Dear Editor:
In response to your Oct. 8 article, "Raccoons feast on her grubby lawn," about the damage caused by raccoons searching lawns for European chafer beetle grubs (beetles in their larval form), the City of Burnaby offers the following information about initiatives the city has underway to address the problem.
The European chafer is present in many Lower Mainland communities. Grubs will feed on grass roots, and may move into vegetable patches to feed on other plants if food is scarce.
The damage this causes, combined with the visible damage of skunks, birds and raccoons pulling back lawn turf to get at a meal of grubs, make chafer grubs a damaging pest.
In 2002, the city developed a comprehensive program that has resulted in a decrease in calls - from 323 in 2004 (the height of the issue) to 17 to date in 2014. The city has funded and completed six separate studies, between 2003 and 2009, looking at various treatment methods, application processes and treatment timing, and has treated 19,416 square metres of land with nematodes that function as a biological control method. In addition, city staff have conducted resident outreach and education through newspapers, brochures, public displays the city website, lawn care workshops, and presentations at garden centres.
Staff also held two nematode sales, in conjunction with the rollout of the city's pesticide bylaw. The use of nematodes, in combination with healthy lawn care practices, has proven effective at controlling the European chafer population.
Through its research conducted to date, the city has determined that the period from July to early August is the optimal time to treat chafer-infested areas. Sites that are suffering damage that is significant enough to warrant treatment by the city are treated and/or restored at that time.
The city is not able to treat every area affected by the beetle. Treatment of most homeowners' sites is left to the homeowner, with support from the city, as identified above.
Councillor Dan Johnston, City of Burnaby
