Grub Season

After June bugs lay hundreds of eggs in the spring, white grub larvae hatch and happily feed on the roots of your lawn, causing the grass to easily be pulled loose due to the damaged roots.  By August, patches of dead grass may also appear throughout your lawn, wilting suddenly and erasing any hard work put into maintaining your landscape. Additionally, these grubs serve as the perfect source of food for pesky racoons, skunks, and moles.  Such critters will then add their share of damage as they easily pull the root damaged lawn back to gobble up the delicious white grubs. This service is included in the Lawn Care Program or is done in May or June as a preventative treatment. 

Grubs are large C-shaped beetle larvae that feed on roots of turf grass plants. These grubs are white, up to 1 inch (2.5 cm) in length, with dark translucent dorsal stripes, brown head capsules and legs 

Grubs feed on roots, resulting in irregular dead patches. Symptoms resemble drought stress and persist even where there is sufficient irrigation. Grub activity can cause the ground to feel spongy; extensive root feeding sometimes allows the turf to be rolled back like a carpet. Most damage usually takes place in late summer or early fall. Digging by vertebrate predators, such as crows, raccoons, skunks, and coyotes, is a common indication of high grub populations. Damage becomes most apparent in late summer or fall.

We recommend control of grubs as a preventative done in Spring/Early Summer.  However, when the problem pops up in fall we can address it then as well. We use a granular product to control grubs.

On the topic of racoons, we recommend putting down a product called fruit tree netting.  Racoons will pull tufts of grass up and roll back the grass like carpet looking for grubs.  We can prevent racoons from doing that with fruit tree netting.  Racoons don’t like the feeling of the fruit tree netting on their feet so it deters them from pulling your landscape up.