Introduction
This article will thoroughly explain all you need to know about the practical method of organic grub control for a lawn that naturally helps get rid of grubs.
Dealing with grub worms by chemical products can be pretty toxic and dangerous if you don’t know how to use them properly. Over the year, many pounds of pesticides are applied to the wrong location and end up where they shouldn’t be.
To make your garden more environmentally friendly and safe, we will use these organic treatments instead.
What is a grub worm?
Grub worms are the type of pest that often grows out of control and damages your garden by eating the roots. They’re not really “worms,” which are insects that leave behind fertilized castings and break down organic matters.
Grub worms are indeed larvae that will subsequently turn into adult beetles and feed on your garden plants’ roots and leaves. You might have known them by the names of white grubs, flea larvae, masked chafer, or Japanese beetles’ larvae.
They have the shape of a C letter that appears to be shiny and smooth. With the body of creamy white color, you can notice grub worms for their rusty orange head and light-brown 6 legs on the frontal part of the body.
Your garden will encounter other grubs based on the regions you live in, but the typical length for grub worms is from 1.5 inches to 2 inches.
Find out how to destroy grubs:
Behaviors of grub worms
To get rid of the immature form of beetles, we should understand their behavior and life cycles. The busy time might differ for each type of grubs, but farmers must watch out for the European chafers and Japanese beetle grubs a few weeks in mid to late summer.
This period is best suitable for beetles to mate and lay eggs in the soil. After the eggs hatch, the new group of grubs will begin to migrate down into the ground and inhabit through fall and winter.
They might remain in the larval stage for several months to several years, depending on the species. But once spring arrives, these white grub worms will crawl near the soil surface and start feeding on plants or grassroots.
How to spot the grub worms problem?
Keeping track of lawn grubs can be pretty tricky, but it’s the key to treating them. When you start noticing something unusual happens to your garden, the grubs might have fed your plant roots from the late summer, fall, and winter.
The most common signs of damage from your lawn are drought stress and scattered brown patches. Sometimes, homeowners can pull the dead, heavy grub infestation patches up and roll them like a carpet.
Your lawn damage might feel spongy as you step on the grass. As the garden pests devour the root system, your lawn soil becomes less dense and springy.
Another sign that shows when to treat for grubs in the garden is the presence of other creatures. If you see birds, salamanders, frogs, or raccoons on your property, then it’s also a sign of grub worms.
When to apply grub control?
Browning lawn is a common phenomenon that implies different causes, namely drought level, poor soft soil, or diseases. There is one way to identify how the grub damages your vegetable garden or lawn.
You will know when to treat grubs if you spot more than 5 grub worms in the soil in a random 0.02 square meter of grass. If there is less than 5, you won’t have to apply any grub control.
The perfect time to apply for treatment is the mid-summer season when the beetle eggs are still hatching. They will be closer to the soil surface and more vulnerable to the effect of organic grub control.
Do not waste your time applying pesticides or other treatments in late spring or winter since the grubs are mature by that time. At this stage, organic control will only be a waste of money and time.
How to control grub organically?
How to get rid of grubs, and how many methods can you apply to eliminate them naturally? Here are several ways that many homeowners highly recommend.
Limit irrigation
Frequent irrigation during the matting or hatching season will benefit the grubs which thrive moisture to exist. You will have to stop watering your lawn even though it might make the grass go dormant.
Stop their ideal conditions of living under each patch of grass by limit the amount of water each day. This is the most cost-effective solution.
What you can do is to prevent the soil from staying wet for a long time. Constantly mowing and raking out excess thatch that allows maximum soil uptake of irrigation will not create the ideal area for egg-laying situations.
Apply Milky Spore
A milky spore is a type of bacteria or disease that acts as the most common biological method of grub control. If the beetle larvae eat the milky spore bacteria, their body fluids will turn milky and quickly die, releasing more spores into the soil and acting as additional infestations.
This grub worm killing method is environmentally safe and can last up from 10 to 15 years after one use. Keep in mind that if you use milky spore disease for your lawn, it will only work with Japanese beetle grubs.
Treat Neem Oil
When these insects invade your vegetable garden, you might ask such a question as “how to kill grubs but not larvae”? Since the other two methods focus on killing larvae, this method of using Neem Oil will remove grub immediately.
This non-toxic chemical pesticide contains insecticidal properties, which cause insects to reduce or cease feeding once they taste the oil. The compound in the Neem oil also prevents the beetles’ mating behavior and larvae’s maturing process.
Sometimes, the Neem oil acts as a blocking substance that clogs the breathing holes of insects and kills them.
Use Beneficial Nematodes application
Beneficial Nematodes are the types of roundworms that can control soil-borne insect pests such as grub worms, beetles, cutworms, etc. We can see this grub killer with bare eyes, but they are quite a powerful and earth-friendly grub treatment for your lawn.
When they are released into the soil, Beneficial Nematodes will seek a host (grub worm) and carry bacteria inside the host body. In the next 24 to 48 hours, the host injected with the bacteria will gradually die.
After ingesting the host’s tissue, Beneficial Nematodes will venture out and hunt for more.
Conclusion
Spring is coming, and homeowners might have noticed that many patches of grass in their lawn are turning brown. What you can do now is to wait until summer and apply one of these low-toxic chemicals, organic grub control treatments, to kill grubs.
Spotting the problems and consistently applying the treatment each year is the most effective way to maintain a lush and beautiful garden.
