Fighting June beetles? Thats not necessary
June beetles belong to the scarab beetle family. The small beetles feed on the leaves of various plants, but they only live for a few days and cannot cause permanent, serious damage to the plants.
- Much more dangerous for your plants are the larvae of the June beetle, also called grubs . These are white, with a brown head and about three centimeters tall. They develop from eggs laid by June beetles.
- When laying eggs, June beetles prefer sandy and loose soil. Moist soils, on the other hand, are almost safe from pests.
- The larvae live in the soil and feed on the roots of your plants, which are thereby endangered in the long term. They are not particularly specialized on any plant, but can attack many different species.
- Lawns , for example, are often affected. There you can at least prevent an infestation by taking good care of your lawn and mowing and fertilizing it regularly . This makes the sward very dense and makes it difficult for the June beetle to lay eggs.
- Lawn protection fabric can also protect your grass area. This has proven successful in heavily affected areas, but it is expensive to purchase.
Beneficial insects in the fight against June beetle larvae
If your garden is already infested, your only option is to fight the grubs to protect your plants. However, you should avoid using toxic pesticides because they are very harmful to all the beneficial microorganisms in your soil.
- Much more sustainable and effective is the use of beneficial insects, more precisely predatory nematodes. The nematodes parasitize the June beetle larvae and then secrete a bacterium that causes the larvae to die after a few days.
- Grubs are only susceptible to nematodes in the first larval stage. You should therefore start using the beneficial insects as early as possible, ideally between August and September.
- Live nematodes are commercially available, which are mixed with the irrigation water in the form of a powder and then applied to the affected soil.
- Since the nematodes are sensitive to light, you should only use them in the morning or evening. If you have established nematodes in your lawn, you should always keep the soil moist in the weeks afterwards to create ideal conditions for the beneficial insects.
- An effective tool is also the use of a tiller. However, this should be a last resort because it destroys the entire structure of the soil and also kills useful plants and insects.
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