The Best Time To Apply Grub Killer
The question of when to put down grub control can be answered only after defining the type of pesticide being used. If you know your lawn already has a pest problem and this year, you want to nip it in the bud, and you might choose a grub preventer.;
- Grub Preventer should be applied shortly before the grubs hatch you may have noticed in previous summers when this was, due to sudden brown patches and lawn damage. As a rule, this is usually early summer, but take a look at our chart below for a more accurate timeline.
However, if you find yourself well into the growing season and have started to notice damage to your lawn due to grubs, it is too late for a preventative. At this point, you will need to apply a regular grub killer.;
- Grub control, when applied correctly, will get rid of the pests it comes in contact with and therefore, can be applied anytime you notice the grubs are active. This usually coincides with your lawns growing season.
How Does Grub Control Work
To avoid grubs and the damage caused by them, you must prevent grubs before they become a problem. At Fairway Green Inc., we offer a grub control over the summer months. The way it works is simple, we apply a grub control that will be retained in the grass plant that controls the grubs as they begin feeding. It can be applied while the beetles are laying their eggs or slightly earlier and will last in your lawn all summer long.
We also recommend NOT putting out Japanese beetle traps. This will attract more beetles to your lawn and give the beetles even more of an opportunity to lay their eggs. If you have already purchased one or multiple of these bags, it might be best to stop using them as they could do more harm than good. The fewer beetles coming onto your lawn translates to a lower chance of having grubs.
If you had a grub problem in the past, or want to prevent grub damage this year and are located within our service area, please feel free to contact Fairway Green Inc. with any questions or for a free evaluation and estimate for grub control. You can call or request a
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How To Control Lawn Grubs
A few grubs aren’t a problem, but if you see lots of them when you turn the soil, take action.
If youve had problems in early summer with beetles, and by late summer dead patches of grass have appeared in your lawn, you probably have grubs. Grubs are the larvae of Japanese beetles, June beetles, chafers, and others. These white, C-shaped grubs feast on organic matter in the soil, including grass roots.
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Should You Call A Professional
If you already use a lawn service to keep your yard neat and healthy, they will likely spot your grub problem and suggest treatments. If not, you can call a lawn service to treat the lawn. But grub eradication is a doable DIY project. Pros are probably going to use the same methods you would if you treated the lawn yourself, so the only advantage of hiring a pro is to save yourself the hassle.
Everything You Need To Know About Grubs
What Do They Look Like
Grubs are the larvae of Japanese beetles. These larvae are the white grubs that devour lawns. Their bodies are c-shaped with brown heads, visible legs and are approximately 1/8 to one inch in length. During their larval stage, they live beneath the surface. Fully grown Japanese beetles are about 1/3 to 1/2 inch in length with a metallic-green body and head copper-colored wing covers. White hair covers the sides and tips of their abdomens.
The Life Cycle Of Grubs
Adult Japanese beetles get nice and cozy underground over winter. When spring comes, their larvae instinctually move closer to the surface of the soil so that they can nourish themselves on the roots of turfgrass. Once they grow into adult beetles, they emerge in mid-summer and feed on the leaves of grass. Unfortunately, their activity causes the grass to create an odor that attracts more hungry beetles. This is why its so important to contact a lawn care service if you suspect you have grubs. It wont take long before you have a full infestation. Catching them before the adults lay eggs, or these eggs hatch breaks up the cycle. Female Japanese beetles can lay as many as 60 eggs throughout their breeding season in late July and August. The eggs will hatch, and grubs dig deeper into the soil to wait for spring, where the cycle starts over again.
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Do You Need Professional Help
As with any lawn care treatment, there are consumer options available at the home center or garden store. The question is whether youd spend less going with a professional. For serious grub activity, skip straight to the pros. Professionals measures this by way of on-site inspection. If you find fewer than five in a square foot of your yard, you probably can forgo any treatments. However, 10 or more is a sign of a serious infestation thats likely already damaged your lawn.
If you are wondering what is grub control for lawns, call the pros at Think Green at 648-2556 to schedule service today.
When To Apply Grub Control
Cant figure out what is causing those brown patches on your lawn every summer? Consider checking for grubs, one of the main causes of severe lawn damage. Luckily, being a common problem, there is a common solution. Grub control is accessible both as an insecticide and a preventative treatment, and can easily take care of an infestation when applied correctly. Putting down grub control at the right time is crucial if you want it to work. Read on to learn when is the best time to apply a grub killer on your lawn.
Grub control pesticides should be applied whenever signs of an active infestation first appear, usually later in the grasses growing season. If using a preventative treatment against grubs, aim to apply just before the grubs hatch typically late spring or early summer.
Because grubs are the offspring of June bugs, Japanese beetles, or European Chafers, they often recur season after season. Using grub control may take a few seasons before the problem is entirely taken care of. If you have never encountered issues with these pests, there is no need to start using a yearly preventative.;
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Signs Of A Grub Problem
Raccoons, skunks, armadillos, or birds dig up your yard searching for large, mature grubs to dine on.
The dead patches of grass in your lawn peel back like pieces of loose carpet because the grubs have eaten the roots that usually hold the turf in place.
Before dead patches even appear, your lawn feels spongy, like freshly laid sod, when you step on it.
After Applying Grub Killer
Once the grub control is applied, it is essential to care properly for your lawn afterward and ensure the solution gets where it needs to be. Because grubs thrive among the roots of the grass in the soil, the grub killer needs to be watered in. This makes sure that the grub killer granules reach the roots instead of just sitting on top of the grass. It is recommended to water about half an inch over the treated area right away.
It is also important to monitor your lawn for grubs or other activities during the next week or so. If the grubs dont appear to have died off, then you may need to reapply. Make sure always to read and follow the label, but it may be the case that you need a stronger dosage.
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What To Look For In Grub Preventers
If you want a good grub preventer, you should look for products that contain imidacloprid, thiamethoxam, chlorantraniliprole. These ingredients target the grubs when they are still vulnerable. Keep in mind that the best time for an application depends on the ingredients. And usually, these will reduce the grub population by about 75-100% if you apply the grab preventers in June or July.;
However, remember that you need to irrigate the lawn immediately after applying the grub control.
Management And Control Practices
Cultural Control: Maintaining a healthy turf is important to culturally manage pest problems in any situation. This will involve proper soil preparation prior to turfgrass establishment, proper turfgrass selection for the site, proper installation, and using recommended management practices to assure a healthy lawn. However, grubs can damage the best-maintained turf.
Biological Control: There are several products available that fall into the category of biological control. These types of pesticides will reduce pest populations using other organic or biological processes. The most common and widely used biological control of grub worms is milky spore disease. Milky spore disease is a soil inhabiting bacterium that is ingested by the grub during normal feeding. The bacterium then kills the grub and upon desiccation, the grub will release more bacterial spores into the soil. Milky spore disease is nontoxic to non-target species in the lawn. As with all biological controls, efficacy can be highly variable depending on the site and the environmental conditions at that site.
Finally, there has been some research done on using the microbial biological control agent, Bacillus thuringiensis . Although there are several commercially available products of Bt for grub control, research has shown control to be marginal.
Table 1. Insecticides for Residential Lawn Grub Control.
If this document didnt answer your questions, please contact HGIC at or 1-888-656-9988.
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White Grub Management In Turfgrass
Factsheet | HGIC 2156 | Sep 10, 2019 |
Close-up of white grub.Alton N. Sparks, Jr., University of Georgia, Bugwood.org
White grubs are the larval stage of several different scarab beetles. In South Carolina, as well as the rest of the southeastern United States, turfgrass can be attacked by the grub stage of Japanese beetles, masked chafers, May and June beetles, and green June beetles. From year to year, the Japanese beetle consistently causes the most damage to both turfgrass and ornamentals. There are two additional scarab beetles that attack turf and are relatively new to the southeastern United States. The black turfgrassAtaenius beetle and the oriental beetle are slowly expanding their range and can soon be a problem for turfgrass managers in South Carolina.
How To Kill Grubs In Lawn: Curative Approach
A curative approach is suitable for solving the problem quickly, i.e. if you have discovered grub worms at your lot and would like to immediately get rid of them. It is suitable for the summer when the larvae are small and actively feed near the soil surface. This method wont be equally effective in the spring when grub worms grown and become quite large. As soon as the insects reach their maximum size , a curative approach will hardly result in removing more than 50% of grub worms on the lot.
This approach implies using Sevin and Dylox that contain carbaryl, clothianidin and trichlorfon. The latter chemical has certain restrictions as trichlorfon is banned for use on school territories of certain states, mainly because this substance is extremely soluble in water. Carbaryl has been known in the USA since 1959 and acts by destroying the insects nervous systems, thus causing death. It is toxic for humans and causes such symptoms as headache, excessive sweating, muscle weakness as well as nausea, tears and other symptoms for animals. The substance is dangerous if swallowed, inhaled or, it can be dangerous if it touches your skin. According to the University of Kentucky College of Agriculture, Food and Environment experts, carbaryl is less effective than trichlorfon.
Preventive Approach
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Preventive Insecticides That Will Prevent Grub Damage Next Fall And Following Spring
These products are used to prevent future grub problems, not to control the grubs present in the lawn in the spring. They will not work on grubs found in the lawn from the middle of October through the middle of May. However, when applied in June or July they provide excellent protection against the next generation of grubs. So, if you need to apply the preventive insecticide;BEFORE;the grubs are there, how do you know if you need to use an insecticide or not? If you confirmed grub damage the previous fall or spring, meaning you found lots of grubs, then you may want to use a preventive insecticide for one or two years to build a more dense turf that will be tolerant of grubs. If you have treated for several years and you do not see evidence of grubs in your lawn or in the neighbors lawn, it may be time to stop treating. There is an erroneous philosophy being perpetuated that because we have European chafers and Japanese beetles in the area, it is necessary to treat every year or your lawn will be damaged by grubs.;This is not true.
In addition, grub control products that contain the active ingredient chlorantraniliprole are safe for bees, even when weed flowers are sprayed. Finally, avoid spray drift or granular spreader drift to flower beds when applying thiamethoxam, imidacloprid, clothianidin or any insecticide for grubs other than chlorantraniliprole
Prevention & Maintenance Tips
Applying a preventative grub control product in the spring or early summer will provide much better grub control than waiting until after the damage has occurred. Use a spreader to apply Scotts® GrubEx®1. Be sure to follow application directions. To activate the product, water immediately after applying. A drought-stressed, underfed lawn will show grub damage faster, and with fewer grubs per square foot, than a properly-fed, well-maintained lawn. A properly maintained lawn can tolerate more grubs per square foot than a stressed lawn. Repair dead patches caused by grubs with Scotts® EZ Seed®.
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Inspecting Grubs In Lawn
Finding a perpetrator is a piece of cake, just check the damaged area for these pests. You will hardly confuse them with anything else, as grub worms have a peculiar body C-shape, six short legs, brown head and a cream body. Their lower abdomen is darker due to the soil particles in it. Grub worms can reach two inches in length.
Remove some of the damaged soil carefully, and check for the grub worms matching the above description. If you find five or fewer, do not worry, but they can definitely do harm to your lawn if there are over ten of them. Still, consider other factors of grass withering. For instance, in shady places, grass roots weaken and tear easily and larvae do not hatch. Another signal of these pests infecting your garden will be skunks and raccoons digging the lawn at night in search of food. It is highly likely that they are looking specifically for these pests.
How Do You Know If You Have A Grub Problem
No matter which type of grub worms reside in your landscape, most of the time they dont cause any problems. Healthy, organic lawns that contain a mixture of grass species and other plants, such as clover and violets, can handle a fairly large population of grubs before showing signs of damage. Grub worm problems tend to develop in lawns that consist of a single grass species or lawns that are over-fertilized and over-irrigated . But, when infestations of 15 or more grub worms per square foot of lawn are present, your lawn may develop brown patches that peel back easily like a carpet. When you lift the grass up, youll spy the C-shaped grubs in the upper layer of soil beneath it.
Grub worm damage is most evident in spring and fall when the grubs are actively feeding in the upper layer of soil.
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How To Prevent Grub Worms
A healthy, strong lawn is the key to preventing grub worms from taking over. And that starts with the soil. This means making sure the soil in your lawn is getting the water and nutrients it needs to be the grass-growing powerhouse nature intended it to be. Thick, healthy grass blades can help prevent grub worms since the female beetles prefer to lay their eggs in thin, sparse grass.
Youll also want to mow high and water deep, two critical lawn care steps that promote the growth of deeper and stronger grass roots. Depending on where you live and your lawns grass species, you can look to overseed and topdress your lawn, as well as apply moderate levels of nitrogen to build a strong root system, particularly before grass goes dormant in the winter.
Managing Grubs In Your Lawn And Garden
Have you been noticing large patches of dead grass in your lawn that peels up like a carpet? If so, you may have a problem with grubs. Dont fret! These pesky critters are one of the most common pests in our gardens and luckily, they can be managed. However, before you can get rid of these menaces, you must understand them! Check out our information below and if you find yourself with any lingering questions, call one of our three locations or come by the Plant Clinic to speak with a plant specialist.
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