Can you put grub poison in compost to kill grubs?
Can you put grub poison in compost to kill grubs?
-
Gnome
- Super Green Thumb
- Posts: 5122
- Joined: Wed Jul 05, 2006 12:17 am
- Location: Western PA USDA Zone 6A
In my area we are plagued with numerous [url=https://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/2000/2504.html]Japanese Beetles[/url] and their larvae. This is an introduced species that causes me problems on several fronts. The adults damage the leaves of several species I grow such as Currants, Raspberries and, perhaps most troublesome, several of my bonsai. The grubs feed on the roots of ornamentals that I am trying to cultivate. Moles, seeking the grubs, undermine the same plants and I have lost more than a few things due to the combination of the two. They are so numerous here that I have a neighbor who swears that Raccoons tear up his lawn looking for a meal. So I am not a big fan of grubs either.bettyb wrote:Can you put grub poison in compost to kill grubs?
I find them in my compost all the time and I routinely smash them with my fingers. It might seem unpleasant but no more so than a lot of other things I do around the yard. They are so bad around here I am considering applying Milky Spore, Bacillus popilliae Dutky and/or Bacillus lentimorbus Dutky, which is a biological control. Unfortunately I have several acres to treat and it might get expensive, I have never really done my homework on application rates.
You might want to look into this approach. Note that this is not a pesticide but a naturally occurring bacteria that is used to control populations in general, not spot treat. This method apparently takes a few years for the bacteria in the soil to reach an effective level.
Norm
-
rainbowgardener
- Super Green Thumb
- Posts: 25279
- Joined: Sun Feb 15, 2009 6:04 pm
- Location: TN/GA 7b
I wouldn't want to poison my compost pile. I find the occasional grub in it. Being way more squeamish than Norm, I pull it out and throw it on the concrete patio where it either dies slowly by baking in the sun (I know bad karma storing up for me, instead of giving it a quicker death... I'll probably come back as a grub in my next life!) or something comes along and eats it.
If you have a bunch of them in your compost, then you might want to consider the Bt solution. Or you can just sift them out when you use the compost and dump them in hot water or something. My point is they aren't particularly a bad thing IN your compost pile, but you probably do want to avoid adding them back into your soil when you use your compost.
If you have a bunch of them in your compost, then you might want to consider the Bt solution. Or you can just sift them out when you use the compost and dump them in hot water or something. My point is they aren't particularly a bad thing IN your compost pile, but you probably do want to avoid adding them back into your soil when you use your compost.
-
hendi_alex
- Super Green Thumb
- Posts: 3604
- Joined: Sun Jul 06, 2008 7:58 am
- Location: Central Sand Hills South Carolina
It seems that we have tons of grubs throughout our yard. Those grubs must be of many species. We shovel our dog poop up regularly, but if a pile sits for longer than a couple of ours, some grub or beetle has bored into the pile, pulling material down into the ground. I don't care about having a perfectly groomed yard, which is where most of the damage from the critters probably shows up. Japanese beetles are the only adult that seems to give us any trouble. Each year they have a two or three week period of being very active. The thing is, in our yard, these pests only seem to attack a couple of plants. They attack our egg plants and they attack the raspberry plants. Hand picking has always worked to limit the damage during those active periods. During this time the beetles are constantly on our zinnas also but they don't seem to bother the plants, just sipping nectar or munching pollen among the flowers.
We do have a problem with the mole runs which invariably get used by the voles which eat plant roots, especially bulbs. I have simply adjusted my planting choices so that we get along fine.
So all in all, for us, the grubs are of no major problem. The thousands or perhaps millions living in the ground are constantly aerating the soil, prunning the roots, or perhaps serving some decomposer function. We are able to coexist nicely. By choosing a naturally diversified arrangement of trees, shrubs, and bedding plants, interest of any given pest can generally be held to a minimum. The whole trick IMO is to keep things in balance. That way there is not so much food that it causes any one critter to explode in numbers, and every critter is feeding on every other critter. That state of balance will usually eliminate the need for the application of chemical or biological controls.
To answer the question. Yes, grubs can be treated in compost. That somewhat defeats the purpose of composting for many of us. It also would slow the composting process. As the previous posters suggested, why would you want to? We get some really nasty looking critters living and working in our worm composter. But there they are working hard, and between them, the worms, and the other decomposers that set up shop in the material, the mix gets broken down very efficiently and generally stays ahead of our needs. That is what it is all about, right? Critters breaking down your leaves, trimmings, and kitchen scraps, to convert it into crumbly material to work magic in the garden.
We do have a problem with the mole runs which invariably get used by the voles which eat plant roots, especially bulbs. I have simply adjusted my planting choices so that we get along fine.
So all in all, for us, the grubs are of no major problem. The thousands or perhaps millions living in the ground are constantly aerating the soil, prunning the roots, or perhaps serving some decomposer function. We are able to coexist nicely. By choosing a naturally diversified arrangement of trees, shrubs, and bedding plants, interest of any given pest can generally be held to a minimum. The whole trick IMO is to keep things in balance. That way there is not so much food that it causes any one critter to explode in numbers, and every critter is feeding on every other critter. That state of balance will usually eliminate the need for the application of chemical or biological controls.
To answer the question. Yes, grubs can be treated in compost. That somewhat defeats the purpose of composting for many of us. It also would slow the composting process. As the previous posters suggested, why would you want to? We get some really nasty looking critters living and working in our worm composter. But there they are working hard, and between them, the worms, and the other decomposers that set up shop in the material, the mix gets broken down very efficiently and generally stays ahead of our needs. That is what it is all about, right? Critters breaking down your leaves, trimmings, and kitchen scraps, to convert it into crumbly material to work magic in the garden.
-
The Helpful Gardener
- Mod
- Posts: 7491
- Joined: Mon Feb 09, 2004 9:17 pm
- Location: Colchester, CT
Instead of poison, might I suggest [url=https://www.nysaes.cornell.edu/ent/biocontrol/pathogens/nematodes.html]nematodes[/url]?
These will actually live in your compost as long as there are grubs, fleas termites, all sorts of bad guys. They are harmless and will populate your soils as long as they find food (there are some there already unless you are using other poisons or chemical fertilizers already). This is how nature usually handles grub control (Nature always wants some, but not too many).
Poisons do not stay put, they volitize into the air or run into ground water. It has not been until very recently that we have begun to look at break down compounds (before they just said, "Look the chemical breaks down in two weeks.") Now they are actually having to look at WHAT it breaks down into, and how THAT effects our ecosystem. Some are even starting to look at recombinant compounds (where one break down compound meets another it was not originally linked to), and the early results are troubling. Our rush to chemical poisoning is a knee-jerk reaction bred of too much marketing and not enough science, and once we embrace bioreactive systems rather than introduced toxins as the first line of defense, our ecosystem will begin to return the favor instead of shooting back in a war we started...
HG
These will actually live in your compost as long as there are grubs, fleas termites, all sorts of bad guys. They are harmless and will populate your soils as long as they find food (there are some there already unless you are using other poisons or chemical fertilizers already). This is how nature usually handles grub control (Nature always wants some, but not too many).
Poisons do not stay put, they volitize into the air or run into ground water. It has not been until very recently that we have begun to look at break down compounds (before they just said, "Look the chemical breaks down in two weeks.") Now they are actually having to look at WHAT it breaks down into, and how THAT effects our ecosystem. Some are even starting to look at recombinant compounds (where one break down compound meets another it was not originally linked to), and the early results are troubling. Our rush to chemical poisoning is a knee-jerk reaction bred of too much marketing and not enough science, and once we embrace bioreactive systems rather than introduced toxins as the first line of defense, our ecosystem will begin to return the favor instead of shooting back in a war we started...
HG
