If the lawn in the garden looks miserable, it could be due to grubs eating away at the roots. How to find out and fight the larvae.
It is not always easy to say what the cause of a sickly yellow lawn is. Does he have a sunburn or is he over-fertilized? Another possibility is grubs, the larvae of May, June or garden leaf beetles, which feel comfortable in the turf and nibble on the roots of the greenery from below. There are methods to find and control the pests.
Recognizing grub pests and finding them in the lawn
If the voracious grubs appear more often in the lawn, they can even end a football season. © Rene Traut/Imago
Grubs, the larvae of beetles, are easy to spot – they are thick, white and relatively large. They cause damage not only in flower and vegetable beds, but also in the lawn, if they are found in larger numbers. But not every grub you find is also a pest, some species, such as the harmless grubs of the rose or rhinoceros beetle (they only eat dead plant material), are even protected.
For laymen, the distinction is not always easy, since May and June beetle larvae are very similar. Both species could be dangerous to the lawn. While the smaller cockchafers bend lying on their backs, the June beetle tries to stretch and crawl. Garden leaf beetles are more unevenly shaped, they become thicker and thicker towards the end of the body and move like caterpillars.
How to recognize a grub infestation in the lawn: If large areas in the lawn dry up, die and turn brown, lift off part of the turf - a few centimeters below the grass you will then find the grubs, if there are any. In advance, after the next downpour, you can walk across the lawn and check whether the larvae appear on the surface of the earth, because they do not like a wet soil.
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Measures against grub infestation in lawns
Here's how to avoid and control the pests:
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- Grubs like dry soils: in addition to regular watering of the lawn, soil improvement may help if, for example, you have a sandy soil. After heavy watering, you may even be able to pick up the animals from the grass when they come up.
- Avoid dense soils: Regular scarification makes it uncomfortable for the animals.
- If you cover the lawn with tarpaulins or close-meshed insect nets during the periods of egg-laying of beetles in May and June, you will prevent their spread. However, the lawn must be uncovered for a few hours a day, otherwise it is threatened with a lack of light.
- Attractant traps: These pheromone traps attract the beetles and thus prevent reproduction.
- Nematodes are parasites that kill grubs. It is best to apply the tiny nematodes like fertilizer to the lawn between May and September.
- Garlic tea: The home remedy is considered a natural measure against grubs. If you water the lawn regularly with it, the essential oils are supposed to deter the beetle larvae.
- With the promotion of beneficial insects: moles, hedgehogs and birds like to eat grubs. Offer the animals a near-natural habitat in your garden.
- In "good" beetle years, when the animals appear more frequently, you should pause mowing the lawn for a few weeks at the time of laying eggs, as the females prefer short grass.
In order not to give weeds a chance, you should quickly reseed lawns or lay out a rolled lawn after removing the grubs.
