JB are a real problem in the coastal south east. The grubs feed on grass roots. Then the moles feed on the grubs. These 2 activities alone cause majore damage to lawns. Add to that the neighbors dog trying to track down the moles by digging up the yard. Thats 3 forms of damage just in the larval stage. I read about a product several years ago called "Milky Spore" I never used it due to the high cost, at that time I had very little to spend. Milky spore is said to be a biological agent that will cause death to it's off spring and lasts for many years in the soil. Sort of like a parasitic attack I think. The article I read was from my local extension service. I have seen the product on shelves in the stores. The article mentioned this product works best when used community wide. If you have killed off the grubs in your yard thats good. But you can still have problems with the adults flying in from the neighbors yards. So why don't I use it now? well I don't live on the coast and they are not a problem here.

rhizo: We are talking about 5 years ago when I was desperately trying to get rid of them. From what I remember I used numerous different products, more organic products than anything, but also chemicals that were not organic. I remember I even used a a spray that is suppose to be powerful enough to kill hornets (don't remember the name now). But nothing worked-killed on contact but they still kept coming day after day. I tried to only use the chemicals on the sunflowers rather than my vegetables because I was afraid I would poison us if I did. I had over $400 worth of Garden Alive organic products that I tried, Bulls-Eye I remember, and other insect killing products that I had gotten from Garden Alive--just can't remember all their names now-would recognize the names if I saw them. I also tried DE I remember. Sorry I can't remember everything--it was so long ago. As far as ants go, we can control local ants very well, it is the fire ants that keep giving us fits. My husband has spent lots of money on products that say it is for fire ants, but nothing seems to work. I have read up on everything I could about fire ants, things like you should put the poison granular on the mounds in the early AM because this is when the queen comes to the top--because it is cooler then--that she will go deep in the mound when it gets hot. My husband even pours boiling water on the mounds, but all that does is just make the fire ants that is left make another mound somewhere else. All the surrounding farms around here have fire ants, so even if you could get rid of the ones you have, you are just going to get your neighbors too. Everyone in the neighborhood has to get rid of their fire ants or they just keep migrating to each others farms. We even do things like run over the mounds with our cars every time we see one when we come home or leave the house, and my husband runs over them with the tractor whenever he cuts the grass. They even got into my gardening shed and ate a hole through the large sack of my potting soil and then proceeded to make a mound out of the potting soil! If you know of something that works, please let me know because we are about to have to sell our land just to get away from the fire ants! Thanks, Sheila

Leyla: I don't want to disillusion you but the guinea fowl will screech like a dying woman at any hour of the day. They are particularly noisy at roosting time. If you have more than one, each will insist on trying to roost higher than the other/s, and this squabbling, at high decibels, will go on for ages. They lay their eggs in an extremely well-hidden communal nest and, prompted by some whim or other, will decide that another nest location is preferable. So off they go again. But no-one seems prompted to actually sit on the eggs. I have no idea how they manage to breed in the wild. For all their faults, they are fascinating birds - very inquisitive, very vocal and always in a flurry.

What about pheromone traps, the beetles die inside the collection bag without any chemicals? I tried them and had to step back within seconds after hanging one to avoid the beetles flying into the trap. Follow directions very carefully regarding placement - some reviews say the traps may actually attract as many beetles as they catch and kill, seemed to work for me so far (knock on wood), I'm in SW Michigan.