When looking for ways to control grubs in your lawn or garden, natural remedies are more attractive to many people than chemical pesticides. With these recipes for grub control, you don't have to worry about children or animals ingesting or absorbing pesticides, or adding unwanted chemicals to your garden-grown food and flowers.
Targeted Treatments
There are two main natural remedies to control grubs. These remedies are available in powder or granule form and are spread on your lawn on spots where grubs are a problem. The first is Milky Spore, a bacteria that specifically infects grubs and kills them but is harmless to other animals, humans and friendly insects. This remedy targets the white grubs of Japanese beetles, the most common lawn grubs, and is safe to use in gardens and around pools and wells. It also is used to reduce mole populations; moles' main food source is grubs. Similar, the second treatment is a targeted nematode solution, which is available for various species of garden and lawn pests, including grubs. The beneficial nematodes kill only grubs; they don't affect other insects, pets or people.
Home Recipes
A time-tested method of repelling bugs from a specific area is to collect 1/2 cup of the pest, in this case the grubs, drown them in water, then mash them up with 2 cups of water and strain out the liquid. Mix the "bug juice" with 2 more cups of water and a few drops of liquid dish detergent, and then spray the area you want to protect from grubs. For another recipe, mix 1 cup each of Listerine, water and liquid dish detergent with 2 cups of lemon juice. Spray this mixture on and around plants for which you want to get rid of grubs. Also try a homemade nicotine rinse, which is toxic to bugs of all kinds. Make a "tea" of boiling water and chewing tobacco. Let it sit overnight. Then strain out the tobacco, and spray the resulting insecticide on plants. This can be used in conjunction with the Listerine mixture, but wear gloves; the tobacco spray stains and can be absorbed through skin.
Natural Enemies
To control grubs further, add their natural enemies to your garden to drive them away or kill them. Insect-eating creatures such as frogs, snakes and rodents keep grubs under control, and birds and bats, in particular, seek out and eat grubs. Attract these animals to your yard by providing their habitat. That is trees and shrubs for birds and bats, or add a bat house on your property. Frogs, toads and snakes appreciate wet and cool areas, including fallen logs, pools and ground-cover plants. You also can spread a dehydrating dust treatment such as silica or diatomaceous earth over grub-infested areas; as the grubs ingest these dusts, they die. Use about 1/2 cup of powder per 1 square foot, and mix it into the soil about 6 inches down with a hand cultivator or aerating tool. This remedy also works for slugs, silverfish and other crawling insects.
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