Japanese Beetles have finally made it to Minnesota and they're tearing up the garden big time.
Conventional wisdom says it's a waste of time to treat the lawn for grubs unless you can convince everybody who lives within 3 miles to do the same.
However, will the grubs do damage to the lawn itself? Should I treat the lawn just for the sake of the lawn?
First time I've ever heard that and don't know where it came from. If you have excessive grubs in your lawn you certainly can kill them with a pesticide by just treating your lawn. That will stop them from destroying it. Grubs may reappear next year, coming from wherever, but then you take care of it again if necessary.
Of course they will. Some simple googling will produce plenty of pictures of lawns destroyed by grubs. The grubs eat the roots away and the turf pulls up like carpet. Also, animals like skunks find grubs tasty and can tear up a lawn overnight.
Depends on how many grubs you have and whether you care if your lawn gets destroyed or not.
In the context of Japanese beetles, everywhere.
Japanese beetles will travel several miles to find food, so treating just my own lawn won't eliminate enough of the pests to make a difference.
If you already know the answer, then why did you come here asking the questions? Obviously you don't understand the lifecycle of the insect you're dealing with. Here's a clue: Adult Japanese beetles that travel miles don't destroy your lawn. The larvae of a variety of beetles, commonly referred to as grubs, do.
Did you even bother to read my original post? The specific question was:
"However, will the grubs do damage to the lawn itself? Should I treat the lawn just for the sake of the lawn?"
Are you, in fact, saying that the grubs will, in fact, do significant damage to the lawn?
Are you, in fact, saying that it might be worth my while to treat my lawn for the grubs just for the sake of the lawn, even though it won't do anything to reduce the number of beetles that I find in the garden?
So far, I've seen no evidence of lawn damage that can be attributed to the beetle larvae, but this is the first year we've seen more than a handful of the beetles.
Yes I read it and I provided the first reply that addressed your specific questions.
Answered in the reply, but it may not be obvious that I provided that first reply because Google was down and I did it from another account. I also pointed out, that contrary to your claim, it's not common knowledge that you can't treat a grub problem in your lawn without treating all the lawns for many miles. This is the first time I've ever heard it.
As I said in the first reply, that depends on how many grubs you have, whether the lawn is a nice one or mostly weeds and how much you value your lawn.
Lift a square foot of turf at several spots and count the number of grubs. If it's only a few, treatment is generally not warranted. If it's above 10 then yes. In between, maybe.
I didn't realize that you and the person posting as "." were the same person.
But that post appeared to be addressing the problem of grubs in general, with no suggestion that you were talking specifically about Japanese beetle grubs.
Anyway, thanks for your input.
I don't use 'em either, other than the systemic stuff (imidacloprid) that I'm trying on the roses. If the sand cherries and dwarf crab apple survive the beetle onslaught, I might try it on them next spring. The clematis and Boston Ivy are done for.
One thing you may want to keep in mind.
If you apply a "pesticide" to kill the grubs in your lawn, you'll also kill every earthworm in the same vicinity. That *does* have some ramifications to it. Just food for thought.
I'm definately not "anti-pesticide". I just tend to use it as a last resort because there are usually side-effects, with chemicals, that most people don't think about, that can have a negative impact. Replacing a problem, with a different problem, as it were.
25 earthworms per square foot of soil equals about 1 million earthworms per acre. That's a lotta worms tunneling around under your turf. There are many benefits to that, not limited to aeration, porosity, fertility (worm castings rock as a fertilizer), or permeability. They also stimulate nitrogen-fixing bacteria. Be a shame to lose that, you'll end up applying nitrogen at a greater rate. =)HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.