Safe to say you’ve experienced having yours and/or your customer’s beautiful landscape become a feeding ground for Japanese Beetles, Scarabs, and Grubs.
Maybe you’ve tried or recommended the soap and water trick only to learn that it was waste of time and other pest control products often come with a lengthy list of warnings – causing concerns for pets, pollinators, and the environment. So how do we effectively attack?
Earlier this year, we partnered with a highly innovative bio-insecticide company, Phyllom. Their organic grubGONE! and beetleGONE! product is easy to apply and decimates those destructive little expletives while keeping our pets, pollinators, and environment safe from harm.
Here’s the quick 1-2 punch strategy to kill beetles and grubs without hurting the good guys (pollinators, pets, and environment)
Step 1 – Studying your opponent:
Masked chafers and Japanese beetles spend their summers wreaking havoc on ornamental bushes and roses. They devour landscapes, mate and lay eggs in beautiful, irrigated lawns in mid-July. These eggs hatch in August and the new grubby offspring begin feasting on the grass roots. In November, these nasty things like to tunnel deep below the root barrier and hibernate over the winter. Come spring, when the ground begins to thaw, the well-rested grubs come back to the surface to feast some more and then mature into their adult beetle selves thus continuing the irritating cycle. Feeling up to speed? Let’s continue to step 2…
Step 2 – Investing in the not so secret, secret weapon:
Phyllom BioProducts focuses its energy on developing safe, effective, non-chemical pest control products for the Crop Protection and Animal Health Sectors. Their market-leading, bee colony friendly, beetleGONE! and grubGONE! product line controls and eradicates various beetles, chafers, weevils, and all scarab grubs. Unlike other beetle and grub control products, beetlGONE! and grubGONE! can be applied in areas that are frequented by kids and pets while causing zero harm to honeybees, ladybugs, fish, and birds.
Step 3 – Planning the attack:
With the dog days of Summer slowing to an end – now is a good time to get aggressive.
Step 4 – the TKO strategy:
Applying beetleGONE!
It’s early August – so let’s start with beetleGONE!
beetleGONE! is a wettable dispersible powder (WDP) that mixes in the water at a rate of 3 ounces per Gallon and can be sprayed directly on the effected foliage (vegetable, ornamentals, trees and shrubs). Apply with a trigger, handheld, backpack or hose-end sprayer or other suitable sprayers for the same use. Be sure to shake the sprayer vigorously to ensure a uniform dispersion in the water. If you’re not using the sprayer for 15-ish minutes or more, re-shake the mixture. Apply thoroughly to wet the plant foliage while avoiding an excessive runoff. Repeat as needed until the beetles are gone. For best results spray foliage in the morning or evening with little to no wind and on days when there is no dew or rain present on leaves. Spray in 5-10 day intervals during peak infestation.
Always follow label directions for specific application location information, but 3 ounces per gallon of water shows to be a very effective rate against adult Japanese Beetles in most cases. This can also be mixed with other chemicals and fertilizers in an IPM (Integrated Pest Management) program. Apply both chemical and beetleGONE! at half the application rate for awesome results!
Applying grubGONE!
Come late August through October when the eggs hatch into grubs and the grubs begin their migration deep below the surface it’s time to attack with grubGONE!
Apply grubGONE! during the late summer/early fall and springtime (shortly after the ground has thawed) to control grubs that are coming up near the surface of your lawn to feed on the roots. Spread approximately 2.5 lbs of granule per 1,000 square feet of turf using any conventional spreader and irrigate it into the soil. Beetles spend their summer eating and laying eggs and by August, small (1st instar) grubs appear below the surface of your turf, feeding on the roots. Eventually, turf damage becomes noticeable as these grubs grow into larger 2nd & 3rd instar grubs. The good news is that grubGONE! is a proven winner against these larger grubs. Meaning you can successfully treat for grubs well into the fall season; thus helping lessen the impact grubs and beetles have on your yard next year.
Apply grubGONE! at a rate of 2.5 lbs per 1,000 square feet. One 10 lb bag of grubGONE! covers approximately 4,000 square feet. Prill size of the pellets is 150 SGN. For specific spreader application rates, click here.
For more information, speak to your local CPS Representative.
Also, in case you picked up on that note about spraying vegetable producing plants – yes, beetleGONE! and grubGONE! is safe for Organic Gardening!
