You might ask yourself, How do I remove lawn grubs? If you are a gardener, you will have probably dealt with Lawn Grubs at one point or another.
These little worms may seem harmless, but as you probably know, they are capable of doing some serious damage to your lawns and other greenery that you have fought so hard to establish.
You may not only be curious on how to remove the pest, but in a way that is safe and environmentally friendly.
In this article, I will discuss some of these effective means of employing some of the best natural methods to eliminate lawn grubs from your lawn.
Why do Lawn Grubs need to go?
If you’re not entirely convinced that lawn grubs warrant a lot of concern, then let us go through a few of the reasons why lawn grubs will not help your garden become what you only wish and dream it would be.
These little pests can bring about significant amounts of devastation to your green spaces, since they forage and eat all the leaves, roots, and other green plant life that they can chew up with their grubbing mandibles.
At some point, they will cause so much destruction that you will be able to roll your lawn up like a carpet! This is especially true if they harm the roots going into the soil since they will undo the structure of the lawn altogether.
Additionally, dead patches in the lawn and a spongy feel to the ground can appear. Failing this, predators that are seeking an easy meal can come and disturb the earth to get to the lawn grubs. This could be a range of creatures ranging from birds to rodents to other mammals.
It is also worth mentioning that grubs won’t just go away on their own either. These little bugs will burrow down overwinter, so even if they appear to have disappeared, they will come up in the spring and summer when beetles lay more eggs and the festering process starts again but in even greater numbers.
In the end, I think you can quite easily see that these grubs, even if they seem less threatening in the beginning, can cause a lot of mayhem and disturbances to the quietness of the garden and your garden that you so worked hard to create.
When should I get rid of Lawn Grubs?
A very important item to keep in mind is the season of the year you decide to start controlling the Lawn Grubs. If you choose the incorrect season of the year, you may not develop the impact you’d like.
With the lifespan of the lawn grubs running about 3 weeks, they are capable of doing tremendous damage within that time.
If you have porch lawn grubs, you have most likely taken at least one cycle with them, going from egg to grub, to beetle, back to egg.
At the end of summer, the lawn grubs will be hatching, and the timing is perfect for you to take action.
Starting to control the Lawn Grubs at this time will not only allow yourself to target the grubs that are present, but also any eggs that are just waiting to hatch.
A dry, humid summer helps as well in increasing the opportunity to control the Lawn Grubs.
Garden Lawn Grubs enjoy moist environments and if they evolved in a hot and dry summer it will hold them back and leave them susceptible to be treated aggressively to control.
If you haven’t experienced this time of year yet, you can be preventative, but to take action to control the Lawn Grubs, this should take place towards the end of summer or beginning of the fall.
What should I use to get rid of Lawn Grubs?
One of the best methods to get rid of Lawn Grubs is to start with a course of pesticide on your lawn or green space.
You presumably have the notion that pesticides are harmful and synthetic. This is case in point, although there are a few natural and beneficial pesticides that we will present now.
Beneficial Nematodes
As close as you can get to something that is “natural,” this pesticide uses natural predators of the lawn grub to uproot and eliminate it from your precious gardens and lawns.
Nematodes, small worms that inhabit the soil itself, will emit bacteria away from them, that will infect and kill the lawn grub. These little guys can be found in a liquid form and sometimes sold mixed with the water, in order to spray them into your garden.
Milky Spore
The milky spore is very similar to nematodes in that they are both very effective at treating your lawn grub problem. The milky spore works by using a disease that can infect and then kill lawn grubs.
As the lawn grubs die, they will also release more spores that can enter the soil and eliminate any future infestations.
While this may sound dangerous to the environment, we can assure you that it is safe for the environment, and it can eliminate your lawn grub problem very quickly.
Neem Oil
As a natural insecticide, neem oil is a way to avert lawn grubs and the beetles that they later become, in addition the eggs grubs hatch from.
This oil will act and inhibit feeding, reproduction, or growth of the critters. This oil can be mixed with water and applied directly to the infested area.
Final Thoughts
In conclusion, lawn grubs can wreak havoc on a healthy looking garden or lawn. Whether it is the damage they bring on their own, or the predators that they attract, there is good cause to want them gone – and thankfully natural pesticides and good timing can help resolve the problems sooner rather than later.
We hope this article has been helpful to you by providing some information on what to use the lawn bugs, as well as some of the rationale for getting rid of these little blighters.