Our snowy winter made grub infestation worse than normal. Here's how to fix your yard
RICHFIELD, Minn. – Now that the snow is gone, many homeowners are disappointed by their destroyed laws.
Spring is the time of year where grubs do the most damage. Grubs are little larvae that kill your grass.
One homeowner facing this problem is Harold Dahl in Richfield.
"It's bare and you can see the dead grass," said Dahl, as he showed a WCCO crew his grub-infested backyard. "I didn't catch on to it until it was kind of too late."
The problem also spread to his front yard, which is mostly dirt now. He's not alone.
"It's amazing when I bike around how many yards have been affected," said Dahl.
Homeowners are finding beetle larva in their yards that have lived in the soil all winter. As they make their way to the surface in the spring, they feed on the root of the grass.
Not only do they kill your grass, larger animals kill them and tear up your yard in the process.
"If you see an awful lot of birds in one spot, you know that they're pecking at bugs in your yard," said Dahl.
"Right now is definitely the busiest time of the year," said Heather Johnson, a horticulturist at Bachman's Garden Center.
Johnson recommends people use Milky Spore or GrubEX to treat grub infested lawns.
"Grubs are pretty prolific right now," said Johnson, who says it's caused by the heavy snowfall we had this year.
The snowpack blocked regular grub predators from feasting throughout the winter, taming the problem. Now that the snow is gone, yards are like a big buffet for grubs.
Johnson suggests waiting to lay new seed down until the end of summer or early fall.
"Focus on the grub issue now," said Johnson. "It's gonna look a little unsightly for a season, but it'll definitely be better in the long run."
If you don't want to address the grub issue yourself, many local lawn care companies provide grub treatment services.
