Dr. Pye's Scanmask 10 Million Live Beneficial Nematodes - Kills Over 230 Bugs

Texas is known for a lot of things, one of which is the abundance of not welcome creepy crawlies that love to take up residence in home and yard especially once the weather starts getting warmer. I'm also not one that goes in for a lot of chemicals being haphazardly sprayed or tossed here and there, so was looking for an alternative last year and happened upon these beneficial nematodes. My lovely oak trees were being decimated left and right by borers, I lost three huge trees within the last five years, and my favorite one which was on the side of the house was showing the dreaded signs of it's demise. I read the reviews, and ordered one container which was promptly delivered. I didn't choose to try spraying since the medium is rather chunky. I applied by hand mostly around a large area of the ground around the tree. Briefly, per the instructions, I added water first of all to the container and let that sit for awhile. Then added the mixture to some good organic soil mix and turned to mix well, and spread around the base of the tree. You need to apply when the weather is fairly decent, not rainy and especially not in full sun. I applied in the afternoon once the sun had moved past the area. Then you take your garden hose and wet down. By a month later, my tree was leafing out and looked great the rest of the summer. I believe the nematodes definitely came to the rescue, another reason is because I have small bushes and other plants going around the tree and they also benefited from the application. Everything did great last year, and I am going to order again this year for different areas of the yard. Very pleased with the product. I won't say this is a cure all, but I liked the results last year, worked for me.

I don't know if this product alone did it to solve the problem, but it must have contributed. I had a major flea problem after bringing in a new huge fluffy puppy dog, ridden with fleas. I thought we had the flea problem resolved with my previous dogs, but this one was much tougher. None of the typical things worked = frontline, heartworm pill with flea control, carpet cleaning, washing the dog beds regularly etc. etc. We ended up having two dogs with fleas and worms, and my vet commented that it's a bad flea season, when I asked him what else I could do. I decided to research the subject a little more. I ended up treating the carpets with borax and ordered the Beneficial Nematodes for the yard. I don't like harsh chemicals, so these were both good alternatives. Whatever worked in the end, I don't know, it may have been the combination of everything I did, but the fleas were gone a month later after we treated the yard with Nematodes and after I treated the few areas of carpet we have, with borax. Considering the money I spend curing my dogs from worms, their agony of constant itching and associated skin problems - spending a few dollars to actually get rid of the fleas for good, was money well spent. I bought another box of Nematodes recently, since we put new sod down in our yard and I don't know if the little critters survived that change. Better save then sorry...

This product did a very good job for me and had almost eradicated gnats in my massive indoor infestation. 3 weeks after the treatment and I so see a few survivors, but the nematodes have destroyed hundreds if not thousands. I’ve given it only 4 stars because there are a few survivors, the relatively high price and the need to do more than one treatment and the relatively demanding application process. I do however find it to be a very effective method. I’ve applied it in my two indoor growing tents where I organically grow exotic herbs. The tents were infested with hundreds if not thousands of fungus gnats as it has taken me a while to realize what’s been going on. During that period of time the gnats have kept multiplying… My indoor setting includes about 35 2-7 gallon pots. Some tips: 1. Use in conjunction with other methods. Yellow stickers, electric zappers and BT bacteria have helped greatly to restrain the infestation but haven’t completely stopped it. 2. Order nematodes when whether can support their survival in transit. 3. Use ASAP. I used instantly upon arrival of nematodes. 4. Follow instructions for you situation. 5. Keep temperature in the indoor environment ideal for the nematodes to last as long as possible or needed. Moisten the potting mix to further support nematodes and consider dimming or shutting off lights. I did for 36 hours. 6. Give nematodes a few days or even a week to take affect. Please check out the video!

For a year I had tried everything to get rid of the fungus gnats in my houseplant soil. I had purchased a bag of soil that was infested with the larvae, and they took over ALL of my plants, killing a number of them. They were out of control. Pesticides and fumigation would only kill the adults, and in another week I'd be right back where I started. Finally I did some research on the internet and read that nematodes were one of the best means of controlling fungus gnat larvae long term, but none of the local garden centers carried them. Hirt's was the only place I could find that carried Scanmask. The product arrived promptly and has worked beautifully! No more bugs! It kinda creeped me out at first to think of putting worms in the soil of my house plants, but they are microscopic and not harmful to people or pets. Besides, I'd rather have microscopic worms than fungus gnats flying in my face all day. There were a few things I wish the package instructions would have included: How to make up a smaller batch if you are only using part of the carton (it says it will treat 1050 4" pots!) and how much of the mix to put in each pot. I think I over did it, because it didn't go nearly that far, but it worked either way so I'm happy. I tell everyone I know that has houseplants and has noticed little bugs that look like fruit flies flying around to use this product. It is the only thing that works!

I was happy to get these little nematodes and hopeful.. However the directions are vague and the promise misleading. So bottom-line, Dr. Pye's Scanmask 7 Million Live Beneficial Nematodes - Wasted my time and my money with out solving my grub problem. The box lists two choices for use. The first: fill the container the nematodes arrived in with cold water. The container is between the size of a small and a medium fountain drink. Stir the water and nematodes together and then mix well with some topsoil before spreading the soil over the troubled area. The second choice listed: put the nematodes into two gallons of cold water stir it up for one minute then wait 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, strain the carrier off the water. So after 30 minutes I had two gallons of water filled with nematodes and a strainer of usable carrier. This website suggests that this item "Covers Up To 2,000 Sq Ft" (I cut and pasted that quote from the website.) Now I intended to use a watering can to do this task. There was not any suggestion relating to using a watering can. Everything I read had led me to believe there is no reason I can't use a watering can. I looked at the 2 gallons of water in the tub with the nematodes and I knew that, no matter how carefully i poured, I didn't have enough solution for the problem. I never had a grub problem and I chose nematodes to get the rid the grubs because I had read good things about nematodes, and I like the idea of environmentally friendly and especially liked the ease of use offerings. I click and payed for the nematodes and they arrived quickly and in very good condition. I set them in the fridge and then sat down and read the directions. Nothing about a water can. Just the spray bottle connected to the hose, or mixing the top soil. I do not have the sprayer. Using the two gallon mix in the watering can, I did my best to evenly spread and very very sparingly pour the worms on the infested area. The mix barely covered a 10' x 10' area. 100sf is not even close to 2000sf, it is not even close to 400sf, so i cannot imagine covering 2000 sf with with 2 gallons of mix unless I used an aspergillum. I needed to cover a total area of about 1200sf. This experience left my hopes high and dry with grubs still devouring my lawn. I would have gladly paid whatever price for enough nematodes to cover 2000sf. I thought I had and I really wanted to get this done before the ground freezes and kills the nematodes. Believe me, it was not the paying the proper price for the proper amount of nematodes required to handle my problem that led me to provide feedback here. I am unhappy because this company either through careless editing or will-full deception wasted my time and my money. I am now left waiting for more nematodes to arrive, while the grubs keep destroying my lawn. And, I had to pay another shipping cost fee! The ground is getting colder by the day and the window for successfully getting the nematodes into the soil and working before they freeze is closing quickly. There is a chance now because of the lateness of the season, that the coming shipment will be added to existing losses. I sure hope they correct the mistake on the website and refund my shipping costs. I will gladly pay for the nematodes, but i hate paying for delivery. Dr. Pye did not deliver! So bottom-line, Dr. Pye's Scanmask 7 Million Live Beneficial Nematodes - Wasted my time and my money with out solving my grub problem.

I ordered these to combat a chigger infestation in the backyard vegetable garden area (raised beds with walkways). Unfortunately, I was not able to get the chiggers under control and had to abandon the garden in July. That was disappointing. However, we have dogs and a cat, and the ticks were very nasty in early spring this year. We have had no problem with ticks or fleas after spreading the nematodes. I do not know if the nematodes took care of the problem or if it was something else, but we've saved a lot of money on tick and flea repellants this year. As far as Hirt's, this is an excellent company and I have been very happy with my purchases from them. Good prices, great products. Recommended.

We used these last summer on the yard to help control white grubs (various beetle larvae). We live in Florida, and every type of bug grows down here. Used to be able to dig up a shovel of soil and it always had grubs of various sizes in it. We were planting fruit trees in the yard, so we got to see this several times. The nematodes really worked. We spray-applied with a hose-end sprayer and then watered a lot to make sure they made it down into the soil. Not too long after applying, a few weeks later, maybe a month, the next tree we were planting, we noticed far fewer grubs...we actually had to dig around and look for grubs on purpose, instead of them being visible in every shovel-full of dirt. And we didn’t find many. A wonderful side-effect is that we had fewer ants. We went through a canister of orthene every month trying to keep the fire ants at bay. We tried to keep them from encroaching on the patio area, and from around the fruit trees. After applying, we noticed fewer and fewer new mounds, and eventually we had no more fear of walking around in the yard. We’re noticing the ants starting to come back, and we found some grubs under a fruit tree, so it’s time to apply again!!

My strawberries began to wilt and die. I did research on the interent and assessed that it was likely the beginning of vine weavils- (a common predator) eating the roots. I have a 2 year old and did't want to spray chemicals so I reluctantly bought the nematode worms. I really hate worms so the package sat on my table for a week before I worked up enough courage to use it. The worms really are microscopic so all you see is the dirt-like substance that they come mixed into in the package. I did the mix and water version for application. I used a big plastic tub to mix them into (I added about 2 gallons of water). I used a 64 oz 7-Eleven plastic cup to disperse the mixture because one reviewer complained about clogging a srayer. I applied them at night. The process was water the garden like crazy, applied the worms, watered again to help the worms swim around and I went to bed. I watered heavily a few more days in excess of what might be healthy for hte plants to help the nematodes swim to their prey. My strawberry plants perked up like they have never done before. I must have killed the thing that was eating their roots. One plant is beyond repair and is dead. The other 7 plants have new vines growing out and one even grew a flower. Its been about a week since I applied the nematodes. I know it is early but I am excited so I wrote a review. I recommend over chemicals. Its easier and safer. It seemed to do what I needed done! My local nurseries did not carry nematodes so I think online is the only way to do it.