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It's Time To Treat For Grubs!

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Lawn with trees Did your lawn suffer damage from grub activity or small animals such as skunk's, raccoon's or armadillo's? If so, these small animals dug up your lawn to snack on grubs...

Grub 101

  • Grubs are the larval stage of scarab beetles. 
  • There are at least 10 species of grubs that are pests of home lawns. They are considered the most destructive of all lawn inhabiting insects.
  • Of the native species, the Northern and Southern Masked Chafers, May beetles, and green June beetles are the most widespread.
  • There are four accidentally introduced species:
    • Japanese beetle - the Japanese beetle is the number one insect pest as it can damage plants and lawns during two life stages.
    • Oriental beetle
    • European Chafer
    • Asiatic Garden - the Asiatic Garden beetle has regional significance, mostly in the Northeast US.
  • The adults feed on over 300 plants including roses, linden trees, garden beans, grapes and even poison ivy.
  • The larvae feed on the roots of all cool-season turfgrasses, causing significant damage to lawns.
  • The type of damage that the adult Japanese beetles inflict on the leaves is called skeletonizing as they feed on the tissue between the leaf veins.
  • If populations are high enough, they have the ability to defoliate a tree in a few days. The tree will not die as a result of this attack and generally the tree will regrow enough leaves to survive.
  • The adults of the Asiatic garden beetle, green June beetle, and May beetles also feed on an assortment of plant materials, but usually not to the same extent as Japanese beetles.
  • The European Chafer and North and South Masked Chafer adults do not feed on any plant material during their life stage. The adults may not feed, but the grubs, especially of the two Masked Chafer species, can do significant damage to a lawn.

Damage Control

There are several options for controlling grubs before they damage your lawn. If you choose the chemical option or try one of the biological controls, be sure to read and follow all label directions. Many of these products need to be watered within a short period of time after the application to be effective. Grub control products from hardware or home improvement centers work best when applied prior to the grubs laying their eggs. The material needs to already be in place when the larva hatch to provide effective control. You can also contact a local Spring-Green office to schedule this service for your lawn. Applying a grub control is good insurance against these lawn damaging insects.