I just read this in Friday’s Burnaby Now: “Burnaby Subsidizing Pricey Bug Packages”. Isn’t that a great heading? Even I, who has lawns on the brain, having just finished a new project with lawn in the front and the back, and having ripped up my front grass for reasons that will become apparent, didn’t clue in to the story behind this heading.
European Chafer Beetles.
If you haven’t yet been educated about the effects of ECB damage, you might find this post interesting.
Most years since the ECB really took off, Burnaby has offered a subsidized nematode package to Burnaby residents. This article is a reference to complaints that the product is an overly pricey version whereas Canadian Tire and Home Depot have nematode packages for less. Well, if I were using nematodes for my (now non-existant) lawn, I’d want the most effective.
Here are the details, for those of you who are Burnaby residents. Don’t wait too long–they’re taking orders only until Wednesday (June 24 2015). If you aren’t a Burnaby resident, you may borrow a Burnaby resident friend who doesn’t need nematodes to get you the deal. I’ve tried to find out which other Metro Vancouver municipalities are offering reduced nematode packages, but if any are, they’re not advertising very well.
Of course, you don’t need to get nematodes from your city–most nurseries and big box stores will have them. Just make sure it’s the most effective species: Heterorhabditis bacteriophora.
And this is why I don’t need nematodes for my lawn this year:
Real Life Garden Solutions 
Hi Janet. Those pesky ECB’s were the cause of the start of the landscaping that is our front garden so in the end, they weren’t so bad.
On BC One Call, most folks don’t know that Shaw Cable isn’t a member and neither are most municipalities (see http://www.worksafebc.com/regulation_and_policy/policy_practice_consultative_committee/assets/pdfs/bconecall.pdf) and between those, that’s a lot of underground utilities. Not that anyone shouldn’t make the free call to locate many (if not all) buried utilities. But it’s not a panacea.
My opinion: municipalities generally put their stuff in public rights of way so homeowners rarely have to worry about hitting a city pipe. But there are exceptions like the Burnaby-owned storm sewer through our back yards. And if you hit your own water line, for example, on your side of the City shut-off, it’s your cost. Always a good idea to have a general idea where the water comes in from the street and the sewer (storm, if you have it, and sanitary) goes out. Sewers are generally lower so it’s water that is the bugbear.
And then there’s Shaw. They get a bit of a free ride when other utility locates find their cables and duct banks. But they’re cowboys and will lay cables under and through many things they probably shouldn’t. And at (shallow) depths that you wouldn’t get away with if you were pretty much anyone else. I’ve seen Shaw cable that must have been laid in the bed of a sidewalk form as it was being built because when the sidewalk panel was lifted out, the cable was embedded in the concrete and tore out. Perhaps increasing competition will curb the cavalier attitude but in the meanwhile, look out for cable. Most single family areas have their Shaw mainly overhead, thank goodness. Cheers and happy digging!
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Oh dear, more things to worry about…
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