When you’re digging in the backyard, you’re bound to unearth some sort of monster. Healthful soil needs of living organisms to support plant growth, including the larvae of insects all sorts. Some larvae help in the backyard by eating bugs that are pest or decomposing organic matter, while others are more destructive to your growing plants. If you discover big brown mammals on your soil, start looking then you can choose the most appropriate course of action.

Potential Pupae

A brown monster in the soil might not be a larva in any way. Insects including some species of beetles, flies, wasps and many others undergo metamorphosis. Pupae don’t eat or go around, if upset, although they may wiggle like creatures. It is almost impossible, even for specialists, to identify an insect. You’re concerned they are pests and if you discover a number of them on your soil, increase a couple of these in a ventilated container with soil that is moist. If they become adults, it will be much easier to identify them.

Legs and Limbs

Larvae with three pairs of five or five appendages and legs are caterpillars — butterflies or immature moths. Brown caterpillars in the soil are probably cutworms, the creatures of Noctuid moths. They grow up to two inches long and vary in colour from cream to almost black. Cutworms attack plants at night, since they feed, cutting them down and conceal during the daytime in soil. Remove and till the soil two weeks. Place foil or cardboard collars round plant stems and partially buried to protect plants.

Legless Larvae

Flies that are immature, or maggots, don’t have legs. Soil-dwelling crane fly maggots (Tipulidae) grow around 1 1/2 inches long and range in colour from cream to brown. They feed on organic matter and help. A couple of species have been known pests of turf, resulting in brown patches in your lawn. Where damage is extensive, apply the nematode Steinernema feltiae, which will be available in powder form at garden centres. Combine of powder in 1 gallon of water and then soak the yard. Keep by shaking the sprayer, the solution blended. Keep a lawn during the next seven days to keep the nematodes living.

Six-Legged Worms

Larvae with three pairs of legs and no other appendages are most likely immature beetles. Soil-dwelling, large, brown ground beetle larvae (Carabidae) grow around 1 3/4 inches long and feed on pests including snails and slugs. Click beetle larvae (Elateridae), known as wireworms, are hard-bodied, tan to brown and grow around 1 1/2 inches . Wireworms are origin pests that are serious. By cultivating the soil in fall to a depth of 6 or 8 inches expose the creatures to predators. Rake the soil fourteen days later and repeat the process in the spring before planting something. Pieces out of the kitchen of root vegetables in the soil to attract the creatures. Replace these baits weekly.

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