While digging out a bunch of wild onions in my yard I would occasionally find a grub in with them. Does every lawn have some kind of grub population in it or should I move to get rid of them? Is 1 grub too many to have?

 

You will never eradicate them, but a small population will not harm your lawn.

Just keep them under control and you should be fine.

 

yick. it's post like this that make me question why i buy organic...

 

, actually I am trying to be organic too. The chems at my townhouse used to affect my dog's paws, plus now my 4 year old loves to play in the yard. I would like to avoid Grub Ex. I understand that Milky Spore is supposed to be safe but takes time to establish. Last fall was the first year I didn't have to apply medication to my dog's paws because we were in the new house and away from the chemicals.

 

You're always going to have some grub population, like mentioned above.

I believe the threshold for concern is 8-10 grubs per square yard of turf. At that point, esepcially with less than adequate irrigation, you're going to start having problems.

Milky spore is a good option, but does take time to establish. You will need to apply a round of GrubX this season if you go the Milky Spore route. It takes about 6-9 months to establish.

In addition, Milky Spore is only good for Japanese Beetle grubs. GrubX works on other bettles and sod-eating pests.

 

You've got wild scallions too, eh ?? I pulled up a 5 gallon bucket of 'em this year... Cut the grass for the first time last saturday, and still was enough of 'em around so that I got the fresh onion smell here and there...

I noticed the grubs too, but I don't think I need Grub-Ex (never did it before)...

As long as you don't have lawn damage from grubs, your lawn should be fine with a few of 'em...



There's info out there about "scouting" for grubs, taking samples, and calculating how many grubs per sq. ft. you have to deterimine if you need to do anything...

I've been thinking about using Grub-Ex before, but I've read that the kill rate is only like 50%, so even w/ using grub-ex, you're not goint to get rid of 'em all...

 

Grubs can take over very quickly, so keep an eye out. They nearly destroyed our new house's sod last summer, as the original owners had moved out long before we moved in and hadn't put down any stuff or taken care of the lawn much since they knew they were leaving. We originally thought it was because of the broken sprinkler system that all the grass was dying. After that was fixed and further inspection of the lawn, the grubs were found. It was very, very bad and required extensive re-seeding this spring .