Nematods

[Lavender]

I noticed yesterday that some of my chamomile were wilted & turning brown. Today, 2 more of the plants were the same. Just out of curiousity, I dug one up & ALL THE ROOTS WERE GONE!! I dug up the others & same thing! Found little gray grub which I squished. Ran for my gardening pest book 'cause some of my other tender young plants were starting to look a bit peakish. It suggested using good nematods. I remember hearing that they are good for controling bad pest such as grubs from the Japanese beetles (which I think these are) & other bad things. I'm going to the garden store tomorrow to buy some. Has anyone use these before & did it work for you? I have three chamomile plants left & don't want to resort to the heavy duty chemical stuff. :bad:

[Lavender]

Just got back from the garden center...they don't have nematods. They suggested I could put down diazonon or put all my herbs into pots or replace all my dirt in the garden. Yeah...real practical! I'll have about 100 pots sitting around & a big empty spot in the garden. :D She thinks the grubs are yellow jackets & they lay their eggs last year to hatch now. I told her that it's only happening in the new garden which I put in a few months ago...with dirt that I bought at HER garden store! The herbs in the original garden are fine. I think she felt bad because she gave me a bottle of neen oil to try. I'll have to look into this before using it...

[Yvonne Belisle]

I found an organic company that has both grub controls you mentioned the url is http://www.extremelygreen.com/


I also found the following information.

Should I use a soil insecticide at planting if I discover white grubs during a spring tillage pass? Maybe. If you determine that you have true white grubs, the answer is "yes." If you have annual white grubs, the answer is "no." True white grubs have a 3-year life cycle, and grubs have the potential to feed all summer long on developing root systems. Annual white grubs complete one generation each year and, by May or early June, pupate and emerge as May or June beetles. Bottom line--annual white grubs are not around long enough during the growing season to worry about.

In 1994, Marlin Rice, Extension entomologist with Iowa State University, published the results of his research on this topic. Bottom line--the results of his investigation clearly support our recommendation not to treat for annual white grubs. In Marlin's experiment, he infested corn and soybean seedlings with annual white grubs in a greenhouse. In that study, individual corn or soybean plants were grown for 27 days and infested with three, six, or nine annual white grubs per plant. Uninfested checks (no grubs) also were included as a treatment. The results were clear for soybeans--seedling emergence, dry root weights, total dry weights, or leaf areas were not affected by annual white grubs. The results for corn were almost identical, with the exception that, for one year of the experiment, corn plants infested with nine grubs per plant caused corn seedlings to be smaller, as compared with the control plants (no grubs). The conclusions of this study--don't use a soil insecticide to protect corn or soybean plants from annual white grubs.

This site has some good information for identifying them. http://ipmwww.ncsu.edu/AG271/corn_sorghum/white_grubs.html

Then I found this
Currently, no biological insecticide products exist that provide reliable control of white grubs. Milky disease spore dusts (commercial preparations of the bacterium Bacillus popilliae) have been marketed for use against Japanese beetle grubs for many years, but these products have given poor results against Japanese beetle grubs in University of Kentucky research trials. Other grub species (e.g., masked chafers, May beetles, June beetles) are unaffected by the strain of bacteria contained in the products, which further reduces their usefulness.

Commercial preparations of insect-parasitic nematodes are also available for white grub control. Nematodes work better under moist soil conditions than in dry soils. If you plan to try them, be sure to follow directions on the label about the importance of pre- and post-treatment watering and application during cool periods of the day. In Kentucky, their effectiveness has been inconsistent, and they have been much less reliable than conventional insecticides.


4. Whole neem oil is a promising new product many of us in the Fort Worth area are testing this year. Unlike neem oil extracts used to control insects, whole neem oil controls black spot, powdery mildew, and rust as well as many insects and mites. It's also less expensive than neem oil extracts. Whole neem oil is 90 percent "clarified hydrophobic extracts of neem seeds." (Neem oil comes from the tropical neem tree, Azadirachta indica.) Translated, this means the oil is cleaned up but is not refined and that it doesn't mix very well with water. This latter feature is important: Only mix whole neem oil into water that's warm or at least room temperature. Neem oil is different from neem oil extracts, which have been available for a few years, and is currently available from only one company. The product name is Rose Defense™ and it is available from the Green Light Co. (Box 17985, San Antonio, TX 78217, 210-494-3481). It costs $15 per pint and you need 2 tablespoons per gallon of water.

I hope that helps.

[Lavender]

Thanks for the info, Yvonne. I also found some info on neem oil on this site too...

http://www.plasmaneem.com/about.htm

On the neem oil bottle it said to use a dispersing agent to mix the oil & water...1 tbsp of whole milk works too (if anyone's interested). I wish I knew about the warm water before I tried to mix everything. Had to shake it for a LONG time! Well, everything's water down. Said my little spell for banishing the baddies. I'm hoping for the best. :) BTW, that stuff really STINKS!

[Lavender]

That neem oil works great! What's left of my chamomile started to come back! :D No other plants were attacked. Yay!