[not-a-pilot]

I'm in northeast Illinois. Overall, my lawn is in good shape. But, there is a patch around 100 sq ft that looks exactly like grub damage. The thing I can't understand is how that could happen 4 weeks after applying Scott's GrubEx. It has never failed me before. I scraped up a piece of the dead grass and it's loaded with carpenter ants. I'v never heard of ants doing anything except getting into the house and driving me nuts. Could it be fungus or something else? I can post a picture, but it's patchy and dead. Any thoughts?

 

[BC7269]

Can you pull up a small spot and see if you see grubs? If it's dead, not gonna hurt to pull up some turf. If it's grubs, you'll see them.

 

[not-a-pilot]

You're right. I'll do that tonight. If there are, why didn't the grub killer get them?

 

[BC7269]

Not sure unless you didn't put down the right rate or didn't water it in. I'd be surprised if you saw extensive grub damage this time of year.

 

[Tsmith]

Could be a lot of things. I just recently diagnosed a Sod webworm problem that I dealt with for the first time last year with death spreading quickly that I let go on too long before dropping 24 Killer so when it started again this year with same symptoms I dropped and the spreading stopped as the bag states overnight.

I do think ants can cause lawn damage in a similar way to grubs and webworms. Check what the Scotts Grubex controls as I noticed the Bayer season long grub control doesn't control everything that the 24 Hour Grub Killer controls so I'll basically be dropping both yearly.

 

[g-man]

Grubex is more of a preventive and a curative. It needs to be applied early in the season to have an effect in next year populations. If you are seeing damage you want a 24hr product like tsmith said.

 

[Delmarva Keith]

It might be grubs or might be something else. But it could be grubs.

Grub eggs are laid around early June. The hatch and grow all Summer. They decend deeper in the soil in late fall. They return near the surface in late Winter and feed and grow until they pupate and emerge around June again. If you dig around now looking for grubs, you likely won't find any or they'd be very tiny.

Grubs eat the roots so depending on how bad an infestation, the turf can look ok until it gets too dry and hot and at the point where the plants don't have the root mass they need to survive, they die.

If you can pull up the turf and it has basically no roots, it was likely grubs. If you put down Grubex this year, you won't have grubs next year. Grubex won't kill big, fully adult grubs, only the eggs and hatchlings for next year.

 

[not-a-pilot]

If it is grubs now, what 24 hr product do you recommend? Bayer?

 

[BC7269]

Anything w/Dylox.

 

[not-a-pilot]

OK, I dug up three spots that are dead and it's not grubs or any other bug. I went down 6 inches and nothing. So, fungus or other disease?

 

[BC7269]

Can you post some pics including close ups? How did the roots look?

 

[Delmarva Keith]

OK, I dug up three spots that are dead and it's not grubs or any other bug. I went down 6 inches and nothing. So, fungus or other disease?

Read my reply above. It's late June. If it was grubs, they are gone already.

 

[not-a-pilot]

I'm playing the odds and laid down 24 hr quick kill with Dylox. It's going to rain real good pretty soon, so it should activate right away. The bag says I can re-apply in 7 days. I just might do that.

 

[GoPre]

That seems like a large area for localized grub damage. Could it be a patch of Triv that has died off in the summer heat? Pictures would help immensely.

 

[not-a-pilot]

 

[not-a-pilot]

 

[not-a-pilot]

 

[kevreh]

Geeze that's rough. I'm dealing with what I think are webworms. Did you treat the lawn, is it better?