I need some fortification to tell you
what I am about to tell you, ha, ha.
(soft acoustic guitar picking)
There was a development
in the garden that I had to report on
in my vlog.
I'm taking a little break from
my travel vlogs to tell you about
what happened this week.
Now, you know that I am now using the
Back to Eden garden method with
wood chips, and.... I have four to six inches
of wood chips on my beds....
But, I noticed that three of my tomato plants
wilted very quickly,
like in three days they were
wilted and shriveled up,
and we dug them out and there were
30 to 50 grubs under each plant.
These were all at the base of two tomato plants.
I thought, now wait a minute...
with wood chip mulching,
you never disturb the surface,
you let it break down,
and it turns into beautiful, rich soil
full of hyphae, and
you know, you've got your
decomposers in there...
My goodness, those are huge!
Huge and fat!
That's fantastic. Wait,...
That's a worm, right?
You never have to touch it,
and you never have to do any work.
Ha, ha, ha.
So, I wrote to my friend Jay Barringer,
at Garden of Odin,
Edible Foodscaping in Phoenix, Arizona.
Be sure to watch that vlog,
with me and Jay,
and told him about this and he said,
"Too many grubs are not good.
They can disturb the roots."
Well, that's what happened!
So, I thought...
good grief! You know, I've probably got...
there's no telling
how many more grubs...we have!
There's complete infestation,
and so, the question is,
does it have to do with the wood chips,
or did I just get unlucky?
(shaking wood chips sound)
(he picks grubs out of the chips)
Wish we could get money for these!
We would get rich today!
(Eric) Collect it like gold!
See? (Kaye) Yeah!
What did we grow in the
Late Bloomer Garden this summer?
Grubs!!
That's where I found the first
bulk of, uh,.... grubs.
And... he went over a little ways,
and in the corner over there,
it's a huge infestation of, yes,
harvester ants.
I was so grossed out. I thought,
maybe it's time for chemicals.
I mean, you know, this is impossible!
So, uh,...
I went to the hardware store.
We looked at all the options. Ha, ha.
Ha, ha, I just couldn't do it, and,
plus, the chemical I looked at
didn't even kill... it said,
it kills ants,
except, blah, blah, blah, harvester ants.
I'm going, well, if it doesn't kill
harvester ants, that doesn't help.
And it didn't list grubs,
so, that didn't help.
So, I am in the, uh, market
for finding a solution.
(car passes by)
(cup chinks as I set down)
Ha, ha, ha.
So... this raised bed we call
The Back Forty.
It's about 50 square feet,
and I thought, we had seen
June bugs diving into this.
Not many, one here and there,
diving into the wood chips,
no doubt laying eggs,
and I thought...
this could be loaded, too.
I could just be shooting myself in the foot
to go ahead and plant
my sweat peas in this.
And, so...
I had Eric dig this entire thing out.
He sifted this dirt
like he was making bread.
He pushed all the wood chips back
on one half, sifted it all down,
pushed all the wood chips back
to the other side, sifted it all down.
And, took out every grub
to a foot down.
Not everything's been done, just this,
and a couple of beds over here.
We wound up with a 5 gallon bucket,
four inches deep.
Now, that's a lot of grubs.
I don't know, what, 2,000,
at least, I don't know.
But,... right now, what I'm doing
on this bed, is,... I bought,
it says it's clear, it's not really clear.
It's kind of white plastic.
You can kind of see through it.
But, I'm trying to solarize this soil.
So, I'm starving it from water,
I cut off the water,
and I'm not going to water this bed
for a month.
Now, it would be better to do it
for three months, and then I could
probably kill all the, uh,
powdery mildew spores
that kill all my plants, ha, ha.
Now, we shall see.
Ha, ha, ha, ha.
If I see little,...
not little, huge...
if I see huge green metallic
June bugs pushing up
to the surface and going,...
"Let me out, let me out, let me out!"
Then, I'll know that they're still
hatching down there anyway, ha, ha.
Now, I left this bucket,
five gallon bucket, four inches deep,
of these grubs, I know, it's really gross...
If you, if you follow me on Instagram,
you've already seen this. I have,
uh,... let's see,... hold on, ha, ha,...
um, a hundred and forty-three views.
So, a hundred and forty-three people
out there, that may be watching this,
have already seen my grubs, ha, ha.
But, um,... I left them in the bucket,
by the driveway and the sidewalk,
thinking that, okay, I, I just,
I didn't have the....
guts,
to, uh, to pour...
bleach in there and just... kill 'em all.
And, so, uh,...
believe me, I thought about it.
So, I had this great idea, well, ha, ha,...
I thought, well,...
leave them for the wildlife.
That's what they want anyway.
In fact, today there is evidence
of raccoon activity all around
this raised bed.
They're digging up the side,
looking for those grubs.
So, I thought, hey, I'll just
serve 'em up a great meal,
right there by the driveway
and the sidewalk.
So, I set the bucket there for three nights,
and, there's digging all around,
but, let's go see
if anything has happened
to the grubs in the bucket.
And you see,
the raccoons were digging here last night.
But, let's look in the bucket.
Wow.
I suppose they might have eaten a few.
This, this looks like it's settled down
a little bit.
But, there's still.... tons in here.
Now,... Zachary,...
there's something really,
kind of gross in my garden right now.
Would you like to see it?
(whispers) Yeah.
What? (Zachary) Yeah.
You'd like to see something gross?
Yeah.
Ha, ha, ha, ha.
Okay, let's go. (Zachary) Okay.
(Zachary) Ewwwuu.
Come closer.
They won't hurt you,
just stand right there.
I'm going to show you.
That's why I've got my glove on.
Look.
(Zachary) What are those?
Those are worms, not worms,
they're grubs.
(Zachary) What's grubs?
They're like... they're like...
beetle larva.
Oh, here's a really big one.
It's like a what?
It's, uh, it's like a roly poly on wheels.
On wheels? (Zachary) Yeah.
(Voiceover) The larva, known as
crawly backs,
because they propel using
the stiff hairs on their backs,
reach a length of two inches.
At rest, they curl to a C shape.
You don't want to hold it?
No, it's too gross...
unless I wear your glove.
You can wear my glove!
Oh, yeah.
(he shrieks)
(Voiceover) The larva feed on manure
and decaying matter,
but, occasionally plant roots,
like my tomatoes.
With more home gardens,
compost piles and organic mulch,
their range has expanded since the 1960's.
(Kaye) Pick it up! (Zachary) Ha, ha, ha.
( soft guitar picking)
Actually, this is the Figeater Beetle,
also, green fruit beetle,
or, fig beetle.
And, it's a member of the
scarab beetle family,
and it's habitat is primarily
the Southwestern United States,
and Mexico.
They're often mistaken for green
June beetles, which are smaller
and more destructive pests.
They make a loud buzzing sound
probably because they don't have
to open their elytra to fly.
Their primary food has become
ripe fruit with soft skins, like figs.
Fortunately, they left my figs alone,
but, I used silk bags to protect them
as a precaution.
Adults emerge in late summer
and early fall,
they mate, and females lay eggs
in decaying matter,...which is
exactly what my wood chip mulch is.
And when the larva emerge,
they burrow down up to a foot
to spend the winter.
In spring, they move back
near the surface and pupate.
This is the mud shell
left over from pupation.
The larva became a pupa
inside here, and when the beetle
metamorphosed, it broke out.
I mean, I keep a tennis racket handy
to knock the June bugs
out of the sky, but,
I'm not always out here, you know?
(soft guitar)
You know, I really appreciate
you watching my vlog.
I created the vlog to
build audience for my channel,
so that you could get to know me
a little bit better.
And, of course, I love sharing
inspiring stories of other gardens
and gardeners in my vlog,
My vlog is something that I can
shoot and edit and create myself,
so, there's a much quicker, uh,
turnaround for, for my videos,
so, I appreciate you sharing and
giving me thumbs up,
and, uh, GET OUT OF HERE!
GO!!
Go get the grubs!
That's what they're there for!
You know, I should just, that's a crow,
on my chimney...
Yeah!
So, ha, ha, ha.
I should just dump the grubs
all out in the street,
and let the birds just whoosh!
But, then, they'll know that
my house is... dinner time, you know?
Ha, ha, ha.
Anyway, thanks a lot for watching,
and, uh,
the next vlog will be back to Sicily!
Ha, ha.
(street traffic is heard)
(chickens clucking excitedly)
(lots of excited chicken chatter)
(Kaye) Oh, good, a lot of them
are still alive.