Got Grubs?

This week's surprise came when we discovered some Bluegrass rough that peeled back like an area rug in your house.  The cause of this was easy to identify:  Grubs.

Grubs are the larvae stage of  scarabs (beetles), and they eat turf roots...which is obviously not good.  If you see turf that is wilting despite good soil moisture, you can give it a tug and see if it is well-rooted, or not.  Secondary damage to the grass can occur when animals such as crows, raccoons, and skunks start tearing at the turf to find the yummy grubs.

The strange thing is that we haven't seen grub damage in many years.  A preventative application is made in late June, and to date, has been very successful in controlling these insects.  There are several possible causes for the lack of control this year, including the timing of application, misses by the applicator, lack of timely precipitation/irrigation to move the product to the soil, or product failure.

For now, a curative application has been made to areas where we have found grub activity.  Going forward we will re-evaluate our timing and control methods.

These guys aren't feeling too good after a control product was applied this week.