S. scarabaei is highly effective as a curative white grub control.
We received an email today from Gary Fish, of the Maine Board of Pesticides Control, concerning a new highly-pathogenic and -specific white grub-killing nematode: Steinernema scarabaei. Mr. Fish was looking for production sources. With a motto of “Think First, Spray Last,” the Maine State Government is excited to have yet another tool at their disposal to help Maine growers manage pests without poisons — the lobsters are happy about it, too.
Unfortunately we don’t have a source or even know of one. In fact, it is one reason for us posting this article: Maybe you, dear reader, might have heard of this nematode and have information about its production and distribution. If you do, please contact us and let us know. If there is a producer in the United States, we might start offering this reportedly effective species as early as the spring of 2006.
For the time being, all we can do is study, learn, and seek the source. If you would like more information about parasitic nematodes in general, we have a fair amount of nematode information right on this site. If you want more information specific to S. scarabaei, all we have to offer right now are these facts:
- S. scarabaei is highly effective as a curative white grub control.
- Due to multiplication in infected grubs, even very low S. scarabaei rates can provide very high control rates within one month.
- The best long-term effect of S. scarabaei is expected with low rates that allow some grubs to survive until spring allowing S. scarabaei an additional reproduction round before summer.
- S. scarabaei is highly effective in a range of typical turf soil types, but is probably most effective in lighter soils.
My information source for this article, in addition to what info I got from Mr. Fish himself, was this PDF that I was given a link to. This document, titled “Sustainable White Grub Management with Steinernema scarabaei: a New Highly White Grub-pathogenic and -specific Nematode,” was written by Albrecht M. Koppenhöfer of Rutgers University for the United States Golf Association (USGA). If you want more info, feel free to view this document, but please bear in mind, it is a PDF so you will need to make sure you have a copy of Adobe Reader installed on your computer.
