Japanese Beetle Grubs live in your lawn. They live there, destroying your turf by eating the roots and giving Raccoons and Skunks an excuse to dig up the grass looking for a treat. Moles and Voles will invade your lawn too because they really like eating the grubs too. Can't get mad at the critters really. Everyone likes a free lunch! Lots of people go out and buy toxic chemical controls for the voles and moles and have to keep doing it because the chemicals eventually dissipate causing environmental damage and the food source is still there and new rodents come in to replace the ones that got killed. It's a vicious cycle.
One way to tell if you have a problem is to look at your lawn and see if there are little "pinch" marks all over it, like some little hands have been picking at it. This is from Raccoons and Skunks digging for grubs. Remember, the rodents are an indicator of a problem, not the problem itself. Any attempt to scare them away or kill them off won't be successful in controlling the grubs, in fact, it might make things worse. Starlings eat lots of grubs too so, if you seem to have lots of them around your lawn area, that can indicate a problem too.
If you notice dead spots in the lawn or any of the factors mentioned above, dig your shovel into the ground and see if you can spot the grubs in the soil. They usually live within six inches of the surface, a little deeper if the weather gets hot and dry. If it's really bad you'll actually see their disgusting little heads poking out of the ground. Beetle grubs can kill shrubs abd trees too so watch for trees with leaves falling off or becoming kind of sick and yellow looking.
Milky Spore works by being ingested by the grubs and multiplies within their bodies, and killzum. When the grub dies, the bacteria spread throughout the lawn even faster, as there are now more of them. The bacteria can remain in the soil for years waiting to infect any new grubs that might try to move in. This works much better than chemical treatments and others poisons which last only as long as the chemical takes to wash into the water table and pollute the earth, and then needs to be reapplied.
Remember, if you have this problem, chances are your neighbors have it too so, see if you can get them in on the treatment plan as well, because, even if you treat your problem, the beetles can fly in from outside the treated area and still damage your landscape plants. their eggs will die in the soil but the live beetles can still eat your plants.
If you have a wicked bad problem with grubs that needs immediate remedy, I suggest you get some Nematodes too. Nematodes kill grubs from many other types of lawn damaging beetles as well. Click Here to read about them and order if you like.
Once you've applied the Milky Spore, it's a good idea to fertilize your lawn and start restoring it back to health. If it's severely damaged, it may die even after the grubs are gone, because the roots are so weak they can't recover. We recommend our line of organic lawn fertilizers for this process, and some quality grass seed .
