You apply milky spore to the lawn to kill the grubs that are overwintering in the grass roots. According to Walter Reeves (local gardening guy in Georgia), it should be applied in the fall.

Here is a link that might be useful: Walter Reeves

as with all chemical or biological products...

you read the label and apply it according to those written directions ...

i would not defer to other authors or sources for information, unless that source wrote the instructions on the package ...

anyway .. off the soap box ...

now devils advocate ....

JB's fly ... how is treating your little slice of heaven.. going to stop them from flying to your yard

and .. on a side note .... if you buy a lure type trap.. since we are on the subject ... give them as presents to the neighbors upwind ... so the darn things will be lured to their garden/yard.. and not yours...

one year.. all of a sudden it struck me... WHAT THE HECK WAS THE GOOD OF LURING THEM TO MY GARDEN?????

finally ....one years overwhelming plague does not mean it will be this years problem ... one years its the JB's... last year for me it was cicadas ... one year it was those darn biting weird ladybugs .... and they seldom ever come back in droves the following years ... go figure on that ...

on that logic ... you MIGHT not need to be all that proactive in most cases ...

i realize that milky spore is pretty harmless ... so have at it ... but too many homeowners use way to many controls/chemicals.. that just arent necessary ... or they use them improperly based on third hand knowledge .. or figure if they say one teaspoon per gallon of water.. then the whole bottle sans the water is even better ... etc ...oops.. sorry .. got back on the soapbox.. lol ...

good luck

ken

Both posts make sense to me. Hm.....well.... maybe I don't need to spend the extra money. It seems expensive anyway. As long as my tree is healthy, it's ok to be ugly with skeletons of leaves

Since I'm not a big fan of chemicals, I have changed my approach to pests. I decided to stop planting and as well, get rid of plants, trees and shrubs that seem to draw them in. I had a beautiful pussy willow for a few years, but hoards of JBs would show up every year. I got rid of it. Then they found my "fancy" roses. Got rid of them. I hardly have any JBs anymore. Lily beetles were all over my oriental lilies. Yep, got rid of those too.

Now I'm debating about cherries and crabapples. While I have and love them both, the tent caterpillars in spring and webworms in fall are just terrible. I'm seriously thinking about cutting them down this year.

If I find a pattern year over year with the same offending tree or shrub and pest, no matter how much I love it, I get rid of it.

Is that too harsh?!? LOL!

Is that too harsh?!?

Well, it's not too harsh if you're trying to avoid NON-native pests like Japanese Beetles (by the way, they live in the grub stage in GRASS roots, so get rid of your GRASS). But encouraging and supporting NATIVE insects is very important to the success of the creatures that depend on them: birds, spiders, salamanders, frogs, etc. Plants in the Prunus genus, such as Cherries and Plums (native), are very important to many native insects. Oaks and crabapples are too.

Living pest free is not my goal. Living in a well balanced system where creatures keep each other in check ... that is my goal. Fewer native plants means fewer insects which means fewer birds .... Many non-native plants are "pest free" because native insects haven't evolved to eat them ... they can't eat them.

For a very insightful book on this subject (that is, the role insects play), get a copy of "Bringing Nature Home" by Douglas Tallamy.

Here is a link that might be useful: Bringing Nature Home book

Thank you for the resource, Esh. I will pick up a copy.

My goal is not to be pest free. There are just a couple of trees that are devoured year after year by certain insects and I'm not sure I want to keep them in the garden any longer. After reading the book you suggested, I may change my mind!

I am fortunate enough to live on a large enough piece of property that had an existing woods with a nice variety of trees including birch, beech, oak, maple, sassafras, aralia, alder, dogwood, pines, spruce and others. I have found that the only trees I have pest "problems" with are those that I have introduced to my yard, specifically Malus and Prunus.

I'll put out the grub chemical in the grass just so the grass doesn't get all chewed up. But the last few years with my cherry trees and others I've taken a different approach. In May I treat all my trees to a 2-gallon pesticide systemic drench. It doesn't cure all the ills, but the JB's are not as thick and the trees seem to be growing better. Don't think the bugs like the taste of the leaves either.