Well, I found a few of these little boogers today. After getting over the initial gross out, I chatted with friends and concluded these are grubs. Now, while my chickens love them, my soon-to-be vegetable garden won’t be nearly as thankful to have them. Grubs really love lawn roots too.
 
Fortunately I discovered them turning up soil in preparation for planting the seedlings I started indoors. Now the question is: How do you deal with these monsters?
 
There are a couple of schools of thought. One is to get rid of all infested soil and start over. That is a sure-fire and pesticide-free way to eradicate the monsters, at least until some Japanese, June, or other beetle comes along and lays more eggs.
 
The other option, and many advocate this, is a chemical one. There are curative products which kill grubs on contact, and preventative pesticides that kill grubs over a long period of time. They do tend to be very effective.
 
The pros and cons are pretty obvious. Getting rid of soil only works until the next set of beetles comes along and lays more eggs. Treating soil is highly effective but highly poisonous. My biggest problem with the latter is that I have chickens who will happily dig into that dirt and ingest said poison. Additionally, growing an organic garden demands finding other ways to deal with this kind of problem.
 
There are organic solutions to this problem. You have to stay on top of them, but to me it makes the most sense. I get my organic treatments for things like flies from this source and I’m going try their grub solution. Here is the website: www.arbico-organics.com
ripleyAnother solution is, of course, allowing my chickens to scratch furiously through my grow beds.  The problem with that is that once my garden is in, they do far more harm than good.  Nevertheless the little darlings feasted on my finds today.  Ah, the circle of life.
 
I will keep you updated on how this works, but Arbico is a great resource. Check them out. In the mean time, happy gardening!