Northeast Gardening: grub problem - DE? help., 1 by amethystsm

amethystsm wrote:
Yesterday, as i was uncovering areas of garden from the mulch that had been dumped there by the landlords (a slow, endless task) in order to work DE into the ground w/o mixing tons of mulch in too, i got another lovely surprise -
ants!!!
and, naistier yet, eggs.
i must have found a solid layer of eggs and about 1.5 million ants between my verbena and echinacea.

it is like the plagues of Egypt out there.
i don't know whether to cry or throw up.

i spent about an hour shoveling a mixture of ants, ant eggs, mulch, grubs, and dirt (from an area of less than 2 sq ft) into a bucket and taking it to the dumpster.
i definitely uncovered roots of the echinacea and morning glory in the process. i tried to put dirt back over them, but who knows if they'll make it.
The one good-ish thing is Mrs. Landlord hapened by in time for the ant-a-rama. We had a chat about the grubs in the lawn, and i explained about milkyspore & nematodes to her. They'll look into it in the spring, but mention was made of "ant killer" and some kind of pesticide that has been taken off the market, and how they wish they could still use that.

sigh.

amy
*
(didn't think to grab a camera at 1st - ran up to get DH's old one, my batteries were dead.)