Grubs

Has anyone ever had grubs in their containers? I found some in a petunia pot that I had. I'm pretty sure that there are some in the pots that I plan to overwinter. Any help with this will be greatly appreciated. Thanks Tina

Tina, sorry no one has answered your question. I found grubs in some containers I had a few years ago; after saying "eeeuuww!" a lot, I identified them as Japanese Beetle grubs. UGLYYY. I think they got in because I used some homemade compost in my containers that year, and I must have had the JP grubs in my compost. That was the year that I started putting down milky spore on my lawn, and after two years, I haven't seen a grub or a JP on my plants.

I'd tip out those pots and shake the soil around to find any grubs--and then destroy them.

CapeCodGardner,
Thanks, that is what I will do. Where do you get milky spores from?

Tina, milky spore is an organic control. It's available lots of places. I obtain it from my local plant nursery that happens to have an extensive organic department . Here is an on-line source:

http://search.store.yahoo.net/cgi-bin/nsearch?.autodone=http://store.yahoo.com/yhst-6316395947722/nsearch.html&catalog=yhst-6316395947722&query=milky%20spore&image.x=0&image.y=0

I"ve had them everywhere. Aren't they usually a problem in the spring not now? I was told that if the container is near an exterior light they will be worse because June Bugs get around the light at night and then lay their eggs in the dirt. But since it is way past June I don't know why I'm finding HUGE grubs now. Yuck...
Lisa

Apparently, grubs aren't all that unusual in container soil--at least, the site below comes from Ohio State and is talking about common white grubs affecting plant nurseries in Northern Ohio.

http://www.oardc.ohio-state.edu/atru/research/grubs.pdf

Does anyone know - is there any such thing as a good grub or are they all bad? I've been finding tons in my beds.

I don't know if there is a good or bad grub. But isn't this late in the season to be finding grubs at all? I've even found June bugs and it isn't June.
Lisa

Boy, Pagancat, I've been searching the net asking the question : "grubs--are they ALL bad?" and I haven't found anything about good grubs yet. But I'm no "grubologist" and maybe you could ask this question on the Beginning Gardeners forum here on DG.
What I find on my internet research is a lot of information about what kind of pesticide to use to get rid of them. As I said in a post above, if you're interested in organic controls, I've used milky spore now for two years, and haven't found grubs during this time.

So the milky spore takes care of all grubs, not just Japanese Beetles? One of my problems is it seems one of my dogs has become a grub hunter (I suspect) and is currently tearing up anything he thinks harbors them - we're gonna have massive plant death here soon or someone else.....

Pagancat , in my own research I can only find info that milky spore works for japanese beetle grubs. Having said that, I haven't seen ANY grubs in my lawn in the past two years since I've been using milky spore. Don't know that that means!
When I lived in CA, it was the raccoons that loved to peel back the lawn and eat the grubs!

Thanks for the info - I might just be looking into the milky spore. With all the grubs I've found lately where I've dug, I can only imagine the hordes where I haven't... or where Booner hasn't!

Booner looks like a lovely dog!

A good friend of mine told me her dog dug up grubs I thought she was crazy guess I was wrong. How do they know where to dig?

Thanks, CCG - he'll live on that one all day. He was a pretty worn out pup when we found him wandering, but he's fat and sassy now.

Gosh,1lisac - I wish I knew. Hearing? Smell? From the looks of it, Boone is going on chance. *sigh*

Guess my dogs aren't that energetic. The UPS guy who comes to our house has "useless" next the notation about dogs. That way if onther UPS person comes they know the dogs are useless also. Does your dog actually eat the things? I know my chickens love them and I think they are extremely gross and that is saying a lot because not much bothers me.
Lisa

Yup, they eat 'em.

There are good grubs. Grubs are beetle larvae, and there are some predatory beetles which are good to have around.

Other beetles are neutral from a pest point of view- both larvae & adult eat only decaying plant material. They have no negative impact on garden plants- and are important & beneficial elements of your local ecology/ food chain/soil health.

Oh great, I've destroyed a few hundred in the past month or two - I assumed they were feeding on the roots of my plants.

It's tough being gross & ugly- people assume the worst first.

http://faq.gardenweb.com/faq/lists/soil/2002013027009234.html

http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/2000/2510.html





This message was edited Nov 5, 2009 8:22 AM

Okay, well, I've never seen a gray tail, so maybe I'm in the clear. I've also never had one try to get away - they just kinda sat there.

Great links, think I might get a magnifying glass - science project, lol! Thanks!