Recommended Practices As You Use Pesticides
- If you decide to use a pesticide to kill the grubs, it will probably be toxic to good insects like bees and other pollinators as well.
- To protect them from harm, mow your lawn before you apply the chemical to get rid of flowers that may attract them.
- Water your lawn after you apply the pesticide to avoid burning your plants and to enable the soil to absorb it.
- Dont apply too much pesticides as it will run off your lawn and into the environment. Use only the recommended usage on the back of the bottle.
How To Kill Lawn Grubs On An Organic Lawn
As gardeners become increasingly concerned about using traditional chemical-based pesticides, alternative pest control solutions are growing in popularity. This is largely due to increasing education and awareness about the harmful impact of chemical pesticides. Many chemical-based pesticides will only get rid of lawn grubs initially, which often leads to the pests returning time and again as they will develop a resistance to the chemicals.
You may have tried do-it-yourself grub-killing solutions to ensure a chemical-free method of pest control. Some DIY solutions call for a combination of household products like mouthwash, lemon juice, liquid dish soap and water to create a spray that can be applied all over your yard. However, this homemade solution only acts as a deterrent for grubs and is not an effective or immediate way to kill them.
To truly eliminate your pest problem, you will need to apply a treatment that eliminates the grubs completely, which gives you the space to be able to restore your lawns health. Better yet, a treatment that can be applied to grubs at any stage of their life cycle will be a better solution for year-round pest control.
How To Kill Grubs In Your Lawn
During the late summer and early fall, you may begin to notice lawns turning an unattractive shade of brown in certain unsightly, dying patches. The likely explanation is the grass is being destroyed by hungry, thriving grub worms living below the surface of the lawn. If this has happened in your lawn, there is good news. These pests can be controlled, and your lawn can be restored back to its healthy state by getting rid of grub worms.
Better yet, because of a growing preference for natural gardening solutions, there are now some easy and natural ways to kill lawn grubs and stop them from reappearing next year. This means youll be able to get back to enjoying your yard year-round without concern of nasty grubs eating away at it.
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Grubs In Lawn: How To Get Rid Of Grubs In The Garden
Grubs in the lawn can go undetected until you notice patches of bare turfgrass in your lush, green lawn. Plump, white, hungry grubs live in the soil and gorge on grass and plant roots. Getting rid of white grubs in the garden is essential to keep lawn grass healthy and green. Thankfully, with the proper care, its possible to stop grubs from causing havoc in your garden.
Getting rid of white lawn grubs involves knowing how to identify them, where to look for them, and how to eradicate them. Of course, to get rid of turf grubs in the soil for good also means preventing them from returning.
This article is a guide to getting rid of lawn grubs using natural, non-toxic grub worm killers. Youll find out how to find the soft, white worm-like creatures and disturb their lifecycle.
Is Dish Soap Effective For Grub Control
It is a given, that dish soap can kill grubs in your lawn or garden, but how effective is it?
Flushing white grubs from underneath the lawn using dish soap is not possible. The best method you can use to check if there are grubs is to dig up a square foot of the lawn a couple of inches deep and inspecting if there are grubs damaging the roots.
Testing
I have tested the effectiveness of using detergents and insecticidal soaps to get rid of grubs in infested lawns and while it works, there are quite some limitations to it.
In early spring when white grub worms start to damage the lawn, youll notice brown patches and spots in your lawn. If the damage is small and limited, you can control the grubs using dawn dish soap.
However, for extensive damage over large areas of the lawn, it is very difficult to control grubs because youre spraying on top of the lawn while grub worms continue to cause damage to the roots.
For you to have any success, you may need to pour large amounts of soapy water on your lawn to smother grubs.
I found this to be a practical solution for small areas of infestation. Large yards will require a lot of this application of dawn dish soap to kill grubs effectively.
Summer treatments
Japanese beetles, in their adult stage, can be killed in the lawn using dish soap. The soap dissolves their exoskeleton and interferes with their cell membranes. The soapy cover suffocates them to death.
References
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How To Kill Grub Worms Naturally
Grub worms are baby beetles, that when left unchecked will start to feast on your plant roots when the eggs hatch in the late summer and early fall months. This is the best time to try these natural grub control methods before they can cause too much damage to your yard.
During this time the garden and lawn grubs are much smaller and a lot easier to kill and control. Here are the best eco-friendly ways for how to get rid of grubs from your garden.
How To Get Rid Of Grubs In Lawn Naturally
Introducing beneficial nematodes onto the infested lawn is the best way to eliminate grubs naturally. You can also spray Neem oil onto the lawn to eliminate grubs. It is good to have birds around the lawn as they are natural predators.
Natural ways of control should be preferred as they are harmless, both for you and your pets. You wont be harming the ecosystem in any way too.
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When To Apply Grub Worm Treatment
Once lawn grubs have been detected and treatment is necessary, you need to know when to apply grub worm treatment. The best time for treating grub worms is in late summer or early fall while the grub worms are still small and close to the surface.
Grub worms are less susceptible to treatment in the spring, as they are too large and no longer feeding. For this reason, insecticides are less effective. Spring rains can also make this difficult, as applications may be washed away.
When choosing insecticides for lawn grubs, its important to consider the various types. For fall treatment, Dylox is the most effective and fast acting available. However, two products worth consideration for use early in the season, Merit and Mach-2, can be helpful for prevention. These target the pests before they lay their eggs, killing them and any hatchlings before an infestation occurs. Always read and follow instructions carefully when using these types of products.
Want To Kick Grubs To The Curb Trust Natural Green
Grubs gobbling your grass roots is not a problem you want at the top of your to-do list. You have enough things to think about. Natural Green would love to create a custom lawn care plan for you to ensure your yard thrives, while also killing any grubs and reviving your lawn.Ready to stop the grub madness in your Central and Southern Maryland lawn? Request a free quote today. Well review our options together so you can make the best choice for you. Then you can sit back and enjoy your yard–worry free!
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Soapy Water Lawn Grubs
You can eliminate lawn grubs efficiently with the help of soapy water. Dawn dish soap is popularly used to eliminate grubs on the lawn.
Here are instructions on how to make the solution.
- Add 3 teaspoons of liquid soap to a gallon of water. Stir thoroughly to make a fine mixture.
- Spray this solution on the patches where the grass turned brown. Check to see if you eliminated them successfully.
- If they persist, treat the brown patches once more.
This works best when theres a small infestation in parts of the lawn. If grubs are devouring a large part of your lawn, this method might not be as efficient.
Tip: Add some lemon and mouthwash to make the solution more efficient.
How To Tell If Grubs Are Killing Your Grass
The beetles show up from early to mid-summer during which time they lay their eggs.
The new set of grubs that hatch from those eggs starts destroying your lawn immediately.
As winter approaches, they burrow deeper into the soil to protect themselves from the cold.
When spring arrives, they awaken and resume eating the roots of grass before they turn into pupae when you have a lawn grub infestation, you will notice the following:
- Your lawn feels spongy when you step on it because it is not firmly supported by its roots .
- Its almost as if it has just been laid.
- After noticing the looseness, you see patches of brown, dead grass even when you water your lawn regularly.
- Animals like raccoons, birds, armadillos, and skunks start visiting your lawn looking for grubs.
- Be careful with this observation as they could also be looking for earthworms.
If you have correctly identified all those signs, the next step is to physically verify that you have an infestation.
Dig up a few sections of sod each section typically one square foot area, three inches deep.
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Use Dish Soap On The Lawn
Another natural remedy is dish soap to get rid of grubs on the lawn. Although this remedy is not a hundred percent effective, it can help the affective areas control moderately.Need the below ingredients to apply this remedy
- Water
- Liquid Dish Soap
- Sprayer.
Mix the dish soap in water and spray directly to the grubs affected areas. Apply this mixture immediately after preparing it. This mixture works in the process. Dish soap solution will kill the adult beetles and prevent larvae from laying eggs on the lawn and the garden.
Types Of Grub Treatment Products To Consider
Always read the instructions and follow them carefully when using any type of lawn treatment. There are difference applications with different ingredients recommended for killing lawn grubs and/or preventing them.
Curative Products: Curative products will kill existing grubs on contact.
Preventative Products: Preventative products will kill grubs that are present at the time as well as those that may hatch throughout the season.
- Dylox fast acting and most effective in the fall.
- Merit and Mach-2 used early in the season as a helpful prevention.
- Milky Spore effective and environmentally safe. Used on active grubs and as a prevention.
- Neem Oil a botanical pesticide that repels against beetles and lawn grubs.
- Nematodes a soil-dwelling worm that releases bacteria into the soil which in turn, infects and kills lawn grubs.
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When To Apply Grub Control
If you have grubs, you need to do everything you can to get them under control. And like with many pests, if you can kill the grubs before they start munching on your lawn, its far easier. But to do this, you need to have a basic understanding of the grub life cycle.
Mature grubs, now beetles, emerge in the early summer to feed and mate. By mid to late summer, theyre laying eggs in your lawn, and those eggs hatch in just a few weeks. Those grubs start to much on your lawn straight away, but the feeding frenzy really kicks off in the fall.
Thats why its best to apply grub control in either the early or mid-summer. You want to apply a product before any grubs hatch, but you dont necessarily have to wait until the beetles lay their eggs.
Preventative grub control products will kill the eggs as soon as they arrive, and thats the best way to take control of your grub problem!
How To Kill Active Grubs In Your Lawn
If you have active grubs in your lawn and seem to grow and invade your turf, it is time to take more serious precautions. Here is how to get rid of active grubs for good:
Apply pesticides
Grub control products that contain carbaryl, imidacloprid, and bifenthrin are effective at destroying active grubs in an established lawn. There are also granular and liquid grub killers on the market.
When using granular pesticides, it is best to apply them using your garden spreader. Dont forget to water to get the product down into the soil and kill the active grubs. When using a liquid pesticide, make sure to mix it with water. Spray the affected areas carefully .
When applying pesticides, it is essential to select the best and most effective product.
Apply nematodes
Another way to kill active grubs in your lawn is by applying nematodes. Beneficial nematodes are small worms that move under the turf, deep in the soil. They kill the grubs by releasing pathogens that attack them and kill them quickly.
When choosing nematodes, make sure to pick ones that work effectively against grubs. Mix them with water in your regular garden sprayer. Water your lawn accordingly to keep it moist at all types and always spray the nematodes in the evening.
Attract more birds
While this method is effective for getting rid of grubs, you have to be careful not to attract many birds because they can damage your lawn by digging up the turf and fighting over food.
Apply Milky Spore
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Dead Patches Of Grass In The Spring
While grubs start tearing your lawn apart in the late summer and fall, theres a good chance you wont realize you have a problem until the following spring. Thats when the rest of your lawn will start to turn green and luscious, but youll start to notice you have dead patches that wont come back.
These are areas where grubs have torn up the roots to the point that the grass wont grow back. If you have a grub infestation in your yard, theres a good chance that youll have more than just one dead patch.
What Are Grub Worms
They are essentially nothing more than small, wriggly larvae laid by adult beetles and hatching out as little white worms. In all life stages, theyre especially harmful to your garden and need to be dealt with as soon as possible.
They nibble on the roots of your plants and later in life, chew up the leaves of your crops.
Because of their damaging nature, its imperative to get rid of them from your garden as soon as theyre spotted. If not, youll be in for a rough time dealing with them as they mature.
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Make A Grub Killer With Borax
Borax is a common household cleaning ingredient that can be used to kill grubs.
However, it should be noted that borax contains boron, which builds up in the soil and can kill your lawn in high concentrations. With that in mind, use this method sparinglyif at all.
If you decide to use borax, add a tablespoon to a spray bottle filled with warm water. Apply the solution liberally anywhere youve noticed grub activity.
Pros: Effective for short-term use.
Cons: Borax grub killer can damage plants when used too frequently or in sensitive areas, like flowerbeds or vegetable gardens.
What Month Should You Apply Grub Control
While it really depends on your region, you should be safe applying grub control in June, no matter where you live. If grubs have already started laying eggs at this point, they still havent had time to hatch, but in most regions, the egg-laying hasnt even started yet.
We know June can be hot, and the last thing you want to do is to head out and apply grub control, but thats when youll get the best results.
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How To Treat Grub Damage
After treating your lawn for grub damage, its vital to restore your turfgrass to its former lush, green appearance. For best results, repair grub damage in the fall or early spring. Treating grub damage at this time gives the lawn a better chance of growing and becoming healthy again.
To treat grub damage, the first step is to rake off dead grass and remove thatch. Next, use a lawn aerator to perforate the lawn with small holes. This action allows nutrients to get to the roots, prevents compaction, and results in a healthy lawn. Then, reseed the bare patches of lawn with grass seed.
After you have reseeded the lawn to repair grub damage, thoroughly water the grass.
Proper lawn grub prevention, natural lawn fertilization, and proper mowing will keep your turfgrass in excellent healthfree from white grubs.
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How To Detect Grub Worms
Knowing how to detect grub worms is key to treating them. Visible lawn grub damage can be seen from late summer to early fall. Look for irregular brown patches of lawn that peel away easily from the soil, like carpet. To determine the extent of infestation or which areas require treatment, dig up small sections of lawn. Typically, more than five grub worms per ¼ square foot warrants treatment and lawn grub control.
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Make A Homemade Grub Killer With Borax
Before you consider making a homemade grub killer using borax, it is important to note that borax contains boron, and too much boron will kill your grass. If you use a borax grub killer repeatedly on your lawn or in flowerbeds or garden beds, the boron will accumulate in the soil and nothing will grow. So, this option should be used sparingly, if at all.
If you choose to use borax, the simplest recipe is to add one tablespoon of borax with warm water in a spray bottle. Then, use the spray bottle to distribute the borax-water solution on areas where you have found grubs. You will need to repeat this treatment until you have eradicated the grub population, so remember the part about boron accumulating in the soil over time before you choose this option.
Other recipes for borax grub killers include mixing onion, peppers or garlic in the warm water with the borax.
