White grubs

White grubs are the young (larval) stage of a variety of beetles. They are the most damaging insect pest, of home lawns, in the northeast.

Beetle grubs from the Japanese beetle, European chafer, Oriental Garden beetle, June beetle, and a few others all feed on turf. They all have a similar life cycle.

These beetles emerge in early summer. They’ll feed on foliage of trees and shrubs, and then lay eggs in mid-summer. The eggs hatch in about 10 days and the grubs begin to feed on grass roots. They’ll continue feeding, and growing, until October. Large populations can cause severe damage, but even severely damaged lawns can regrow roots if the grubs are killed before the predators find them. Predators, such as skunks and crows, can “roto-till” a lawn searching for grubs. When this happens, it usually requires repair to get the lawn back.

The grubs will go down in the soil, below the frost line, until spring. They’ll come back up to feed for a few more weeks until they turn into beetles.

Fortunately, our season-long grub preventor is extremely effective. We target the late summer/fall stage of feeding, which also prevents feeding the following spring.  

For new customers, or customers who didn’t have the season-long grub prevention in the prior season, a separate, additional application must be made for any spring-feeding grubs.