AusBonsai

yea they are the suckers taf!! down at mum and dads place a few months back i put some trees in the ground, dug around and found a fair few of those big buggers, mum went at them with a hatchet, it squirted up all over her and she freaked.. the best part was dad got the hose out and sprayed her down... bahahahaha

but your right the chooks wouldnt even go them, or the dogs they have, maltesae terriers- the ran the oppoiste direction when the grubs moved

When I was digging in the garden bed here I found 3 of these, and the butcher birds made short work of them. They were as big as Taffy's too. No wonder we have them up in Qld - Rhinocerous beetles are a type of cane beetle - where there is cane you would probably get those grubs.

I notice no one who is using diatomite reports getting them in your pots. Sounds like a reason to use diatomite in itself!

Glenda

Yep Glenda
Give it a go and see for yourself

Ken

Graeme wrote:

Grant Bowie wrote:i think in general; the grittier (whether diatomite or gravel etc)the mix the less curl grubs.

Grant

Grant, I use a mix pretty close to "Dot's Mix" and as TMan could tell you - I have been known to grow some pretty damn good Curl Grubs in the past.

Bugger! There goes another theory!

Grant

I have never seen Dots mix but I thought it was fairly organic at least 50-50?

Ken, I too have noticed that the curl grubs stay the hell out of diatomite mixes.

Could it be that the grubs are repelled by cat poo?

Mojo

I used to use Dots mix and never saw a curl grub in it.
I know this is true also for some of the Nepean people whom I met at Bonsai on the Water.
I changed to anothers mix for a while and had grubs galore.
I now have a variety of mixes. Diatomite and Zeolite and Akadama on its own or with some of the other mix I havent repotted so I dont know yet about these.

Filthy buggers would probably eat cat poo Mojo

Somehow managed to post twice so have deleted this one.

kcpoole wrote:Yep Glenda
Give it a go and see for yourself

Ken

Most of my plants are in diatomite. I have to have my plants in pots and not in the ground, as I have a husband who is quite lethal when there is a whipper snipper in his hand.

Glenda

Well today i repotted my big chinese elm and i am extremely happy to say, thanks to diatamite, not a single grub to be seen but lots of juicy big roots. Thats a QV mix only 50% diata. So looks like they dont like any to be present.

G `day Antiono, mate have you previously had a problem with curl grubs in you elms ? I have lost one large one, and had two others nearly ruined they have had to be restyled. They seem to love elms, I am happy to hear your result, I had a feeling they would not like it.
Cheers Rod....

sorry
Cheers Rod....

Hey Rod! In my first couple of years i was using cheap potting mix with a bit of sand to grow on my trees. Chinese elms in 6" pots would have a min. of 12 grubs per pot. Over the last few, the more stone the less the grubs till now with diata which has been my 1st year now. NO MORE. As Grants tests are showing, best medium there is !!! But we already knew that

Nice grubs .. we//I get 'em that big down here in melbs too...
.. however i have only ever noticed them in my wisterias and willows ...
maybe they prefer the 'damper'//wetter soil mix....
Have recently moved to using a 50% + mix of Diatomite, so will be interesting to see if they return...
BTW - my fox terrier loves 'em too.... however oscar the benign maremma just simply isnt interested...