Have you ever had a lawn where you feel like you’ve done everything and it’s still has brown patches everywhere? Lawn grubs are probably the culprit. Various types of beetles lay their eggs in your lawn which eventually become grubs. These grubs feast on the roots of your grass eventually causing that random pattern of brown patches all over your lawn! Here are 5 facts so you can get more information on these destructive pests.
What Do They Look Like?
An example of a grub and an adult June Beetle
Grubs are the larval/immature form of certain beetle species. They are white, wrinkly, c-shaped critters that live in your lawn. In fact they are sometimes called “white grubs” due to their coloring. They measure 1/4 all the way up to 2 inches. In Utah the 2 most common types of grubs that will destroy your lawn are from the Japanese beetle and the June beetle (sometimes called the May beetle). They both do the exact same type of damage to your lawn. When they grow into adults they can be a silvery green, red, or brown scarab beetle and they feed on garden plants. However, it can be tough to spot them as adults as they are typically only active at night.
The Grub Life Cycle
To treat these insects it’s important to understand their life cycle. Grubs don’t stay grubs forever! Basically they are only active and eating on your grasses’ roots for 4 months of the year: April, May, August, and September. Between May and August they become pupae, quickly turn into adult beetles, then lay eggs in the lawn by the time august rolls around to start the cycle all over again. You will often never notice the adult beetles because they are active at night. In the winter months the grubs move further down into the soil and become dormant. The graphic up above does a great job of illustrating their life cycle.
How To Spot Grub Damage
An example of grub damage in a lawn
Grub damage will simply look like brown patches throughout your lawn, and is often spotted in the early spring after snow melt because the grubs ate all the roots in those areas last fall. In order to confirm if the damage is in fact caused by grubs you can try lifting up some of the dead patches, it will either roll up like a carpet or when you lift the grass you will see it has no roots. Sometimes there will also be parts of the lawn dug up by various animals who are looking to eat the grubs. However, not every brown patch that’s in your lawn is due to grubs however…other issues like soil compaction, fungus/disease, dog urine, and drought stress also cause brown patches so it’s important to consider those other issues before immediately assuming it’s grubs. Fungus, for instance, usually presents in a “spiderweb” or ring pattern and that’s how you know it’s not grubs.
How To Prevent Grubs
There are several types of environmental controls you can do to prevent grubs in the first place. First off is you should de-thatch your lawn…grubs are nature’s de-thatchers and it is actually their primary food source, the problem is they also eat roots which damages your grass. Also aerating your lawn is helpful as beetles actually prefer compacted soil to lay their eggs. Finally you should do infrequent deep watering in order to encourage dense, deep root growth because grubs actually prefer sparse thin grass over a luscious full lawn. Also keep an eye on your neighbor’s lawn…if you see signs of grubs there, then the beetles can easily migrate to your lawn! But overall if you are taking excellent care of you lawn grubs are less likely to move in (however it’s not impossible).
How To Get Rid of Them
There are a few ways to get rid of grubs. There is a natural way…introduce Milky Spore Disease which is applied as a powder and targets and kills adult beetles, however this treatment can take up to 2 years and in my opinion is not ideal. In terms of pesticides there are grub preventers which are applied in April to mid-July…these target the grubs right as they hatch and kill them at that stage, however this treatment isn’t effective on the later stages of grubs. If you wish to treat grubs later in the year you need a “curative” treatment that will kill the grubs at all stages of life.
Conclusion
Hopefully you learned a bit more about these pests. If you want help with controlling grubs in your lawn don’t hesitate to call the experts at Newby’s Pest, Lawn, and Weeds at 435-587-7337! If you get on our monthly plan we take care of everything and apply the correct treatments at the correct time of the year to keep your lawn healthy and green, or get a 2-time spray to take care of specific issues. It’s up to you. Free quotes and no contracts. You can also click the link below to contact us through our online form:
