Mole Crickets Again

Tanya has declared war on garden varmints.  Colorado potato bugs ate a bunch of her newly transplanted tomato plants two days after she put them out.  She sprayed them at least once since.  She bought an extra sprayer for roses and cabbages which apparently take the same spray so she can keep a tank loaded for tomatoes and cabbages to respond at a moment's notice.

The mole crickets are back with a vengeance this year.  They make little round holes in the earth about the size of your finger and eat the roots underground and also the tops above ground.  They are omnivorous which means they also eat bugs and grubs.  But they eat Tanya's flowers so they are doomed!

She buys some kind of green granular bait.  A trench is dug with a hoe beside some flowers where the Mole Crickets have been active.  The trench is filled with water and once it soaks in the granules are sprinkled on top and the trench is covered over.  They are drawn to the water and are poisoned by the bait, sometimes coming to the surface to die.  These two shots below are of surfaced dead ones.

The book says 50 mm in length.  These are at least 75 mm.  They also have wings and adults can fly up to 8 km (5 miles). 
 
I blogged about Mole Crickets two years ago here. If you Google Mole Cricket images you will get lots of great pictures. If you like that sort of thing.