Did you hear? There’s an active outbreak of lawn grubs around Australia RIGHT NOW?!
Particularly affected is the eastern seaboard and Western Australia, but these creatures have a reputation of migrating and could be coming to kill off a lawn near you!
Here’s everything you need to know to save your Aussie lawn…
What’s The Big Lawn Grub Deal?
Lawn pests can chew through lawn roots and create a lot of irreversible damage very quickly.
In Australia, we primarily see problems with curl grub, armyworm and sod webworm. These guys are at the juvenile stage of their life cycle and find homes in your soil where your lawn roots thrive.
And guess what they eat? Your lawn roots!
And guess what type of roots they like the best? Healthy ones!
These guys can destroy 30cm2 patch of lawn in a single day!
So your beautiful, thriving, healthy lawn can go from a picturesque sanctuary one week, to very sick and dying the next.
What’s a Lawn Grub?
Let’s take a look at these main three:
Curl Grubs –
-min.png?width=151&name=African%20Beetle%20(Curl%20Grub%20Adult)-min.png "Lawn Grub: African Beetle (Curl Grub Adult)")
Spot them by their brown head and cream and grey bodies, and by the time you see them they’ll have usually curled up into a ‘C’ shape. Cute? Not really. They are the larvae of beetles, like the African Beetle, a shiny, black beetle that loves to crawl on the top of your grass and chomp away on the underground stems of young plants.
Lawn Armyworm –
Usually found living in the thatch layer of your lawn or on top your lawn to feed on it in the evenings, spot these caterpillars by their green-brown colour. They’re the larvae of the Armyworm moth, a grey, powdery moth that love to feed on grasslands and pastures.
Sod Webworm –
-min.png?width=150&name=Crambus%20Moth%20(Sod%20Webworm%20Adult)-min.png "Lawn Grub: Crambus Moth Sod Webworm Adult)")
Small caterpillars, also brown-green in colour, and who fully grown can have an orange head and either grey or tan hair on their bodies, these guys can be found feeding on the leaf blades of your lawn at night, and hidden in silky burrows at the base of your lawn during the day. They are the larvae of the Crambus moth, a silvery grey, off-white, slim moth which will fly around your lawn in zigzag patterns dropping their eggs into your precious lawn in the early evening.
What Are The Signs of Lawn Grubs?
In warm, dry spells, lawn grubs are at their happiest.
Aside from spotting them in their larvae or adult form, your lawn will be giving you very clear signals that it’s in distress from these pests.
The damage is similar no matter which grub is troubling your lawn: patches of lawn turning yellow, brown and then dying, that grown bigger and spread across your lawn as the infestation worsens. Because these are root-eating grubs, you can find your turf may have a spongy feel when stepped on, it can be loosened and come away easily, and, at its worst, can even be rolled back like a carpet!
How to Get Rid of Lawn Grubs
If you have signs of grubs but haven’t seen what sort you have, or if you’re concerned you may have different varieties of lawn grubs over time, a combination lawn insecticide is for you: one product, many grub types.
