Best Products For Lawn Grubs ?

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I have grubs in my lawn and when we were planting last month i saw thousands of ants when we dug a hole for shrubs. What is the best stuff to put down to get rid of grubs in the lawn. Also what should i use to get rid of all the ants i saw when we planted shrubs?
Thanks everyone..
 
I've been using Bayer Ultra, its like $12 a bag at Home Depot and it deals with fireants very well.

Also, if you want to go organic, Dried Molasses works very well also. The ants don't like the smell, and You feed the microbes in the soil that kill ants.

Although 5 years ago Dried Molasses and other organics were much much cheaper than they are today, they still work well jumpstarting your lawn. I've been spreading a 50lb bag of dried Molasses along with a 50lb bag of Soy meal (insoluble protein is like 50% of the volume), and they are incredible at adding more organic matter to your soil and chasing away bad insects.

Easy way = chemicals
Hard way but better for your garden and plants = organic
 
Milk spore is expensive but its a fungus that kills the grub and when the grub dies the product multiplies. Its not cheap but after a treatment or 2 you should be good for like 10-15 years.
 
Grubs are Japanese beetles in larvae state. Japanese beetle bags may help.

One way is nematodes, they are tiny organisms that get inside the grub and cause it to die. Harmless to anything else.

You can put down chemicals and they are effective, but they kill both good and bad insects. People or animals should not walk on the grass until its washed in.
 
I'm not a fan of broadcast pesticide use, so here's what I do:

Set beetle traps around the yard to capture the adults. Set them in the spring and renew the bait once mid-summer. Use these every year. You can keep the traps and buy bait refills.

Then, a beneficial parasite like milky spore or nematodes (my preferred method) will do the job. Buy enough to apply these appropriately. You don't want to cheap out and spread it too thin.
 
free range skunks, crows and turkeys
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Originally Posted By: andyd
free range skunks, crows and turkeys
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Shunks will do a number on inground yellow jacket nests. I have no idea how they do it. I a found a few, one right beside the house, that one had dug up.
 
The milky spore mentioned above has worked well for me. I only made one application and I havene't seen a Japanese beetle, nor a mole which used to feed on the grubs. However, there are other grubs besides Japanese beetles.

I wouldn't worry about the ants. They're in the ground where they're supposed to be and I don't know of any harm they can cause. Don't have the mind set that you need to rid your Earth of every living creature. Your soil needs all of those little creatures that live in it and dumping pesticides on your lawn to get rid of some ants really isn't a good idea.
 
Bayer Insecticide Spray works well and last for months. For grubs I use Grub-B-Gon granules.... use one number higher than what's directed on the instructions.
 
Ants may prey on eggs and young grubs, so eliminating them might make your grub problem worse.

You say you have grubs, but do you have grub damage? Healthy lawns can tolerate a moderate population of grubs before the damage/action threshold is reached.

I always suggest people investigate their land grant university for advice tailored to your region. In this case, Rutgers has numerous publications outlining IPM (Integrated Pest Management) that considers the whole picture (healthy lawn management). Think of insecticides as being like prescription drugs. Use them as the last alternative when other methods fail and/or the damage is so great as to warrant their use. Bombing your lawn haphazardly can confound the problem.

Good luck. http://www.co.somerset.nj.us/pdf/JapBeetleFS.pdf
 
Originally Posted By: andyd
free range skunks, crows and turkeys
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Chickens seem to keep the insect population down on my lawn too... I sure don't spray anything on the grass anyways, no need for pesticide in my breakfast!
 
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