June Bugs

I've learned about a lot of new bugs this summer.  The latest discovery has been June Bugs.  Actually, I discovered them in the spring when I was digging planting holes for trees.

I had no idea what those ugly grubs were

and oddly there were some big brown insects in the ground too

To my eye they looked a lot like cockroaches.

I didn't know the two insects were actually the same thing.

Oh internet, what would I do without you?!  Turns out the white grubs I was finding are the larval stage of June beetles.  These nasty critters are generally found curled up close to the soil surface.  What are they doing there?  They're feeding on the roots of your grass and flowers.  The brown beetles are the adult beetles which come out of the ground in June and feast on trees and other plants.  At first I wasn't too concerned about this, after all, how much damage can they do?

A lot I've discovered.

The lawn was nicely green and looked good for the better part of this spring and summer.  But in August it started to die.  This is my lawn now.

See those large patches of dead grass.  That's damage from June bug larvae.  The larvae have eaten all of the grass roots so the plants aren't able to function and then die.  When you can roll your lawn up off the ground like it was fresh laid sod you have a serious problem.

Something else is going on here too.

The skunks are digging holes in the turf and having a feast.  There are holes in the lawn everywhere you turn.  I don't mind the skunks actually, they're helping to remedy the problem by digging the grubs out and eating them.  The holes they dig even help the lawn by aerating it.

But what's the remedy to June bugs?  Well my friend the internet says a healthy lawn is the best defence.  I can see the logic there.  Generally insects attack plants that are already suffering.  Healthy plants are better able to defend themselves.  But why isn't my lawn healthy?  That I can't answer.  Could it be the soil is compacted?  Perhaps.  We drive a lawn tractor over it once a week to mow the lawn, that would compact soil.  Could it be there's too much clay and not enough humous in my soil?  We haven't fed the lawn any compost or fertilizer so that's also possible.  It could also be that we don't water our lawn.  There's a lot of possibilities so I guess I'll have to start with the basics.  Give the lawn a good raking and throw down some compost to start and see how it goes from there.  If anyone has any suggestions though I'd love to hear them.

In the meantime I've come up with a solution to those skunk holes.  This past week I began filling them with  compost and muscari bulbs.  The lawn will get a little fertilizer and in the spring I'll get a crop of pretty blue flowers.

I retraced the skunk's path hole by hole filling them with bulbs and compost