White grubs can be a nuisance in your lawn. They serve as a food source for moles and come out in the summer as June bugs that fly around and feed on your landscape ornamental plants like roses.
Grubs choose your lawn's roots as its food source, creating areas of dead grass in your lawn.
With all of these problems, controlling grubs should be high on your priority list.
Understanding the Grub's Life Cycle & Habitat
The one fortunate (or unfortunate) problem with grubs is they will usually stay in the same spot year after year. This makes controlling them easier if you know where they like to hang out. It also means you will have to treat that area each year for full control.
While there are varieties of grubs that will last in your lawn three years, most grubs here in North Carolina have a one-year life cycle. In June through July the scarab beetles (including Japanese beetles, green June bug, chafers, and garden beetles) lay their eggs in the soil and hatch as grubs in July living for roughly 10 months in the soil before it all starts over again.
During the winter months, controlling grubs is not possible due to them burrowing themselves deep into the soil. No chemical that is used to treat them will move low enough to be effective.
Controlling Grubs: Preventive or Curative
Grubs can be controlled preventively or controlled as active grubs. Timing is critical with either application.
For preventative control, apply a preventive insecticide in May before any eggs are laid. This application will prevent grub from hatching from the eggs that the scarab beetles lay.
Depending on the preventive product you use, it can also leave a nasty taste on any active grubs that did not become beetles that year, making it an unpleasant experience for moles feeding. They can also work systemically to protect your plants roots killing any active grubs that feed on them.
Curative control needs to be applied once the grub has hatched and is near the soil surface. These products need to be watered in after an application to move down in the soil to reach the grubs.
Within a day or two, you will see grubs come to the surface and die from contact with the product.
Need Help Controlling Grubs?
Our Premium Lawn Maintenance Plan includes a preventive grub control to keep your lawn protected from grubs. This product not only prevents grubs, but helps with other surface insects like ants, ticks, and ground beetles. This application is completely safe for pets to be around once the product has been properly applied and dried.
If you have our Base Plan or no plan at all, you can choose a one-time service of a preventive or curative application. Remember, if you are wanting a preventive application it needs to be applied in April or May for it to work properly. Schedule a Free Initial Consultation with us and we will be happy to help you out!
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