Lawn trouble? Stop blaming grubs

Powerful ads have demonized the grub. Stop falling for them. That marketing is not aimed to improve your lawn, only to make you buy grub killer. It's a ploy that works, to the tune of $75 to $100 per lawn per year. But 80% of the time, grubs are not the problem.

Stop trying to kill grubs

Stop spending money and energy trying to get rid of grubs.

Grubs are always around but most lawns are not troubled by their grubs.

There are better ways to improve a lawn. Fix the non-grub issues that actually cause most turf trouble.

The grubby facts

You don't really want to know the nitty gritty of grubs. That's OK. The summary on this page is enough. (Or, click here for all the dirty details.)

What you want is a better lawn. You assume grubs are to blame. Yet you probably do NOT have grub trouble.

Two grubs is not a
problem, even if you
find two under
every bit of
sod you dig!

Here's what to do about grubs and the lawn

First,

Before you kill grubs, be sure that grubs are really the problem.
For every five lawns where grubs are blamed, only one actually has grub trouble.
Ignore advertising meant to turn you into a grub killer. It greatly overstates grubs' impact, just to make sales. Those ads are double trouble, too. If you're in that minority of buyers who actually do need grub killer, the ads prompt you to act at the wrong tim.
Grubs don't necessarily kill the plants above them. So it's not a problem if you see one, two or even three at each spot where you dig. It takes at least six grubs per square foot to start causing trouble.

Second,

Recognize more common and truly debilitating grass problems: Heat, dry soil, compaction, poor light.
Fix those problems.
Aeration, water, and fertilizer are the best help you can give a lawn.

Third, consider some surprising grub facts.

Some grubs are bonafide good guys.
Even "bad" grubs have worth in a garden.
If you see one grub in each place you dig, don't be concerned. One grub per square foot is AOK. More than five at each place might be worth looking into.
You would be better off with lawn trouble than the collateral damage caused by grub killing.
It's pretty much impossible to kill all the grubs in an area, anyway.