Japanese Beetles have finally made it to Minnesota and they're tearing
up the garden big time.

Conventional wisdom says it's a waste of time to treat the lawn for
grubs unless you can convince everybody who lives within 3 miles to do
the same.

However, will the grubs do damage to the lawn itself? Should I treat the
lawn just for the sake of the lawn?

--
Bert Hyman St. Paul, MN

"Bert Hyman" wrote in message
. ..
Japanese Beetles have finally made it to Minnesota and they're tearing
up the garden big time.

Conventional wisdom says it's a waste of time to treat the lawn for
grubs unless you can convince everybody who lives within 3 miles to do
the same.

First time I've ever heard that and don't know where it
came from. If you have excessive grubs in your lawn you certainly can kill
them with a pesticide by just treating your lawn. That will stop them from
destroying it. Grubs may reappear next year, coming from wherever, but then
you take care of it again if necessary.



However, will the grubs do damage to the lawn itself?

Of course they will. Some simple googling will produce plenty of pictures
of lawns destroyed by grubs. The grubs eat the roots away and the turf
pulls up like carpet.
Also, animals like skunks find grubs tasty and can tear up
a lawn overnight.
Should I treat the
lawn just for the sake of the lawn?

Depends on how many grubs you have and whether you care if your lawn gets
destroyed or not.





--
Bert Hyman St. Paul, MN

In "."
wrote:

"Bert Hyman" wrote in message
. ..
Japanese Beetles have finally made it to Minnesota and they're
tearing up the garden big time.

Conventional wisdom says it's a waste of time to treat the lawn for
grubs unless you can convince everybody who lives within 3 miles to
do the same.

First time I've ever heard that and don't know where it
came from.

In the context of Japanese beetles, everywhere.

Japanese beetles will travel several miles to find food, so treating
just my own lawn won't eliminate enough of the pests to make a
difference.

--
Bert Hyman St. Paul, MN

On Aug 9, 9:52*am, Bert Hyman wrote:
"."
wrote:

"Bert Hyman" wrote in message
...
Japanese Beetles have finally made it to Minnesota and they're
tearing up the garden big time.

Conventional wisdom says it's a waste of time to treat the lawn for
grubs unless you can convince everybody who lives within 3 miles to
do the same.

First time I've ever heard that and don't know where it
came from.

In the context of Japanese beetles, everywhere.

Japanese beetles will travel several miles to find food, so treating
just my own lawn won't eliminate enough of the pests to make a
difference.

--
Bert Hyman * * *St. Paul, MN *

If you already know the answer, then why did you come here asking
the questions? Obviously you don't understand the lifecycle of
the insect you're dealing with. Here's a clue: Adult Japanese
beetles
that travel miles don't destroy your lawn. The larvae of a variety
of beetles, commonly referred to as grubs, do.

In
" wrote:

On Aug 9, 9:52*am, Bert Hyman wrote:
"."
wrote:

"Bert Hyman" wrote in message
...
Japanese Beetles have finally made it to Minnesota and they're
tearing up the garden big time.

Conventional wisdom says it's a waste of time to treat the lawn
for grubs unless you can convince everybody who lives within 3
miles to do the same.

First time I've ever heard that and don't know where it
came from.

In the context of Japanese beetles, everywhere.

Japanese beetles will travel several miles to find food, so treating
just my own lawn won't eliminate enough of the pests to make a
difference.


If you already know the answer, then why did you come here asking
the questions? Obviously you don't understand the lifecycle of
the insect you're dealing with. Here's a clue: Adult Japanese
beetles that travel miles don't destroy your lawn. The larvae of a
variety of beetles, commonly referred to as grubs, do.

Did you even bother to read my original post? The specific question was:

"However, will the grubs do damage to the lawn itself? Should I treat
the lawn just for the sake of the lawn?"

Are you, in fact, saying that the grubs will, in fact, do significant
damage to the lawn?

Are you, in fact, saying that it might be worth my while to treat my
lawn for the grubs just for the sake of the lawn, even though it won't
do anything to reduce the number of beetles that I find in the garden?

So far, I've seen no evidence of lawn damage that can be attributed to
the beetle larvae, but this is the first year we've seen more than a
handful of the beetles.

--
St. Paul, MN

On Aug 11, 11:52*am, Bert Hyman wrote:






" wrote:
On Aug 9, 9:52 am, Bert Hyman wrote:
"."
wrote:

"Bert Hyman" wrote in message
...
Japanese Beetles have finally made it to Minnesota and they're
tearing up the garden big time.

Conventional wisdom says it's a waste of time to treat the lawn
for grubs unless you can convince everybody who lives within 3
miles to do the same.

First time I've ever heard that and don't know where it
came from.

In the context of Japanese beetles, everywhere.

Japanese beetles will travel several miles to find food, so treating
just my own lawn won't eliminate enough of the pests to make a
difference.

If you already know the answer, then why did you come here asking
the questions? * Obviously you don't understand the lifecycle of
the insect you're dealing with. *Here's a clue: *Adult Japanese
beetles that travel miles don't destroy your lawn. * The larvae of a
variety of beetles, commonly referred to as grubs, do.

Did you even bother to read my original post?

Yes I read it and I provided the first reply that addressed your
specific questions.




The specific question was:

"However, will the grubs do damage to the lawn itself? Should I treat
the lawn just for the sake of the lawn?"

Are you, in fact, saying that the grubs will, in fact, do significant
damage to the lawn?


Answered in the reply, but it may not be obvious that I provided
that first reply because Google was down and I did it from
another account. I also pointed out, that contrary to your claim,
it's not common knowledge that you can't treat a grub problem
in your lawn without treating all the lawns for many miles. This
is the first time I've ever heard it.




Are you, in fact, saying that it might be worth my while to treat my
lawn for the grubs just for the sake of the lawn, even though it won't
do anything to reduce the number of beetles that I find in the garden?

As I said in the first reply, that depends on how many grubs you have,
whether the lawn is a nice one or mostly weeds and how much you
value your lawn.




So far, I've seen no evidence of lawn damage that can be attributed to
the beetle larvae, but this is the first year we've seen more than a
handful of the beetles.

Lift a square foot of turf at several spots and count the number of
grubs. If it's only a few, treatment is generally not warranted. If
it's above 10 then yes. In between, maybe.






--
* * *St. Paul, MN- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

In

" wrote:

On Aug 11, 11:52*am, Bert Hyman wrote:


Did you even bother to read my original post?

Yes I read it and I provided the first reply that addressed your
specific questions.

I didn't realize that you and the person posting as "." were the same
person.

But that post appeared to be addressing the problem of grubs in general,
with no suggestion that you were talking specifically about Japanese
beetle grubs.

Anyway, thanks for your input.

--
St. Paul, MN

In Eggs Zachtly
wrote:

I'm definately not "anti-pesticide". I just tend to use it as a last
resort because there are usually side-effects, with chemicals, that
most people don't think about, that can have a negative impact.
Replacing a problem, with a different problem, as it were.

I don't use 'em either, other than the systemic stuff (imidacloprid)
that I'm trying on the roses. If the sand cherries and dwarf crab apple
survive the beetle onslaught, I might try it on them next spring. The
clematis and Boston Ivy are done for.

--
St. Paul, MN

Bert Hyman said:

In

" wrote:

On Aug 11, 11:52*am, Bert Hyman wrote:


Did you even bother to read my original post?

Yes I read it and I provided the first reply that addressed your
specific questions.

I didn't realize that you and the person posting as "." were the same
person.

But that post appeared to be addressing the problem of grubs in general,
with no suggestion that you were talking specifically about Japanese
beetle grubs.

Anyway, thanks for your input.

One thing you may want to keep in mind.

If you apply a "pesticide" to kill the grubs in your lawn, you'll also kill
every earthworm in the same vicinity. That *does* have some ramifications to it.
Just food for thought.

I'm definately not "anti-pesticide". I just tend to use it as a last resort
because there are usually side-effects, with chemicals, that most people don't
think about, that can have a negative impact. Replacing a problem, with a
different problem, as it were.

25 earthworms per square foot of soil equals about 1 million earthworms per
acre. That's a lotta worms tunneling around under your turf. There are many
benefits to that, not limited to aeration, porosity, fertility (worm castings
rock as a fertilizer), or permeability. They also stimulate nitrogen-fixing
bacteria. Be a shame to lose that, you'll end up applying nitrogen at a greater
rate. =)
--
Eggs

-It is easier to get forgiveness than permission.