make appearances, awesome birds...  Just wished they were around last week, when I had to chase of a medium sized brown snake from my back door, apparently they have a go at them ??  Not one in site when I had an issue 😁

[mrsswordfisherman]

2 hours ago, Fab1 said:

If you and stewy are not on to it Acelypryn is your friend and make sure you destroy the cocoons under eaves etc.Keep an eye out for moths also.

Thanks Fabian we know about the chemical side. 
Stewy does “eave patrol” around the place every morning. Mongrel things lay eggs on any smooth surface like garage doors, smooth plant leaves, outdoor light fittings etc 

Stewy is a very experienced master gardener. He is renowned for our lawn. Real estate guys say street appeal plus plus. 

We went away for 3 weeks and normally the lawn just needs a good mow and tidy up. 

We cried when we turned corner and saw a very overgrown lawn. People were almost holding vigils as they thought we had died!! No car, no caravan and it looked  deserted and unkempt. 

There had been a massive amount of rain and a lawn that was perfect nourishment for a a march of army worms. They will always go for the best lawn. 

I ended up finding a guy who has a degree and consults for turf clubs and golf courses. He came to have a look and chat about things. 

He reassured Stewy that his recovery plan would be good. He also sprayed extensively with commercial grade insecticide. This has worked very well and reduced the numbers to zero. 

Fertilise, water like buggery and pray. Sort bindis and weeds done. It has greened up day by day. 

I will throw up some pics later. 

 

[Fab1]

20 minutes ago, mrsswordfisherman said:

Thanks Fabian we know about the chemical side. 
Stewy does “eave patrol” around the place every morning. Mongrel things lay eggs on any smooth surface like garage doors, smooth plant leaves, outdoor light fittings etc 

Stewy is a very experienced master gardener. He is renowned for our lawn. Real estate guys say street appeal plus plus. 

We went away for 3 weeks and normally the lawn just needs a good mow and tidy up. 

We cried when we turned corner and saw a very overgrown lawn. People were almost holding vigils as they thought we had died!! No car, no caravan and it looked  deserted and unkempt. 

There had been a massive amount of rain and a lawn that was perfect nourishment for a a march of army worms. They will always go for the best lawn. 

I ended up finding a guy who has a degree and consults for turf clubs and golf courses. He came to have a look and chat about things. 

He reassured Stewy that his recovery plan would be good. He also sprayed extensively with commercial grade insecticide. This has worked very well and reduced the numbers to zero. 

Fertilise, water like buggery and pray. Sort bindis and weeds done. It has greened up day by day. 

I will throw up some pics later. 

 

Fair enough.If it’s a running type grass like couch or kikuyu even a nuclear holocaust won't kill it don’t worry.Its coming to the end of the grass growing season as night time temps are dropping and grass will slow down.

[mrsswordfisherman]

Just now, Fab1 said:

Fair enough.If it’s a running type grass like couch or kikuyu even a nuclear holocaust won't kill it don’t worry.Its coming to the end of the grass growing season as night time temps are dropping and grass will slow down.

That is why we are in a hurry.
Those grasses are at the front. 
They didn’t like the Sir Walter at the back yard - too hard for them to chew! 
Here’s to a nice green lawn 😉

[Mike Sydney]

12 minutes ago, Fab1 said:

Fair enough.If it’s a running type grass like couch or kikuyu even a nuclear holocaust won't kill it don’t worry.Its coming to the end of the grass growing season as night time temps are dropping and grass will slow down.

We’ve got Sir Walter in the back yard. A few weeks ago my wife put the pool cover out to dry, two hours in 26 degrees. Shocked to see how quickly it died:

Brought her to tears. But just a week later after some watering and seasol she was basically good as new again. A sturdy grass for sure, a couple weeks later it’s too long for the mower to clip in one pass !

[mrsswordfisherman]

14 minutes ago, Mike Sydney said:

We’ve got Sir Walter in the back yard. A few weeks ago my wife put the pool cover out to dry, two hours in 26 degrees. Shocked to see how quickly it died:

Brought her to tears. But just a week later after some watering and seasol she was basically good as new again. A sturdy grass for sure, a couple weeks later it’s too long for the mower to clip in one pass !

Nice recovery there. Do you think it may have been some chlorine on the cover too? 

[Fab1]

15 minutes ago, Mike Sydney said:

We’ve got Sir Walter in the back yard. A few weeks ago my wife put the pool cover out to dry, two hours in 26 degrees. Shocked to see how quickly it died:

Brought her to tears. But just a week later after some watering and seasol she was basically good as new again. A sturdy grass for sure, a couple weeks later it’s too long for the mower to clip in one pass !

It got leaf scorched it didn’t kill the roots.Doesn't take long doing that or having kids pools on the lawn etc.Its a good way to kill weeds in garden beds when establishing a new garden.

[Fab1]

25 minutes ago, mrsswordfisherman said:

That is why we are in a hurry.
Those grasses are at the front. 
They didn’t like the Sir Walter at the back yard - too hard for them to chew! 
Here’s to a nice green lawn 😉

You’ll find all types of grass get eaten by grubs it’s just some are hardier than others .In my experience blue couch and couch are probably the worse and kikuyu and buffalo the hardier varieties.

[Mike Sydney]

1 hour ago, mrsswordfisherman said:

Nice recovery there. Do you think it may have been some chlorine on the cover too? 

It was basically bubble wrap. The cover had been off the pool for several weeks so Amy gave it a hose clean and left it to dry. Just the magnifying glass scorching it up but the speed it happened was wild.

[zmk1962]

Oh dear ... reading this has brought back so many bad memories ...

6yrs ago lost the rear lawn to army worms .... they marched through neighbours property to mine from left to right ... they march in a straight line ... how do I know - we have a pool inbetween and they marched straight into it ... millions didn't make the channel crossing YUK!  The ones that went along the sides hit the lawn and kept going - in a straight line. Took ages to eradicate them and regrow the lawn.

Then came the curl grubs (strangely they appeared after I had topped up our vege patch with 2 cubic meters of garden mix from F Power). First came the circles on the lawn (crop circles 😱) which I jumped on pretty quickly with the army worm deterrent, but that must have driven them deep because they re-appeard having discovered the golf ball shrubs .... I pull up a dead plant and sure enough 3-4 curl grubs entangled in the roots....they wiped out 30 in the back yard and 18 in the front .. I guess they were a delicacy at $15ea !!!

 

Now and for the past three years I have been waging WW III .... against bronze orange bugs (stink bugs) which have invaded my citrus plants - the lemon, the kaffir lime, the lime, the orange and the mandarin tree have all been attacked. The lemon is totally trashed - I have no idea how it is surviving. 

These devil spawn bugs have appeared ever since the neighbour behind me planted fast growing "insect resistant" lilly pilly bush things along the entire back fence as a privacy screen.

Aaargh. We've had many battles ... which sadly they have won (we lost all our citrus crop last year) ... but this year I am infront thanks to Richgrow Beat-a-Bug and a sprayer I modified to enable me to reach the tree tops and the underside of the foliage  (I know spraying is bad ... but there is NO natural defence against these abominations... I have consulted many a specialist).

I am down to a few that come out in the morning ... but they are BREEDERS ... so I have to keep at it till the cycle is broken.

 

Cheers and may the force be with you all.

Zoran

[BaitDropper]

Hi Zoran, I feel your pain brother !!

I too had a lemon tree nailed by them, BUT I am onto it in a big way now. I pulled 100 odd by hand off the lemon tree at one stage during summer but kept oil on my other young fruit trees and I seem to have won the battle with them..  Seasonal weather, is suppose to dictate whether these predators come out in numbers, which seems to ring true with the weather we have had over the last 6 months or so..

On a footnote, regarding curl grubs, after applying the Acelepryn and giving the lawn a watering yesterday arvo, for the first time there was none of the Bugga's coming up for a feed early evening as I have had recently, I normally walk around and pick up 20-30 of them tucking into a good feed on top. I expected this considering I had watered the lawn, however, quite unexpectedly, when walking around this morning, I picked up near 50, decidedly sick looking curl grubs, laying belly up, still alive, but not happy campers at all. I didn't think the Acelepryn Granules would have such a quick effect like this, but it has certainly given them a wee hurry up 😁. It's suppose to work as a preventative type insecticide, so this was a good out come for me and gives me hope that by next summer I should have them well under control..

My wife has declared, that I am now officially obsessed !! And I need to get the boat out and spend some time fishing !! for my mental state of mind 😃.. 

I will indeed do this in the next few days, But I will do so with the peace of mind, that I am on top of this " Grub war "  and I am still sane and not obsessed  👀

 

[Steve0]

19 hours ago, BaitDropper said:

Hi Steve, yeah it was bifinthrin that my mate recommended to do an intial 1 or two sprays then go to the acelepryn granules..

Please be careful with that stuff, it's a class 1, which you really need to be careful with.. we live with the bush next door too, but the big reason I didn't use it, is 2 doors down we have a bee keeper we get all our honey off, and that stuff is lethal to bees. We have a run off area 50 meters from our place with a decent sized, small, pond type thing and a huge number of wombats, so I decided best to go with the Acelepryn... Its a twice a year application and isn't toxic to bees, birds pets etc.  Bifinthrin, on all accounts, is used for extreme infetations, so if your careful, it will nail them, the  Acelepryn, is more a preventative...

Cute kooka, we have our resident kooka's here too, not as daringly close as that one in your photo, but quite a few regulars make appearances, awesome birds...  Just wished they were around last week, when I had to chase of a medium sized brown snake from my back door, apparently they have a go at them ??  Not one in site when I had an issue 😁

 

The bird quite often catches me by surprise. Working with a rake I might turn and it will be on a branch right near my shoulder. It grabbed my wife's sandwich one day. One of us had a laugh

We had a tree snake visitor for a while. In a dry spell before we had guttering replaced, it was coming up onto the 2nd story veranda to drink out of the bucket we were using to collect the drips for pot plants (dew ran off the roof at night). Now the buckets are gone, it probably won't visit again. A few neighbors have had experiences with brown snakes. They thing they have in common is a pool in their yard.

Bees may not be a consideration for pet control much longer. Varroa is out of control. Maybe this lot heard