Curl Grub
Australian farmers and gardeners are familiar with curl grub as one of the pests in their land. However, it is still important for you to learn the various traits and characteristics of this pest to help protect your precious plants from the dangers it will pose.
White Curl Grub
This is the most common type of curl grub providing many headaches to gardeners. It is a serious lawn pest that gets easily confused with other types of pests because of its features. It is also referred to as scarab beetle larvae, cockchafer, and lawn beetle larvae.
Description of Curl Grub
As the name suggests, curl grub are curly crawling creatures. It is described as follow:
It has three pair of legs.
It has a large cream body with a length of 25-30 mm in length.
It has dark brown tail due to the soil it has ingested due to its appetite.
It is often mistaken as an Aussie “witchetty” grub.
It curls up when disturbed and often appears on plant roots in large numbers.
It is commonly found during the summer period where it hatches into a grub.
It is destructive during its juvenile stage but will become an attractive addition to
your lawn when it grows into an adult African Black Beetle
Its favorite food includes roots of grass and decaying organic matter. Unfortunately, roots of tomatoes, corn, petunias, and grapevines also suffer from its massive appetite.
It is specifically harmful to lawns, potted plants, and gardens, particularly to green couch, soft leaf buffalo grass, blue couch, and kikuyu. Nevertheless, fruit plants like potatoes, strawberries, grapevines, and pineapples are not excluded from their attack.
Signs of Infestation of Curl Grub
If you notice loads of brown areas in your lawn accompanied by drying grass and plants with dry sections, then you may try to pull out one a bunch of these plants. If it easily rolls back like carpet then you have an unwanted visitor pestering on the roots of these plants. Host of infestation per area often includes 25 or more of these white curl grubs.
Management and Control of Curl Grub
You may try the following methods to get rid of curl grubs.
mix tea tree or molasses and water it on your lawn
keep your lawn well irrigated because curl grubs enjoy dry soil
fork your lawn more often to easily expose the breeding grounds of curl grubs
use biodegradable detergent and water this into your lawn to force these crawling
pests to surface
use a hessian bag on affected areas to easily spot the parents of these curl grubs
and dispose of it accordingly
you may also wish to use birds, magpies, wood ducks, and bandicoots because
these animals enjoy feasting on these curl grubs
use of insect killing nematodes or entomopathogenic nematodes may also be
applied because it actively eliminates soil dwelling insects without harming the health of your soil and your plants