Throughout the fall and winter you may notice your lawn is torn up like someone was digging tiny holes to find something under your sod. Well there was something digging up your lawn but it wasn’t a person, It was a skunk or a raccoon and most likely a few crows. They are after the European Chafer beetle larvae.
The Chafer beetle lays its eggs in sod just under the surface. Once the eggs mature to the larvae stage and get nice and plump, critters like to dig them up and eat them. The Chafer beetle itself is not a pest and its larvae at certain stages do feed on shallow roots usually not enough to cause noticeable damage. Unless it is unusually dry then there will be brown patches and dead patches of lawn. The real damage comes from the animals digging them up to eat them.
An easy solution to this problem is a nematode. A nematode is a small worm that eat the insides of the larvae thus killing them. A popular variety of nematode for getting rid of Chafer larvae is Heterorhabditis bacteriophora (one trade name is Nemasys G). There are a few other solutions to controlling these grubs such as Carbaryl, Imidacloprid, and Chlorantraniliprole. They are insecticides and pesticides which we tend to stay away from.
The best time of year to apply nematodes is late July until September. This way all those nasty grubs will be gone and the skunks and crows will have to look elsewhere for food.
If you want to check for grubs cut a 1′ x 1′ square in your lawn only about an inch deep and peel back the corners. If you count more than 20 you should be thinking about controlling them.
