TheMondayGarden.com

Wow, who'da thunk I've been such a patriot?

The only thing I've been doing that I probably shouldn't is target-spraying June beetles at night.

It's a new garden with inherited problems, things are heavily damaged, and I figure if I catch the adults this year, I won't have to worry so much next year (especially when I get the bat house installed and, hopefully, inhabited next spring).

I can certainly recommend beneficial nematodes, although the beetle population is so out-of-control I think it'll take a couple of years of integrated effort to get to the point where I can shrug off the holes in the leaves.

Firefly -- it is always great to meet another Great American (assuming that you've now sworn off chemical warfare on fireflies). Are most of your beetles nocturnal or will more birds help as well?

Also, for more ideas, take a look at this article "FUN IN THE SUN: TOMATOES, PEPPERS, AND THE BUGS WHO LOVE THEM " http://www.inmygarden.org/archives/2004/06/fun_in_the_sun.html In particular, I'm wondering if an out-of-control insect population means that you have too much of a single kind of plant. Alternatively, someone in the past might have used chemicals, killing of all the good bugs and just part of the bad ones. Take a look at "ECO-EASY: MULCHING IN PLACE"
http://www.inmygarden.org/archives/2005/06/ecoeasy_mulchin.html about Eric Grissell's wonderful book on maintaining a balanced insect population.

Good luck and let me know what it goes

Sue

Hi Sue,

I tried to send a reply from a different computer but something crashed, so I apologize if you get two messages -- it looked to me like the first one wasn't sent.

You're right about the "too much of a single kind of plant," and it's called "grass." June beetles are very similar to Japanese beetles in that they feed on the roots of grass as grubs and on anything and everything green when they are adults. They are quite destructive, and it's the damnable monoculture of suburban lawns that lets them spiral out of control the way they have in my yard at the moment.

I just started a blog, Sweet Pea Chronicle, http://sweetpeachronicle.typepad.com, that has a picture of a sunflower from a few days ago. The damage to the leaves has occurred in spite of three treatments with nematodes, manual removal of hundreds of grubs from two 15x3' strips reclaimed for garden from lawn, and me on 'predator duty' with a bottle of rotenone-pyrethrin spray for about an hour a night for the past three weeks.

It's not my intention to wipe out the bugs, but this is more than just a few holes in the leaves, and I don't want the problem to get worse because I've suddenly introduced a new and more nutritious food source into the yard. I have starlings, grackles, and robins working the lawn during the day, but I'm the only thing catching breeding adults at night. I'd like to attract bats and toads, for starters, in addition to keeping up with the nematode treatments (they work). I've also gotten milky spore virus introduced into the ground, but I just found an article at the University of Maryland Web site indicating it might not be very effective on June beetles. I think it's going to take some time to turn the tide.

Unfortunately, not a whole lot of people realize how destructive June beetles can be -- I asked two pros (nursery and landscape) to identify a specimen last year. Neither one got it right. I found a picture on Bugguide.net that told what it was. Not many people are out in the garden with a flashlight at night watching little brown beetles chew up blades of grass and defoliate the heliotrope and butterfly bush, so it's understandable that this is pretty much under the radar. It's also not easy finding information specific to controlling June beetles. They usually are just lumped in with Japanese beetles.

Thank you for sending me the links to articles on your site. I visit often and read as much as I can, because there's so much good stuff there. I started using old washcloths as wipers in the kitchen thanks to an article you posted.

If you find any information specific to controlling June beetles, would you post it? It would be nice to make others aware that it's not just Japanese beetles that can be destructive, and maybe even find some research specific to these pests.

Thanks for everything!

Susan

Susan -- I read your blog and this note. Very impressive! You're working!

However, the trouble with IPM, in my view, is it believes that chemicals can get you ahead. Whatever value this view has for farmers, it has no place in the backyard. Even if chemicals didn't have horrible side-effects, they don't work because they kill too many beneficial insects and other animals that prey on insects. So long term, it's three steps back, one step forward. My mother's chemical-free/mulch-only garden and yard has lots of June beetles as well as Japanese beetles, slugs, and everything else but they don't cause a problem, except for annoying the lawn man.

You're right that the problem is that you're the only predator in town. What's needed is to enlist more predators. The bat house is good and recognizing the value of the starlings and other birds is good. However, most insects are eaten by other insects. You can encourage these fine beneficial insects by (1) laying off the chemicals completely, and (2) planting lots of the things the good insects like to eat, and adding bird bath or other water source.

It's my guess that you won't control the problem until a good part of your yard is not grass-lawn. My guess is that you'll never get there by trying to sterilize the yard first. I think that, probably, the problem will just keep getting worse. (Plus you're spending the money you could have put into plants, and exposing yourself, your family, pets, and your good yard animals to chemicals that may have nasty side effects.) I highly recommend Eric Grissell's book as a starting point.

Even though it's mid-summer it's not too late to put in some tough late summer perennials -- yarrow, cone flowers, Russian sage, goldenrod, etc. -- if you're wiling to water faithfully. But you're right that a few plants won't matter -- they'll just get munched up as you predict. You need a lot to restore the balance. You also need to be ready to be tolerant of insect damage to plant leaves while you are restoring the balance.

What I would do this fall, after re-reading Eric Grissell's book, is over-seed the lawn with 2 or three types of clover (I use Dutch white, a pink clover that Gaiam.com sells sometimes, and bird foot trefoil). This will "break the back" of your monoculture and protect the lawn against grub damage. The grubs will still eat the grass roots but the clover will hold down the sod, cover the brown spots, and nourish the grass so it can rebuild its roots. I'd also lay out major flower beds for fall and spring, planting lots of different things that beneficial insects and birds like (and picking local native plants wherever possible). A water source for frogs and toads would also be nice but won't work if you're using chemicals.

BTW: Slugs are long-lived and big eaters, so catching even a few can make a difference. If they are a major issue, put a "slug barrier" around affected garden (e.g. where you keep your prize hosta) by laying down a 12" wide path of sharp gravel. Then put a slug trap in the garden, say a 12"x18" piece of board, carpet or cardboard. Every time you can, clean the slugs off the underside of the trap and dispose of the slugs humanely. Within a year or two, you should see a major difference.

Also, depending on your zoning, and coyote, fox, and raccoon population, a couple of yard fowl for a year or two can also make an enormous difference.

Susan, good luck with your garden, and please keep me posted.

Sue

Sue,

Thanks for the advice and encouragement. I think I will go ahead with overseeding the lawn this fall, and I'll be looking for the Grissell book locally over the weekend.

I'm also thinking about possibly just squashing beetles (rather than spraying) which will have the same effect in predator terms without hurting other insects. I just read today that ants are effective predators of beetle eggs, and that untilled fields tend to have lower populations of grubs than conventionally tilled fields because of larger ant populations. Discontinuing the spraying entirely seems to be the best course.

I hope rubber gloves will be enough to overcome the "ick" factor -- ! I'll let you know how it goes.

Re: the slugs, we have an opossum who visits, and after I saw it last week I noticed a lot of the big slugs were gone.

It's actually kind of neat being out in the garden at night. You see a lot of things then that never happen during the day.

Susan