I didn't see but a couple JBs all summer here! I don't know if it was the late cold snap, the drought, or both. I have seen quite a few baby grubs in my digging this fall, can you tell me what you think about the milky spore? I have heard of it, but as a newbie, have never applied any. How effective do you find it and how far does one container really go? I looked at it in the store recently and it is 25.00 for 1 container. Thanks, Brandy

I HATE them! I wish someone would come up with a way to kill them off forever.

Carla

I don't think there is anything you can do to stop them. I have spread the Grub Control product on my lawn the last few years. They still come by the thousands. The systemics may kill them, but not until they have munched awhile. It only takes a few beetle chomps to ruin a bloom.

Face it, they only way to endure beetle season in this area is to take your attention away from your tattered blooms by inventing ingenious and sadistic ways to kill beetles.

MY JB's were gone by early August...

From what I understand--if you use a grub killer on your TURF it will help enormously. My experience with adult JB's and insecticides, pyrethrins, etc is that the residual effect stuff is not very...effective. One has to spray ON the critter. When I wanted to protect specific blooms, (to bring in the house) I covered the bud with a knee high nylon. Workded really well--though it looked VERY silly.

If you are n a drought situation (as all of NC is!) milky spore will not be effective for you this season. Milky spore needs consistent moisture to do it's thing. Grub killer, OTOH, will take care of the JB's in YOUR yard. Your neighbor's JB's will still hatch and come visiting, but it may help.

Yes, grub killers did help me here while Milky Spore didn't but I have no idea if anything helps in PA or MD.

Brandy, it took 4 large cans of Milky Spore to treat my acre of lawn. Over $300 worth (my wife had a fit!). I won't know until next year if it had any effect, but desperate times call for desperate expenditures...

Another idea I plan to try is either keeping the roses well coated with Pyola (it leaves a plastic-like film after drying), or cutting off the buds before they open for the first few weeks after the JBs arrive. Supposedly the first "pioneer" buggers blaze a pheromone trail for others to follow to "good eats." If true, I figure if they start building their highway to someplace other than my roses, those that follow in their path may detour around my place. To help make that happen, I might have to mow down my strawberry patch as soon as I finish harvesting the berries in mid-June - the JBs always use it as a landing zone and skeletonize the leaves. It might be drawing them in to my general vicinity.

Harryshoe, I empathize with you about sadistic ways of killing them! I actually followed through on one of my fantasies...came home from one work one afternoon, found a Mister Lincoln bloom that was pristine that morning completely covered with beetles, and just grabbed the bloom and crushed it, beetles and all! Truly messy, but oh, how satisfying...

Rick

It takes a few years for milky spore to get established in a lawn, then it's good for years. It infects the grubs which die increasing the spore population when they decompose.
Mid August to early fall is the best time to use a grub control. The newly hatched but immature grubs are actively feeding and at the stage when they are most affected by insecticides.
It's important to apply insecticides at a time in an insect's life when they are most affected by it. If it doesn't kill them, it could make them, and future generations, resistant to the insecticide.
A spring application is less effective on the mature grubs.
Applying the grub control to just your beds or certain areas of your lawn will not be as effective as applying it on your whole lawn. The beetles are not very selective as to where they drop their eggs. I've found grubs all over my lawn already.
Although most grub control products are sold in the spring, the time to apply to get the most from your money is late summer and early fall.

I want to add that I used the Bayer 2 in 1 which has a systemic insecticide two years ago before I knew how toxic it was. It did nothing to the beetles. I think that is because it doesn't really get into the petals of the rose which is what the beetles are mostly eating.

Is it too late to do the grub control on the lawn now Karl? I haven't gotten around to doing it yet so I might do just milky spore.

Yep, a long JB season here too. They came a little later this year, sometime after the 4th of July, and I was foolish enough to hope for a good season. But here we are in October and I still found 2 more last night. Possibly due to the extremely mild weather were having. It's more like the beginning of Sept. here.

I put down grub control twice this year. Once right after they first appeared, and once again in late August. From what I've read, It only takes about two weeks for the eggs to hatch. So you put down the grub control as soon as you see the adults. Hopefully the larva eat the grub control before they burrow underground in search of turf roots to eat, and make their home for the winter. I re-applied about 6 weeks later because there were still a lot of beetles breeding, and I doubt the initial application would still be effective, especially after all the flooding we had in late August. Spraying Cyfluthrin or Permethrin and the like will do nothing to prevent them from coming back, and kills everything else in sight as well.

Last year I used to take a lot of satisfaction in squishing them one one by one as I found them in the flowers. Then I worried about releasing a scent that would attract others. So now instead of torturing them, I take them for a nice swim with some of their friends in a bucket of soapy water. Very effective. What I've discovered in doing this is, their main strategy of escape when disturbed is instead of flying off, they tend to drop to the ground. So all you have to do is hold your bucket under the bloom, and say BOO!. They are so stupid! And it's fun to watch them swim.

Mike

Thank you for the information. I guess I better wait until we actually start getting some rain.
Do those pepper sprays work? Anyone tried them? Or whirling a few beetles in the blender then applying to the roses?
The other thing is, what about planting something that you don't care about as a decoy? Just wondering. Brandy

You can apply the grub control now. Although it may not be as effective as it would if applied in Mid August, it will do some good.