Is It Grubs? How to Check Your Lawn Right Now in Northeast Ohio

Late July and early August in Tuscarawas County usually bring one of two lawn complaints: heat-stressed turf that is just tired from the summer, or something that looks similar but is not stress at all. Grubs are the difference, and right now is exactly when they start doing visible damage.

The eggs that beetles laid back in early summer hatch and begin feeding by mid-August, which means a lawn that looked fine two weeks ago can develop real damage fast. Here is how to tell what you are actually looking at, how to check for yourself, and what the treatment window looks like this time of year.

What's Actually Feeding on Your Lawn

The white, C-shaped grubs turning up in Ohio lawns this time of year are the larvae of Japanese beetles and June bugs (masked chafers), both common across this part of the state. They live just below the surface and feed on grass roots, which cuts the plant off from water and nutrients even when the soil underneath is perfectly moist.

That is what makes grub damage easy to mistake for drought stress at first. The grass browns and thins the same way. The difference shows up when you actually look closer, and especially when watering does not bring the patch back.

How to Tell It's Grubs and Not Just Summer Heat Stress

Drought stress tends to show up evenly across a lawn, especially on slopes and thin soil. Grub damage is different: it shows up in irregular, isolated patches, because grub populations cluster unevenly rather than spreading uniformly.

The clearest test does not require a single product. Grab a damaged patch and pull. If the turf lifts up like a loose piece of carpet with almost no resistance, the roots underneath are gone, and that is grubs, not heat. Increased digging from skunks and raccoons is another strong sign. Both animals hunt grubs at night: skunks push small, cone-shaped holes into the turf, while raccoons peel back larger sheets of sod, sometimes almost neatly, as they search for a meal.

The Square-Foot Test, Not a Guess

Before treating anything, confirm what you are dealing with and how bad it actually is. Cut a one-foot-square flap of turf at the edge of a damaged area with a spade, peel it back, and count the grubs in the top two to three inches of soil. Do this in four or five spots, including both damaged and still-healthy-looking turf, since grub populations sit in isolated pockets rather than spreading evenly.

Ohio State University Extension's threshold for treatment is 10 or more grubs per square foot. Below that, a healthy, well-watered lawn can often recover on its own without an insecticide application. August through early September is the right window to run this test, since grubs are actively feeding near the surface and easiest to find.

Preventive vs. Curative Treatment: Timing Matters

Preventive products, built around imidacloprid or chlorantraniliprole, are meant to go down in June or July, ahead of egg hatch, so they are already in the soil when the grubs start feeding. If a lawn already shows damage now, that window has passed for this season.

At this point, a curative treatment is the right move. Products built around trichlorfon or carbaryl work on grubs that are already active, and they stay effective through early October while the grubs are still feeding near the surface. That effectiveness drops off later in fall as grubs burrow deeper to survive winter, so acting in August gives the best result. Any curative application should be watered in the next day to carry the product down into the root zone where the grubs are feeding.

Before You Treat for Grubs

When to Call Stoll's

We run the square-foot test on-site, confirm whether treatment is actually needed, and handle the application if it is, along with any overseeding the damaged areas need afterward. You will get a straight answer on whether it is grubs before anything gets sprayed.

Stoll's Landscaping serves Dover, New Philadelphia, Sugarcreek, Strasburg, Bolivar, and Uhrichsville. If the lawn is showing patchy brown spots or you have noticed new digging in the yard, give us a call before it spreads further.