We bought our first house last December, first time I’ve ever needed to tend to a yard. Despite the higher than average rainfall this summer, the area of what seems to be dead grass continues to get larger. We’re the only house on the street that looks like this.
The previous owners also removed a large oak tree from the front yard (just off picture) and the ground around where the stump used to be is incredible soft.
Not really sure where to go from here.
by Lorebby
43 Comments
GrubX and the area where the stump was ground will sink for a couple years til the subsurface stump/roots rot away. I just hand tamp and add soil every spring. I’m on year two after tree removal
Throw down some Grub X and find out
Have you been watering the grass? With grubs you often see other animals digging them
Up but the lawn doesn’t look disturbed.
Ditch the patchy part of grass yard, plant something native with a tree in the center. Not only will the things that arrive either nuke the grubs or bring them into balance with other plants.
Bonus: you don’t have to do lawn treatment, which is code for carcinogenic chemicals sprayed adjacent to your house.
Do you see a lot of June bugs around? That would be a good way to confirm. They will come out in the twilight and dark to breed. They like to be near street lights.
I had this happen in 2022. Killed damn near my entire front yard and a good chunk of the backyard, it was devastating. To tell if it’s grubs, pull up some of the grass that is still kind of alive and it will pull up like a tupee if it’s grubs. They eat the roots of the grass and that’s why it dies.
Honestly, there’s likely nothing you can do at this moment to fix your grass for the season unless you want to re-sod, but that’s a huge project. You may want to put down some sevin dust or similar to take care of living infestations, but it’s not going to fix the grass. Sevin dust claims to treat for living ones, but that’s not the problem here. The larvae start eating the roots as they mature and that is what killed your grass. The best way to kill grubs is to prevent them. One treatment I’ve used for easy application and purchase is Grubx. This will prevent them, but you have to plan ahead and put it down in the beginning of the May to kill the larvae before they hatch. And you’ll have to re-seed or re-sod to fix it.
One consideration for you; In the spring you may be tempted to use a weed and feed. Don’t do that as the “weed” part of that is typically some combination of pre-emergent and 2-4-D in my experience. We made that mistake on my yard, and unfortunately put down pre-emergent not even thinking about it. It took nearly all spring and summer for us to regrow our grass and two different seeding sessions. You’ll need to reseed or re-sod in the spring to get it to come back.
After we finally got the grass seed to take, we’ve been diligent about adding Grubx or similar every year in mid-May to take care of it and have no repeated issues since 2022.
Also, another sign that something was wrong with our yard, was odd holes making my front yard look like a spaghetti strainer and we couldn’t figure it out. I later found out through this sub, that it was likely birds eating the grubs as the ground thawed.
Sorry that happened, it was devestating and I almost gave up my grass because of it. Good luck!
Edit: The Mid-May timing is really important on Grub-X, don’t waste your money putting it down now, it will do NOTHING. You only have about a 2-3 week period in May to put it down as it lasts 6 months and the grubs will start hatching in June for most parts of the US. So the damage you see now was actually likely done earlier in the summer and is just now showing up. You want to put something down now to kill them, but it won’t largely be effective. The full extent of the damage won’t be seen until after the that next spring.
Billbugs are another distinct possibility, depending on where you live.
In my town, there’s both a local nursery and a county extension center that will look at a sample for free. You might call around. They usually want a 12 x 12 sample, about 6″ deep.
If you have grubs you can easily find out by grabbing an area and grass will pull up easily. When we found grubs under our travel trailer we had parked at side of house. Reminded me of lifting rolled out grass that had not yet rooted much. Grubs galore were below. I got the impression that grubs look for a moist, shaded area to attack. Yours looks rather dry and not able to support much life, good (worms)or bad (grubs) 🤷🏼
Please, Hold up before you just dump grub x like recommendations here. In my region, depending on the species of beetle, 5-10 grubs per sqft accounts for a grub problem. Anything less isn’t an issue.
It’s quite easy to find out. Dig a hole in the ground and look for grubs. If you uncover a bunch eating at your roots you know it’s an issue.
Here’s a [great guide on lawn pests from university of Florida](https://sfyl.ifas.ufl.edu/media/sfylifasufledu/baker/docs/pdf/horticulture/DiagnosingInsectandDiseaseProblemsinFloridaTurfgrass_000.pdf). It goes over the damaged, season, and even “dangerous thresholds” of populations. A thresholds are the amount of population of insects until it becomes a problem
TLDR: Pest control begins with ID before treatment. It’s real simple to see if it’s an issue from grubs or another issue like: poor irrigation, nematodes, fungus or bacterial disease, or even compaction.
Probably just needs rain.
Always trust your neighbors. They know even without any real proof or experience
Consider something other than commercial monocultural grass unless HOA forbids. Meadow-plant with drought-tolerants, some version of Imperial War Graves mixture might be nice. Or use local native grasses that are adapted to the site and tree canopy.
Dig up a 12”x12” section and see, if you do order “milky spore”from Amazon , follow instructions and it will rid you yard of grubs for up to 10 years.
Do not just go dumping pesticides to “find out” if you have grubs. That’s a waste of time and money, and it exposes both you and the surrounding ecosystem to harmful chemicals. So many people think that just because a product is sold at Lowe’s it’s safe and harmless; that’s absolutely not true.
Whatever you put on your lawn is going to impact you, any kids or pets that play there, insects (including beneficial ones like butterflies and fireflies), wildlife, etc. Using products incorrectly can make them ineffective or even contaminate your soil for decades. Be careful about what you use, read up on it thoroughly, call your local cooperative extension for advice if you feel confused.
The area where the tree was is soft because the wood from the stump is breaking down and settling, this can continue little by little for years. It will need more dirt added as it continues to settle.
As for the rest of it, your soil looks like shit. Add some clover seed, clover is a nitrogen fixer so it’ll help your grass grow.
Since it is every where i suggest calling your local lawn care service . They know your area and what to recommend . Probably won’t even charge to take a look .
Look into milky spoor.
For grubs Ive used Milky Spore and it works great. Pick it up at Home Depot or other stores similar. Maybe a garden store would also carry it.
You have so much space for trees
Second opinion? Your fence needs repair also.
Where you live matters.
Higher than average rainfall could very well cause a fungal disease as well.
Tree removal could also expose previously shaded areas to the hot sun, and fried some of the grass/weeds out. It’s easy to find out if grubs are an issue by digging in multiple spots and seeing if you find any.
Lawn imperfections are not an existential issue, and even nice neighbors can repeat bad information, sometimes they have their own agendas too. Just get your hands in the ground and familiarize yourself with your site and soil before deciding on a plan.
Landscapers, am I correct in thinking there are some types of grass that sometimes look like this during certain times of the year?
My solution to sketchy grass is to plant cedar trees right in there. Cedar trees and sketchy grass look natural together.
Dig a few spots and if you see white worms, you have grubs.
Where do you live? “Higher than average” rainfall doesn’t mean that it’s enough to keep a lawn alive without extra watering, especially when it looks like this to begin with. Unles you’re somewhere with weather lile Ireland you aren’t gonna be able to maintain a full sun lawn without sprinklers. Just never going to happen.
I’m not gonna say you definitely don’t have grubs, it’s possible, but it’s much more likely that the large oak tree that was there provided lots of shade and now thegrass that was accustomed to having shade can’t handle the full sun. You need to re-seed with a full sun mix and water the crap out of it for a couple of months. Now is actually a great time to do that so itcan germinate before the winter. Don’t put down any sort of fertilizer or pesticide. Just seed and water. It’s gonna need a TON of water to get going, but once it’s established and the weather has cooled off, youllve able to cut way back and it won’t take all that much to keep alive. Basically keep it really wet at all times for a couple weeks, then water at least once a day for a month or so. By then, it should be cooler and you can scale back to 4 days per week until you start to worry about below freezing temps and can let it go dormant for the winter. Give it plenty of water in the spring along with some weed and feed and by smer it’ll be looking just fine. Grass is actually pretty easy (unless you have big dogs, then you’re fucked) just need patience and time.
The ground all around there the stump was is gonna be weird for a while. Probably will have lots of mushrooms popping up too. Not much you can do about that other than wait a few years.
Dig up a chunk of the green sod. Then bang it around in a bucket to shake out whatever critters might be there. If you find grubs…..you’ve got grubs.
That looks more like lack of maintenence and water.
From my experience as a former landscape Foreman the skunk will dig for the grub and you will have small holes from it. Do you have any irrigation or do you water your lawn? It’s hard to say exactly the cause but drought could be a factor here or I’ve seen so many people not know how to apply fertilizer and burn the snot out of their lawn as well. The real question is how fast do you want it fixed?…. Nematodes are a effective treatment for grubs and other insects like nats.
Treat your lawn with nematodes making sure soil stays moist and roll with that for like 3-4weeks once grub is eliminated you could top dress and overseed your whole lawn will take almost a full season to re grow grass and you will need to keep overseeding your fill in the patchy areas. The most expensive but quickest way is to spray the whole lawn killing everything let it sit and remove the old product as well as the first 6 inches of dirt add fresh soil pack it down and sod over top. Most homeowners can do sod it’s not hard one YouTube video and you’ll be off to the races. Make sure you find out the best watering schedule for your area and keep the sod from drying out or the edges will shrink up on you. After just a few weeks the sod will grab and be ready for cutting. If you cut with a bag on and use quality screened top soil and fertilizer you can keep your lawn weed free for the most part
Could be grubs but also could be lack of water seeing how dry the green stuff is looking
next Spring aerate like crazy, throw down a whole ass load of white clover seed, then set your mower deck to the highest setting
Kill your lawn and plant natives, solves the grub problem and you don’t have to water it.
This is Reddit dude, you’ll probably get more than two opinions.
It looks like it just needs to be seeded and watered! Too dry an environment for grubs
You can check for grubs by digging a hole and looking for them. If you do have a lot, there is an organic product called milky spore that will kill them and not harm anything else.
Every lawn had grubs. They are like anything else. They are there as a natural part of the eco system. Now if you have too many then you have a problem. What’s too many? I don’t know cause I don’t know where you live. Call a professional or you can waste your time and money on a my neighbor said so. This can also be caused by over fertilizing, fungus and tons of other things.
Go outside and take a look at things without your phone lol. Use a shovel and you will find out if you have grubs without any random opinions from reddit.
Was that area previously shaded by the tree? Anything that spent the last umpteen years growing under an oak canopy is going to struggle with sudden full sun exposure.
Here’s what I would do, dethatch, slice seed and water for two weeks till you see germination. Next year have it treated or you treat it. It’s not grubs
You can let your neighbor know you have the absolute best experts available weighing in on this issue. Professional even.
Looks like grub damage to me. Dig up a few areas and see if you find them, although this late in the season, they may have already done their damage and moved on.
Is grub treatment part of your annual maintenance plan? The preventative version should be put down in early spring and the curative version should be applied in mid-July.
I would put down GrubEx curative now just to make sure you kill off any remaining grubs. I would then put it down in early Spring and again next July. They are persistent and any corrective action you take will be wasted as they’ll do the same thing next year.
As for fixing it now, you don’t say where you are, but if you act now, you may get a lawn started before winter. Power rake and then aerate the lawn this week. Remove the dead grass, throw down the best seed option for your area (I’ve had great success with Black Stallion in N. Illinois) and water, water, water. If you get on it this week, you’ve got a chance of getting a lawn back by mid-October.
Tell your neighbor they have grubs and to keep them out of your yard. Intentional watering does help. Lol.
I don’t see signs of grubs…
I do see signs of neglect, maybe “I got no time due to work”, but mostly I see “I don’t really care to work this”…
This looks like chinch bug damage.
Full shade to full sun after the oak tree was removed? Grass probably couldn’t tolerate the change. Plant something native to your area that likes full sun. Not necessarily turf grass.
Milky Spore is not poisonous to anything other than grubs.