June 21, 2023 • 15 mins
Tired of seeing your once-lush lawn marred by brown patches and damaged grass? It's time to declare war on grubs! Join us as we dive into the fascinating world of these destructive insects and reveal how to tackle them head-on. We'll unravel the life cycle of grubs, from the egg-laying female beetles to the ravenous larvae that can wreak havoc on your yard in a matter of days.
Discover the importance of timing when it comes to grub control, with the best window for applying powerful products for maximum protection throughout the grub season. With our expert guidance, you'll be well-equipped to reclaim your beautiful lawn and say goodbye to grub problems for good. Don't let your lawn be a feast for these pesky insects - listen in and take control now!
Welcome Black Diamond Nursery & Lawn Service. We been a local business in Toledo for over 70 years!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Scott (00:00):
This episode is the final word on grubs.
Everybody needs to payattention.
We're gonna teach you somestuff because I'm mad as hell
about this.
Let's do it.
Mike (00:27):
Hey Scott, you wanna calm down a little bit, haha.
Scott (00:30):
Yeah, I'm just.
We need to get the word out.
Mike (00:34):
Well, I gotta tell ya, you know there's the, You know the
professionals are out there.
We gotta do an explanation.
We had one lady.
She had damage in her lawn Andshe wanted to know what caused
the damage.
The lawn service person, thetechnician, came over and goes
well, ma'am, you got grubs.
She immediately paused, thoughtabout it for a few seconds and
(00:55):
then you know what her comebackwas We can't have grubs, We live
in a gated community, Haha.
And this is just to show hownot necessarily ignorant, but
they are ignorant of as to howand what a grub does, But
basically what it is, where itcomes from and how it basically
can devastate a lawn, What thelife cycle of it is.
(01:18):
Did you do your homework?
Scott (01:20):
on that.
Stop right there.
Life cycle This is what I wannaget out.
Okay, across the US of A.
Mike (01:26):
It's an adult beetle that lays its eggs.
but what and how and when?
Scott (01:30):
So we haven't talked about grubs since season one way
back with Dave Savinsky.
Mike (01:35):
Oh God, that was almost five years ago.
Scott (01:37):
I mean it was just part of the lawn's show, it wasn't
the whole show.
What we need to get out thereeverybody is when grubs start
their life cycle.
Mike (01:48):
But when they do their damage, the most is the most.
Scott (01:50):
Exactly When they start their life cycle, when their
eggs are laid and they arelarvae and then they grow a
little bit.
that's when they start munchingon your lawn like the fall army
worm just underneath.
Okay, let me yum, yum, yum, yumyum yum.
Mike (02:06):
Can I just give a basics?
Here it is.
You got a beetle.
It doesn't matter if it's aJapanese beetle or the June bug
that keeps slamming into yourscreen or the front porch while
the light's on, It's a beetle.
The baby beetle is called agrub.
The mother beetle, or the female, will go into your lawn, burrow
down.
she'll lay her eggs there andthen pop out.
She lays thousands of eggs.
She's just basically veryfertile.
(02:28):
But basically those eggs aregoing to develop into a larvae
and they're going to burrow down.
but in order to burrow downthey have to eat.
They become, oh gosh, voraciouseaters.
They prefer anything with a rootsystem on it, but anything that
has, let's say, for instance,bluegrass lawns, anything that's
been manicured, the motherbeetle will lay her eggs in the
(02:50):
area in the same neighborhoodthat she grew up in, where she
came from.
So if you've got a bluegrasslawn, if you've got yourself
this pristine turf type fescuelawn, where it's been maintained
, fertilized et cetera, andyou're watering it exactly when
it needs to be, but you'renoticing these brown patches
coming up, Don't go out thereand give it any more water.
You got a problem.
Get somebody that knows whatthey're talking about to go and
(03:10):
check it out.
Now.
Scott's going to go on from thetime when they lay their eggs
to Well, that's the interestingpart.
Scott (03:18):
What I don't think people understand is when this cycle
starts.
We get people coming into thegarden center and saying, you
know, and spring, early springsays I've got grubs, and we're
just like kind of chuckling,yeah, you may have a grub or two
.
And they don't understand.
Those are the adults.
Let's set it straight hereThey're going to turn into the
(03:40):
beetle.
Yes, the life cycle of a grubAsian beetle at the larvae stage
starts late July, august.
They don't start with spring.
Like everything else startsbrand new right.
Mike (03:57):
That's right Now.
See, those grubs that aresurfacing right now are going to
turn into an adult beetle.
They're going to fly around,they're going to eat.
The guys are going to be boredcrazy.
Then the female comes along.
She goes come on buddies.
And then they go ahead and theymate And she's going to lay the
eggs.
Those eggs are going to developinto something when in early
August.
Scott (04:15):
Thank you, Late July early August.
That's when you get thevoracious eaters.
Okay, So this we need to geteverybody on the timeline here.
You may have a grub in spring,That's.
I'm going to call that an adultgrub.
He doesn't eat as much as hedid.
Mike (04:35):
They're just going to pupate into the beetle.
Scott (04:37):
They're getting ready to transform into the beetle.
They had a rough winter.
They just need a little littlesnack.
It's not going to damage yourlawn beyond repair.
The guys in August are the onesyou know if they're there on
that one.
Mike (04:53):
they're going to devastate the whole thing Almost like a
tomato horn worm type activity.
You know, and they can do somuch damage in such a little bit
of time.
Scott (05:00):
Exactly The fall army worm, the tomato horn worm.
Mike (05:04):
these are the underground grass pests of those stars And
they will devastate an entirelawn in a matter of a few days.
You don't notice the damageuntil they're done doing their
gnawing on it for a week afterthe fact.
So what do you do, scott?
What do you recommend?
I mean, okay, i've got the lawn.
I'm not going to do anything asfar as putting down a systemic
(05:25):
insecticide such as merit untilmaybe the middle to the end of
July to control the adult.
there I mean not the adult, butthe baby beetle.
Scott (05:34):
What we want to teach you is most products.
Let's say you're a do ityourself and you go to the
garden center and you want aproduct for grubs.
It's not a strong.
Can I use that word as a lawnservice application?
Mike (05:51):
Yeah, they got to be licensed to apply their products
, right?
You can get this over thecounter.
What's?
what's the generic name for it?
Merit.
Okay, now, merits is systemicinsecticide.
It works sway into the systemof the plant, including the root
system, and when the insectstarts to feed on it, it thinks
it's full and it will never feedagain And it just dies off.
Stars itself, right, because itthinks it's full.
(06:13):
It thinks it's full and it'snot going to turn into anything
other than you know goodfertilizer for the root system
of the grass.
Scott (06:18):
Like some of our diets, but we're smart enough to know
we may need to eat somethingmore.
Mike (06:22):
Speak for yourself, Mr.
Scott (06:24):
Sandstrom, but anyway.
So what I'm saying is, if youdo it yourself, those products
last two and a half, threemonths, 12 weeks, yeah, so the
perfect time to put the do ityourself for merit product down
is just after July 4.
Mike (06:42):
Let that be perfect.
If you wanted to go on acalendar day, yeah.
Scott (06:45):
Think of that.
July 4 is like Oh, july 4equals grub control time.
So that's what you have to dotiming wise, good.
Then you're going to get your12 weeks, and that's going to be
after the Asian beetle goesdown the ground, lays her larvae
eggs, and then they start tomunch And you've got full
(07:08):
strength merit down thereprotecting your, yeah, the ones
that we notice the most are theAsian beetles or the Japanese
beetle, which you know.
Mike (07:16):
Give you a little history.
Everybody in the late 60sthought that they were going to
be devastating the world.
They were going to defoliatethe United States of America.
Well, they're, the.
They seem to be the mostprevalent right now, but they're
not defoliating everything,because we seem to have a little
bit of a handle on it, andthat's with the merit because
there's a 12 week window, whichmeans that that's three months.
So you got July, august,september.
You're going to control thegrub.
(07:37):
By that time they'rerepopulating the earth about.
You know, let's say, ifsomebody that didn't do it about
the middle of August, theadults doing something anywhere
between well, let's say, the endof July and the middle of
August, by going back and layingher eggs.
Right, you've got that meritdown there in the system of the
plant that when they come up andthey develop in or they pupate
(07:58):
into the larvae, they're goingto die.
Now we're going to go and say,if you need to, this is going to
be a protection.
Scott (08:05):
So for the non-duet yourself, for the people that
have law and services, grubcontrol is usually an extra
expense, of course.
An extra part, an extra.
This is a service Yeah, aservice in their program, so you
really should sign up for that.
Mike (08:22):
I don't want to make it sound like you know these law
and services are trying to milkyou for money.
I mean sure there's probably acharlatan or two that's out
there.
Scott (08:29):
Well, because their products that's stronger than
you can get at your gardencenter cost more money than what
you're going to spend at thegarden center.
Absolutely, and it works betterAnd it's a product you got
licensed to apply it.
Mike (08:41):
I mean, it's a stronger ingredient, it works longer and
better.
It's kind of like apharmaceutical that you have to
go and get via the prescriptionof the physician versus, let's
say, over the counter.
You can still get something onthe law and service that's going
to give you the protection andthey guarantee it, or you can do
it yourself and not have aguarantee.
Scott (09:02):
There are some products out there that are called pre
emergent, that they try to getyou to buy in April and they say
put it down To me, that's thewrong time of year If you're
only getting three months out ofa product May, july, august,
may, june, july you're not goingto have that control.
Mike (09:20):
Yeah, so you got to do it again, 12 weeks later.
Scott (09:23):
Yes, now there is a product that, if you do have
legitimate grubs, no matter whenspring or in fall, it's a
contact rub killer.
Mike (09:34):
Right, that's DILOX, that's the generic name of it.
Yes, if they see him whilethey're digging their garden, i
don't want you to put it in yourgarden.
you know.
it only lasts for about a weekto ten days.
Some people say within 24 hours, 24 hour contact killer.
What you do is you sprinkle itover the whole yard according to
the directions that they wantyou to put it down at.
You water it in.
If you do not, water in thisthing will evaporate.
(09:56):
The active ingredients are notgoing to work for you.
You got to water it in.
As soon as it's watered in, itpercolates down into the soil,
into the root base, for wherethe grass plants Are, where you
see the grubs.
It'll knock the grubs outimmediately, but it only lasts
for a short period of time.
Correct, where this merit willlast 12 plus weeks.
So the the way that the meritworks versus the way that
(10:19):
dialogues works.
Dialogues is a contact killer.
It's going to knock them outjust like that.
The merit is going to last,just in case there's a window
that it missed For 12 weeks andthey got a nibble on the grass.
You got to basically have adecoy root system to go and have
nibble, but they're done oncethey start to nibble on it
Because they think they're full.
They're never going to eatagain.
They're going to becomefertilizer for the root system
(10:41):
that they were nibbling onearlier.
Now, okay, dialogues you canuse early in the season if you
want to or you feel that youneed to, if you're really really
good at Diagnosing a lawn, andwhen you can probably use it
during that 12 week period thatwe're talking about, that window
, the end of July to the end ofAugust.
Well, that's not what to have.
The end of September?
Scott (11:01):
well, if you have, if you have a consistent grub problem,
you may need to do both kindsin the, you know, august,
september, october time periodyou may.
Mike (11:10):
You may.
I mean if you want to.
Really, if you've got a heavyinfestation, you want to knock
them out immediately before theydo that damage that you notice
two weeks later.
Yeah, put the dialogues down.
Don't overlap with merit.
Do the merit only in accordanceto what the package says.
Scott (11:24):
And that's basically about the middle of, say, july
4th, all the way in through themiddle of August so what we're
trying to say here is Don'tnecessarily and I'm just gonna
say don't do grub controlPre-emergent in the springtime.
Wait for that July 5th mark andthen do it.
Then you're getting the bestbang for your buck.
(11:45):
You're a kill ratio, may I say,is gonna go up.
Yeah, i mean, why waste moneyin the spring when those grubs
that you may see are adults Andthey're not gonna do damage?
Mike (11:57):
we're gonna, we're gonna, we're gonna briefly do this And
do it quickly.
If you go to your google thelife cycle of a grub and they
have the chart Yeah, you'regonna see the chart You're gonna
notice that the grubs are gonnastart coming up and feasting on
the spring root system of thegrass very little, but then
they're gonna just ate into abeetle.
They're gonna fly around,they're gonna come back in and
lay their eggs anywhere betweenThe fourth of July in the middle
(12:20):
of August.
Those eggs, basically, aregonna start to feed on the root
system before they go back down,which is going to be around the
middle of September, wherethey're gonna go down below that
freeze line and start to pupate.
They're gonna, over winter andcompletely do that.
We same cycle again thefollowing spring.
They're gonna percolate up,they're gonna nibble a little
(12:40):
bit, but they're gonna turn intothe beetle, they're gonna mate,
they're gonna lay their eggsagain where they grew up at, and
then it's gonna be the completecycle all over the cliff notes
of that is The damaging lifecycle starts in.
Scott (12:54):
I'm gonna say August, okay.
Yeah, that's when the damaginglarvae do their worst to your
lawn, that's when you need fullstrength.
Merit working, that's right.
Mike (13:08):
So put it down just before that if you have a line of
service, insist your lawnservice representative puts it
down between July 4 in themiddle of August.
If you don't have a lawnservice might want to consider
getting one.
If You don't want to considergetting one and doing it
yourself, you get yourself theover-the-counter product called
merit and you put that down.
(13:30):
That's a mat of clover.
You put that down Again aboutthe same time as Scott's
recommending July 4 to the 15thof August.
Scott (13:40):
And I will also post that graphic Oh, that's cool on the
Facebook and Instagram accountso everybody can see that
Burrowing down, overwintering,deep down, and then they come
back for spring just before theytransition right and they fly
away, and then they go and mateand, have you know, lay the eggs
again in the place where theygrew up at.
So don't freak out if you finda grubber to in spring.
(14:04):
They're not going to do a bunchof damage notice how calm Scott
is.
He's now very comfortable.
now He's I'm, i'm zenning on it.
Mike (14:13):
Well, okay, yeah, he's got his legs crossed And he's
holding his fingers the centralfinger on his thumb, together
going oh.
Scott (14:21):
Oh no, I mean I just well , I know it upset you, but I
know it's, but how long did ittake for you to understand?
Well, yeah, i mean, i get it.
I'm not blaming people or Madat people for it, i just want to
Pass the word around.
Okay, let's, let's this.
let's be done with this subject.
Mike (14:39):
It's easy to figure out and it's easy to control if you
know what to look for right Sowhat do you say, scott?
You want to go up and have your?
uh, well, margarita, hey,margarita, okay, we'll see y'all
.
Green thumbs up, green thumbsup.
Baby talk at you.
Thanks for listening to yourmidwest garden.
(15:00):
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(15:20):
I'm michael work, the gardenguy.
Hope you enjoyed today'sconversation.
This episode is the final word on grubs.
Everybody needs to payattention.
We're gonna teach you somestuff because I'm mad as hell
about this.
Let's do it.
Mike (00:27):
Hey Scott, you wanna calm down a little bit, haha.
Scott (00:30):
Yeah, I'm just.
We need to get the word out.
Mike (00:34):
Well, I gotta tell ya, you know there's the, You know the
professionals are out there.
We gotta do an explanation.
We had one lady.
She had damage in her lawn Andshe wanted to know what caused
the damage.
The lawn service person, thetechnician, came over and goes
well, ma'am, you got grubs.
She immediately paused, thoughtabout it for a few seconds and
(00:55):
then you know what her comebackwas We can't have grubs, We live
in a gated community, Haha.
And this is just to show hownot necessarily ignorant, but
they are ignorant of as to howand what a grub does, But
basically what it is, where itcomes from and how it basically
can devastate a lawn, What thelife cycle of it is.
(01:18):
Did you do your homework?
Scott (01:20):
on that.
Stop right there.
Life cycle This is what I wannaget out.
Okay, across the US of A.
Mike (01:26):
It's an adult beetle that lays its eggs.
but what and how and when?
Scott (01:30):
So we haven't talked about grubs since season one way
back with Dave Savinsky.
Mike (01:35):
Oh God, that was almost five years ago.
Scott (01:37):
I mean it was just part of the lawn's show, it wasn't
the whole show.
What we need to get out thereeverybody is when grubs start
their life cycle.
Mike (01:48):
But when they do their damage, the most is the most.
Scott (01:50):
Exactly When they start their life cycle, when their
eggs are laid and they arelarvae and then they grow a
little bit.
that's when they start munchingon your lawn like the fall army
worm just underneath.
Okay, let me yum, yum, yum, yumyum yum.
Mike (02:06):
Can I just give a basics?
Here it is.
You got a beetle.
It doesn't matter if it's aJapanese beetle or the June bug
that keeps slamming into yourscreen or the front porch while
the light's on, It's a beetle.
The baby beetle is called agrub.
The mother beetle, or the female, will go into your lawn, burrow
down.
she'll lay her eggs there andthen pop out.
She lays thousands of eggs.
She's just basically veryfertile.
(02:28):
But basically those eggs aregoing to develop into a larvae
and they're going to burrow down.
but in order to burrow downthey have to eat.
They become, oh gosh, voraciouseaters.
They prefer anything with a rootsystem on it, but anything that
has, let's say, for instance,bluegrass lawns, anything that's
been manicured, the motherbeetle will lay her eggs in the
(02:50):
area in the same neighborhoodthat she grew up in, where she
came from.
So if you've got a bluegrasslawn, if you've got yourself
this pristine turf type fescuelawn, where it's been maintained
, fertilized et cetera, andyou're watering it exactly when
it needs to be, but you'renoticing these brown patches
coming up, Don't go out thereand give it any more water.
You got a problem.
Get somebody that knows whatthey're talking about to go and
(03:10):
check it out.
Now.
Scott's going to go on from thetime when they lay their eggs
to Well, that's the interestingpart.
Scott (03:18):
What I don't think people understand is when this cycle
starts.
We get people coming into thegarden center and saying, you
know, and spring, early springsays I've got grubs, and we're
just like kind of chuckling,yeah, you may have a grub or two
.
And they don't understand.
Those are the adults.
Let's set it straight hereThey're going to turn into the
(03:40):
beetle.
Yes, the life cycle of a grubAsian beetle at the larvae stage
starts late July, august.
They don't start with spring.
Like everything else startsbrand new right.
Mike (03:57):
That's right Now.
See, those grubs that aresurfacing right now are going to
turn into an adult beetle.
They're going to fly around,they're going to eat.
The guys are going to be boredcrazy.
Then the female comes along.
She goes come on buddies.
And then they go ahead and theymate And she's going to lay the
eggs.
Those eggs are going to developinto something when in early
August.
Scott (04:15):
Thank you, Late July early August.
That's when you get thevoracious eaters.
Okay, So this we need to geteverybody on the timeline here.
You may have a grub in spring,That's.
I'm going to call that an adultgrub.
He doesn't eat as much as hedid.
Mike (04:35):
They're just going to pupate into the beetle.
Scott (04:37):
They're getting ready to transform into the beetle.
They had a rough winter.
They just need a little littlesnack.
It's not going to damage yourlawn beyond repair.
The guys in August are the onesyou know if they're there on
that one.
Mike (04:53):
they're going to devastate the whole thing Almost like a
tomato horn worm type activity.
You know, and they can do somuch damage in such a little bit
of time.
Scott (05:00):
Exactly The fall army worm, the tomato horn worm.
Mike (05:04):
these are the underground grass pests of those stars And
they will devastate an entirelawn in a matter of a few days.
You don't notice the damageuntil they're done doing their
gnawing on it for a week afterthe fact.
So what do you do, scott?
What do you recommend?
I mean, okay, i've got the lawn.
I'm not going to do anything asfar as putting down a systemic
(05:25):
insecticide such as merit untilmaybe the middle to the end of
July to control the adult.
there I mean not the adult, butthe baby beetle.
Scott (05:34):
What we want to teach you is most products.
Let's say you're a do ityourself and you go to the
garden center and you want aproduct for grubs.
It's not a strong.
Can I use that word as a lawnservice application?
Mike (05:51):
Yeah, they got to be licensed to apply their products
, right?
You can get this over thecounter.
What's?
what's the generic name for it?
Merit.
Okay, now, merits is systemicinsecticide.
It works sway into the systemof the plant, including the root
system, and when the insectstarts to feed on it, it thinks
it's full and it will never feedagain And it just dies off.
Stars itself, right, because itthinks it's full.
(06:13):
It thinks it's full and it'snot going to turn into anything
other than you know goodfertilizer for the root system
of the grass.
Scott (06:18):
Like some of our diets, but we're smart enough to know
we may need to eat somethingmore.
Mike (06:22):
Speak for yourself, Mr.
Scott (06:24):
Sandstrom, but anyway.
So what I'm saying is, if youdo it yourself, those products
last two and a half, threemonths, 12 weeks, yeah, so the
perfect time to put the do ityourself for merit product down
is just after July 4.
Mike (06:42):
Let that be perfect.
If you wanted to go on acalendar day, yeah.
Scott (06:45):
Think of that.
July 4 is like Oh, july 4equals grub control time.
So that's what you have to dotiming wise, good.
Then you're going to get your12 weeks, and that's going to be
after the Asian beetle goesdown the ground, lays her larvae
eggs, and then they start tomunch And you've got full
(07:08):
strength merit down thereprotecting your, yeah, the ones
that we notice the most are theAsian beetles or the Japanese
beetle, which you know.
Mike (07:16):
Give you a little history.
Everybody in the late 60sthought that they were going to
be devastating the world.
They were going to defoliatethe United States of America.
Well, they're, the.
They seem to be the mostprevalent right now, but they're
not defoliating everything,because we seem to have a little
bit of a handle on it, andthat's with the merit because
there's a 12 week window, whichmeans that that's three months.
So you got July, august,september.
You're going to control thegrub.
(07:37):
By that time they'rerepopulating the earth about.
You know, let's say, ifsomebody that didn't do it about
the middle of August, theadults doing something anywhere
between well, let's say, the endof July and the middle of
August, by going back and layingher eggs.
Right, you've got that meritdown there in the system of the
plant that when they come up andthey develop in or they pupate
(07:58):
into the larvae, they're goingto die.
Now we're going to go and say,if you need to, this is going to
be a protection.
Scott (08:05):
So for the non-duet yourself, for the people that
have law and services, grubcontrol is usually an extra
expense, of course.
An extra part, an extra.
This is a service Yeah, aservice in their program, so you
really should sign up for that.
Mike (08:22):
I don't want to make it sound like you know these law
and services are trying to milkyou for money.
I mean sure there's probably acharlatan or two that's out
there.
Scott (08:29):
Well, because their products that's stronger than
you can get at your gardencenter cost more money than what
you're going to spend at thegarden center.
Absolutely, and it works betterAnd it's a product you got
licensed to apply it.
Mike (08:41):
I mean, it's a stronger ingredient, it works longer and
better.
It's kind of like apharmaceutical that you have to
go and get via the prescriptionof the physician versus, let's
say, over the counter.
You can still get something onthe law and service that's going
to give you the protection andthey guarantee it, or you can do
it yourself and not have aguarantee.
Scott (09:02):
There are some products out there that are called pre
emergent, that they try to getyou to buy in April and they say
put it down To me, that's thewrong time of year If you're
only getting three months out ofa product May, july, august,
may, june, july you're not goingto have that control.
Mike (09:20):
Yeah, so you got to do it again, 12 weeks later.
Scott (09:23):
Yes, now there is a product that, if you do have
legitimate grubs, no matter whenspring or in fall, it's a
contact rub killer.
Mike (09:34):
Right, that's DILOX, that's the generic name of it.
Yes, if they see him whilethey're digging their garden, i
don't want you to put it in yourgarden.
you know.
it only lasts for about a weekto ten days.
Some people say within 24 hours, 24 hour contact killer.
What you do is you sprinkle itover the whole yard according to
the directions that they wantyou to put it down at.
You water it in.
If you do not, water in thisthing will evaporate.
(09:56):
The active ingredients are notgoing to work for you.
You got to water it in.
As soon as it's watered in, itpercolates down into the soil,
into the root base, for wherethe grass plants Are, where you
see the grubs.
It'll knock the grubs outimmediately, but it only lasts
for a short period of time.
Correct, where this merit willlast 12 plus weeks.
So the the way that the meritworks versus the way that
(10:19):
dialogues works.
Dialogues is a contact killer.
It's going to knock them outjust like that.
The merit is going to last,just in case there's a window
that it missed For 12 weeks andthey got a nibble on the grass.
You got to basically have adecoy root system to go and have
nibble, but they're done oncethey start to nibble on it
Because they think they're full.
They're never going to eatagain.
They're going to becomefertilizer for the root system
(10:41):
that they were nibbling onearlier.
Now, okay, dialogues you canuse early in the season if you
want to or you feel that youneed to, if you're really really
good at Diagnosing a lawn, andwhen you can probably use it
during that 12 week period thatwe're talking about, that window
, the end of July to the end ofAugust.
Well, that's not what to have.
The end of September?
Scott (11:01):
well, if you have, if you have a consistent grub problem,
you may need to do both kindsin the, you know, august,
september, october time periodyou may.
Mike (11:10):
You may.
I mean if you want to.
Really, if you've got a heavyinfestation, you want to knock
them out immediately before theydo that damage that you notice
two weeks later.
Yeah, put the dialogues down.
Don't overlap with merit.
Do the merit only in accordanceto what the package says.
Scott (11:24):
And that's basically about the middle of, say, july
4th, all the way in through themiddle of August so what we're
trying to say here is Don'tnecessarily and I'm just gonna
say don't do grub controlPre-emergent in the springtime.
Wait for that July 5th mark andthen do it.
Then you're getting the bestbang for your buck.
(11:45):
You're a kill ratio, may I say,is gonna go up.
Yeah, i mean, why waste moneyin the spring when those grubs
that you may see are adults Andthey're not gonna do damage?
Mike (11:57):
we're gonna, we're gonna, we're gonna briefly do this And
do it quickly.
If you go to your google thelife cycle of a grub and they
have the chart Yeah, you'regonna see the chart You're gonna
notice that the grubs are gonnastart coming up and feasting on
the spring root system of thegrass very little, but then
they're gonna just ate into abeetle.
They're gonna fly around,they're gonna come back in and
lay their eggs anywhere betweenThe fourth of July in the middle
(12:20):
of August.
Those eggs, basically, aregonna start to feed on the root
system before they go back down,which is going to be around the
middle of September, wherethey're gonna go down below that
freeze line and start to pupate.
They're gonna, over winter andcompletely do that.
We same cycle again thefollowing spring.
They're gonna percolate up,they're gonna nibble a little
(12:40):
bit, but they're gonna turn intothe beetle, they're gonna mate,
they're gonna lay their eggsagain where they grew up at, and
then it's gonna be the completecycle all over the cliff notes
of that is The damaging lifecycle starts in.
Scott (12:54):
I'm gonna say August, okay.
Yeah, that's when the damaginglarvae do their worst to your
lawn, that's when you need fullstrength.
Merit working, that's right.
Mike (13:08):
So put it down just before that if you have a line of
service, insist your lawnservice representative puts it
down between July 4 in themiddle of August.
If you don't have a lawnservice might want to consider
getting one.
If You don't want to considergetting one and doing it
yourself, you get yourself theover-the-counter product called
merit and you put that down.
(13:30):
That's a mat of clover.
You put that down Again aboutthe same time as Scott's
recommending July 4 to the 15thof August.
Scott (13:40):
And I will also post that graphic Oh, that's cool on the
Facebook and Instagram accountso everybody can see that
Burrowing down, overwintering,deep down, and then they come
back for spring just before theytransition right and they fly
away, and then they go and mateand, have you know, lay the eggs
again in the place where theygrew up at.
So don't freak out if you finda grubber to in spring.
(14:04):
They're not going to do a bunchof damage notice how calm Scott
is.
He's now very comfortable.
now He's I'm, i'm zenning on it.
Mike (14:13):
Well, okay, yeah, he's got his legs crossed And he's
holding his fingers the centralfinger on his thumb, together
going oh.
Scott (14:21):
Oh no, I mean I just well , I know it upset you, but I
know it's, but how long did ittake for you to understand?
Well, yeah, i mean, i get it.
I'm not blaming people or Madat people for it, i just want to
Pass the word around.
Okay, let's, let's this.
let's be done with this subject.
Mike (14:39):
It's easy to figure out and it's easy to control if you
know what to look for right Sowhat do you say, scott?
You want to go up and have your?
uh, well, margarita, hey,margarita, okay, we'll see y'all
.
Green thumbs up, green thumbsup.
Baby talk at you.
Thanks for listening to yourmidwest garden.
(15:00):
If you like today'sconversation, please share this
podcast with friends and familyand don't forget to click on the
subscribe button So you won'tmiss any future episodes.
Plus, if you have any showtopics you'd like us to discuss,
head on over to our Sponsorsfacebook page, which is black
diamond garden center, andmessage them your topic idea for
all of us at your midwestgarden Podcast.
(15:20):
I'm michael work, the gardenguy.
Hope you enjoyed today'sconversation.
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