"germ" wrote in message
m...
The damage is getting severe. I could feed an army of starlings for a
month
in the grubs in the front yard alone.

I pulled up about two square feet in a browning area before writing my
first
post and found 12-15 grubs! Not to mention my annuals look like I hit
them
with RoundUp, the one Nasturtium I pulled up had 3 of those parasites
attached.

Jim

Depending on where you are located, you are over-estimating the problem.
The eastern half of the country is bothered by the larvae of June beetles
and chafer bugs, but you need to see double the amount you are reporting (a
dozen or more grubs per square FOOT) to have a problem that requires
treatment. In the western portion of the country, the culprit is crane fly
larvae, but treatment for these guys is not recommended until populations
exceed 30 per square foot.

Maintaining a healthy lawn is the best remedy - grunbs will infest lawns
that are stressed first. Reduce the amount of fertilizer you apply, mow long
and water less often but more deeply. These practices will encourage your
lawn to develop a deep root system, making it much less likely to appeal to
the grubs, which feed on surface roots. Plus, lawns which are allowed to dry
out between waterings make the environment inhospitable for the grubs, which
require specific moisture levels to survive. The first thing you want to do
is reset your irrigation system if you have one - that daily or every other
day watering for 10-15 minutes is wreaking havoc. It is wasting water,
encouraging shallow root development and provides the ideal conditions for
grubs to proliferate. If the populations do increase to treatment levels
(you are NOT there yet), beneficial nematodes are the recommended treatment,
but you must time their application to the life cycle of the specific pest.

Contact your county extension agent for details. This link may help.
http://www.gardenguides.com/articles/grubs.htm

btw, whatever is plaguing your annuals is unlikely to be the same problem,
but the same principals apply. Avoid excessive fertilizing, stay away from
chemical treatments that reduce the populations of benefical insects and
water intelligently.

Anyone that favors a lawn to the point that they are willing to apply banned
and extremely dangerous pesticides needs to re-examine their priorities.

pam - gardengal