Grubs in the Garden
I have been digging over some of my vegetable patches preparing them for Spring/ Summer Plantings and have found these grubs that look like Witchetty Grubs (Creamy White coloured body, with yellowy, orangy, browny heads, legs in the front section, and they are usually curled like a C. I find them buried in the soil in “holes.
Are these Bad or Good Grubs?
If Bad what can I do to remove them??
(apart from what I have been doing (removing them by hand when I find them and feeding them to the neighbours chickens) as I can’t dig over all of the garden beds as some have perennial plantings in them I don’t want to disturb.
Thanx in advance for any help
Sharon
4 September, 2010 at 9:54 am
They are the larvae of black beetles – look up this pdf-if in plague proportions they will eat all roots of anything – only a parasite can kill them – they are resistant to all chemicals and will swim across carbaryl to the other side and crawl away.
http://www.pir.sa.gov.au/__data/…/Number_11_Cockchafer_Beetles.pdf
This company sells the parasite to use
http://www.ecogrow.com.au/products.html
13 September, 2010 at 10:23 am
Hi Sharon,
It’s also possible that what you’re finding are Abantiades larvae. I’ve been finding quite a few this season. If the grubs 5cm-ish long or more, that’s probably more likely than a bettle. A big hint would be if you’ve ever found any of these in your garden in previous seasons:
http://www.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/image/0004/77980/Abantiades_labyrinthicus_cases_620.JPG
Whilst it true that they do eat roots, they’re a native, endemic species and probably have more claims over our gardens than we do! It’s likely you’ll find a few of them if you’ve put down native woodchips, as they love the stuff.
More info on the moths is here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abantiades_latipennis
Good luck!
15 September, 2010 at 10:50 pm
RedPhin,
I have never found these in the garden before, but these beds are pretty new (our normal soil is very heavy clay) these beds are raised about 30cm+ and filled with a vegetable mix from our local soil centre (soil+ organic matter + manure).
Most of these grubs are fat and whitish and about 2-4cm long and usually curled up into a C shape I get the occasional darker coloured one like you show but they are TINY about 1cm long and thin.
We don’t have wood-chips we used crushed recycled brick instead.
I am glad they are unlikely to be harmful but I will still remove those I find and feed them to the neighbours chooks, but not worry about those I don’t find and not go silly and dig everything over etc.
I wonder if they were delivered with the soil for the beds as 2 of the beds got all there soil in about April/May and one of the others got a top up of about 20cm’ish or so but the other last one didn’t have any that I remember (a bit forgetful as about 2 weeks after I got pneumonia and was VERY sick for about 3 months and spent 3 weeks in hospital and still not fully recovered but nearly there).
Thanx VERY much for all of your help.
Shazinoz