Japanese Beetles vs. my lawn

 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?

--
Bert Hyman    St. Paul, MN    bert@iphouse.com

 

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.

 wrote:


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.

--
Bert Hyman    St. Paul, MN    bert@iphouse.com

 
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.

--
bert@iphouse.com    St. Paul, MN