A LOT! I hope they're good! Please tell me what they are if you can identify them...

They look like some sort of beetle grub. Where exactly are you located?

They look like grubs, but are a different color than the grubs I usually see around here.... They are in the first few inches of soil though so maybe they are grubs? There's so many!!!! :(

I have a lot of grubs this year, too; maybe the drought? Anyhow, squish them or put them into the trash.

I am going to guess northern California is your location. Look up masked chafer larvae. My guess is they were feeding on your roots if they match.

Yes John your guess is right on all three accounts. I am from Northern California (we sometimes call it NorCal). The masked chafer larvae exactly matches these grubs. And they were feeding on the roots of my island snapdragons. :(

I have no turf in my whole yard... So I just didn't expect to ever have a grub infestation like this! I picked out about 20 of those Tupperware containers full of grubs. That must have been about 300 grubs.

And that was just a very small part of the garden!

We had some raccoons removed from under the house earlier this year. Maybe we messed up the ecosystem at my house and the grubs took over.

I think I'm going to have to use Bayer. The manual method is no match at this point.

Thank you John and lisanti for your help.

Come to think of it.... There are usually wild turkeys in my area too, but I haven't seen them for a while. I used to find the wild turkeys to be annoying, dirty birds but now I wish they would come back and eat up all these grubs!

Without the raccoons and the turkeys I guess the little beetles/grubs have just gone forth and multiplied in my garden.

I haven't noticed a lot of beetles yet though so I hope it's not too late to get rid of the grubs!

Do any of your neighbors have grass? You may be treating a problem that is not starting on your property.

Those are grubs, the larva of a Scarab Beetle. With some 20,000 members the Scarab Beetle family is a really big one and about 1,500 are known to live in North America.

http://insects.about.com/od/beetles/p/scarab-beetles.htm

kimmq is kimmsr

Every neighbor around me has a lawn so yes, they probably made their way to my yard from theirs. It's my problem now though. :(

Anyone have experience with double death predatory nematodes from Nature's Control? http://www.naturescontrol.com/predatornematodes.html

I really try not to use chemicals and go more the permaculture route. I don't want to use something like Bayer, but this infestation is out of control.

Where on earth did all the wild turkeys go? They could get so plump feasting in my yard!

From everything I have read if you want to stay organic you should use a combination of milky spore and beneficial nematodes. A could of quick Google searches for organic grub control could give you better instructions.

Thanks John. I'm going to try Nature's Control double death predatory nematodes.

Milky spore seems to be a long term approach. This is definitely an acute infestation.

Its going to take a lot for this many grubs in a yard this large. I'm going to have to buy the Costco size. ;)

It will probably help the whole neighborhood. My neighbors with lawns should be thanking me.

Those also look like Japanese Beetle grubs which have a brown/orange head but only the head. We had a terrible infestation the last couple of years, attacking our linden (basswood) tree. I was thinking about treating the lawn with nematodes but have not done it yet.

Just bought 6 million double death predator nematodes. Supposed to be enough to treat 18,000 square feet, which I believe is a little less than a half acre. Hopefully this does the trick.

Jean thank you so much for the info. I called my local county's master gardener and they quickly got back to me, confirming that predator nematodes is a great way to go. Thank you!

The predator nematodes I ordered from Natures Control came nicely packaged with a cold pack, the name of the person who packed them (thanks Doug!) and lots of literature on "hired bugs."

It is supposed to be in the 90s over the weekend so I'm contemplating waiting until Sunday night to let them loose in my yard, but I might just do it tonight to be done with it. They're in the fridge waiting for me to make up my mind.

Interesting. I dug around a little and noticed these grubs seem to really like island snap dragon. They don't like nepeta as much. They kind of like roses and azaleas. I'm basing this on how many there were near the various plants I have. The island snapdragon is probabaly sweet. Th hummingbirds love it too.

Anyways, I went ahead and just let the predator nematodes loose tonight. I followed the directions for the most part. Here's a couple tips from my experience. It was really easy. Just open the ziplock bag, put the sponge of nematodes in a watering can (that is at least a gallon), rinse it by spraying it with the hose (while inside the watering can), then water the plants and the ground with the nematode water.

The directions recommend rinsing the nematode sponge in a gallon of water, then diluting further if you want. My watering can is 2 gallons, so I just used that. But, I wanted to use every last nematode so I rinsed the same sponge again for another 2 gallons, then reapplied it over the same area. I also rinsed the plastic bag into the water. Then I also buried the sponge and the bag in the ground when I was done with it and sprayed it with more water. Again... I wanted *every*last*one.

The thing is the directions say to water the ground before and after ... to create a humid environment and to water them in 3 inches after you apply them.

If you live in an area that has humidity or moist soil or if you have a sprinkler system, that's probably not a problem.

If you live where I do, and have drip irrigation, that takes days of planning.

The rain probabaly isn't going to wet the soil 3 inches until April where I live.

And the areas that aren't touched by the drip irrigation are bone dry. But still have the damn grubs.

So I was stuck using the hose. With my soil, that meant preparing by wetting down the soil every day for the past few days since I ordered the grubs.

I decided to do it tonight because it's going to be hot tomorrow and possibly evaporate all the watering I have been doing to get the soil moist.

So.... if you can, make it easy on yourself and apply predator nematodes after at least 5-10 GOOD DEEP rains. If you live in an area where it hardly ever rains, or have an acute, immediate problem like me, just prepare to spend a lot of time and money watering them in to get them down 3 inches.

I'm going to check the effects and reapply in a couple weeks like the company recommends. I will post an update. :)

Cory Ann, did the nematodes help you in fighting those grubs?

I think they would work better during the time of year when there's more rain and the soil isn't so dry... or in climates that aren't so dry from drought. Which stinks because I need them in the heat of our summer when grubs are the biggest problem. I think it's worth another try in the future, but in my particular situation they only seemed to slightly lower the population of grubs. I had a huge infestation though. After giving it time and a second application of predator nematodes, I ended up resorting to Bayer. Which I hated, but it needed to be done. Next year I may try nematodes again as prevention though.

I think that soil grubs are considered not a serious problem unless the numbers are extreme. Everyone has them. There was a discussion about this recently in the Vegetable Gardening forum, and it was suggested that unless numbers exceed 10 per square foot, there wasn't any cause for concern. The damage is mainly not from the grubs but from the bug they turn into. Not sure what Bayer insecticide you were referring to, but I'd be really careful about that. Treatment of soil with insecticides is generally a bad idea, because you kill a lot of good stuff along with the bad. End up in worse shape than you started out.

By the way, birds love them. If I find them in the garden, I set them on a piece of wood or an aluminum pie pan (so they don't burrow back in) and the birds come and gobble them up.

yeah I had over 100 per square foot in this area of my yard. I'm not willing to have that many beetles.

I'm all about biological controls, permaculture and organic gardening. But there's a time and a place for other measures.

This was it.

I manually took out over 1000 for the birds, squirrels, raccoons, turkeys, etc. They didn't want them. They stayed in the container in at the side of the yard, untouched for over a week. Unfortunately.

For others reading, I definitely recommending trying biological controls (predator bugs) first. I did.

Wow. That's a lot of grubs. Hey, it's organic material! Of course, they're probably all over the area, so next winter you'll likely see the same thing. That is, killing the grubs in your bed is not a long term solution, unless there is something very special about your bed that makes them want to be there and nowhere else.

We will see. I don't think anyone can say for certain with what's happening with the different conditions from the ongoing drought here. I don't think they want my yard more than others. I probabaly notice more than others tho because I don't have a lawn and my neighbors all do. I work the soil. My neighbors usually don't. I will report back next year.

Very probably if you talk with the people at your local office of the University of California Cooperative Extension they would be able to identify which member of the scarab beetle family you do have.

http://ipm.ucanr.edu/GENERAL/ceofficefinder.html

kimmq is kimmsr

Hi kimmq. When I called my local county's master gardener program (which is my local county's University of California Cooperative Extension) they consulted with me on the predator nematodes and possible other alternatives to eliminate them, but didn't feel it was necessary to determine what type of beetle these grubs were going to grow into. I agreed. I guess it could be academically interesting, but I really was more focused on just eliminating them. They were very helpful though. Thank you for the thought.

If your neighbors have lawns, it's possible they are treating for grubs and yours is an oasis. Also you have tasty plant roots and all they have is grass. I have similar problems - Japanese beetles to be precise. I'm going to nuke them with the nematodes and milky spore come spring.

Hi Cori Ann, so what is your plan for this year on controlling grubs? do you think of using those nematodes only as a preventive method? In spring? I would follow your lead :) This weekend I bought Bayer stuff for controlling them, it says to apply it from May to August. But now I kind of think that if there is another way for a preventive shot I would use it. As I'm for building environment friendly place if possible... Last year I was introduced to these ugly creatures myself. I was replanting one rose and found dozen of them just right there, in the rose hole (read rose pot as everything around it is stone hard clay)... I was in shock. And we don't have lawn, but yes, my neighbors do. Still amazes me that my rose beds surrounded by hardest clay are infested with these guys...

Hi Natasha. Great questions.

My hope is that it is never bad enough that I need to use Bayer again! The active ingredient in it kills all sorts of beneficial bugs (and bees) too... and I really try my best not to use pesticides. If I only saw 12 or so in a hole I would feel really good about just using predator nematodes.

I'm applying predator nematodes in about 2 weeks, then again in about a month. It is warm enough here to apply them now, but I just applied horticultural oil for the first time to some roses and citrus so I want to give that some time since the oil could smother the beneficial nematodes too.

Have you gotten any rain in Phoenix? I think the reason why the nematodes didn't work that well in the fall for me is because the ground was just too dry. It needs to be wet in order for them to move around and get the grubs. At least 6 inches down. FINALLY after all the rain we have had it is wet about 6 inches down here now.

If you're thinking about nematodes, I would say go for it! Just make sure to apply them when there has been some rain to make it easier on yourself and your water budget (that way you don't have to soak the soil in order to water them in). Good luck!

Detail at UC's site - this is what your Master Gardener's will refer to to find your answers - the search and all notes are also available to the public (a large part of our training is on how to look up answers - although having local avid gardeners who know the area, it's plants and pests is also a great resource). http://ipm.ucanr.edu/PMG/r785301311.html AND http://ipm.ucanr.edu/TOOLS/TURF/PESTS/inchaf.html

Thanks Maggie. That is exactly what the Master Gardeners referred to and confirms that predator nematodes is a great way to go. :) From experience... I think it just really needs to be moist in the soil at least 6 inches down in order for them to work.

We had good rain like 2 weeks ago... And now any more on the horizon so far... maybe I will keep them in the refrigerator while waiting for another batch of rain :) but I have a question... forget my ignorance... I read what you had about grubs... I read something more... as I get it (and I can be wrong) that nematodes need actual grubs already present to kill them with that fungus they carry... Will it be efficient to use it when we don't have them in the soil yet?

Hi Natasha. Here's some good info about predator nematodes. http://www.naturescontrol.com/predatornematodes.html

From what I understand, they don't just need actual grubs. They attack all sorts of soil pests. :)

you are right... looks like we will need several applications per growing season, for these creatures, for those... I think I will do mine closer to March (when nights are warmer and I think we will get another chance of rain :) and then sometimes in August (more chances to get rains with monsoon season)... don't feel like soaking soil by myself :)