Curl grubs in pot plant

[EllaCourtney]

Hi there! I have never had a home or garden until about 6 months ago, and have been delighted by a little cumquat tree I got from bunnings the week we moved in. It went from flowers to an abundance of fruit for its 3 tiny branches - but recently started looking a bit sadder and leaves were spotted with yellow. I decided to repot it (finally) and got some citrus potting mix. 

When I took it out of the original pot I discovered 4 fat curl grubs munching away on the roots! I was horrified - but after checking there were no more, continued to put it into the new pot and soil. I later read on google that maybe I should have rinsed the roots to make sure there was none of the 'infected' soil left attached, and discarded the original soil. Is that right?

TLDR: Curl worms discovered when repotting - should I chuck the whole lot out now and get new soil?!

Community manager's note: Check out How to control curl grubs and army worms for expert advice.

Would love your help with this! 

[Nat2]

Hi All,

I just wanted to give you an update on how I went with the soapy water soil drench. Unfortunately I had no curl grubs to remove the next day after peeling back the wet cloth. This may be because I had dug out quite a few (20) the day before I tried this method. Or possibly one watering can wasn’t enough as it is a very large pot (70cm dimeter). Either way I will keep an eye on the plant and try this method again in the future if I notice more grubs. For now my finger lime is starting to put out some new growth and flower buds after a very severe pruning a few months ago. 
Thanks.

[KatieC]

Hi @Nat2,

Thank you for the update about your curl grubs, it is great news you haven't seen any more come up. I'll tag @MitchellMc to notify him of your success. Amazing that your finger lime has new growth and the flowers are starting to bud! Would love to see a photo of it in full bloom. 

Katie

[JD2]

Would it be safe to do that to a potted Japanese amaple

[MitchellMc]

Welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community @JD2. It's marvellous to have you join us, and many thanks for your question about curl grubs.

There's been a bit of information shared in this thread. If you could please identify the advice you're enquiring about, I'd be happy to confirm whether it also applies to a Japanese maple.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Mitchell
 

[Annette6]

I realise this is an old post but that is not how curl grubs get into pots, they are the larvae of beetles, the beetle lands on the pot, burrows into the potting mix and lays eggs

[MitchellMc]

Welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community @Annette6. It's wonderful to have you join us, and many thanks for adding to the discussion.

Thanks for clarifying that for our members. I'd agree; that's the most likely scenario when encountering larvae in pots.
 

We look forward to hearing all about your projects and plans around the home and garden. Please feel free to reach out anytime you need assistance or have something to share with the community.

Mitchell
 

[chelated]

I agree with Annette and have observed quite a bit of misinformation going back and forth in this post, which is disappointing. 
The community appears to want to

know to eradicate curl grubs from their pots. This includes the eggs and adults. The larvae were very unlikely to have crawled across the ground and into the OP’s cumquat pot. More likely, there were eggs in her potting mix that hatched after they potted up their tree.

If anyone is still battling with curl grubs, try applying Nematodes (not sold by Bunnings) in October. The larvae are feeding now (early Spring) but the soil is too cold for the nematodes so dig out what you can by hand and by all means try a neem oil drench, then anything left in the pot will be taken care of by the nematodes in October when your soil temperature is 16°c or higher. A quick google search will lead you in the right direction to order them.  Watch out for the adult beetles in December wanting to lay eggs and perhaps add more Nematodes then. Get rid of any backyard solar lights which attract the beetles. Good luck! 

 

[robchin]

Great to see the sharing of information in this post. We can't be sure how the grubs got into the pot at this point and ultimately that doesn't matter once they are there. Trick here is to stop it happening again. Can I also suggest that you consider using an insecticide designed for this sort of thing. I work for Bunnings and we sell this one which is an Insecticide and has fertiliser as well: Multicrop 1L EcoGrub 3 In 1 Insecticide - Bunnings Australia

Good luck with your plants @EllaCourtney