You watered your lawn religiously and gave it an appropriate amount of fertilizer, but now you suddenly have dead spots popping up across your yard. What gives? It could be a sign that you have a grub problem in your lawn. These are the larvae of beetles that live in the soil and munch on the roots of grass. Their hunger can severely damage your yard and undo all the hard work you put into making it look pretty. Grubs typically aren’t noticeable until it’s too late, but once you notice the signs, you can easily make sure the root problem is in fact grubs with the help of some soapy water or a towel.
There are several reasons you might have dead grass patches developing in your lawn. It could be that a different type of grass is becoming weedy, the lawn has urine damage from pets or neighborhood strays, or maybe the grass died over the winter. If you can’t pinpoint that your dry patches are being caused by any of these issues, you may want to test for grubs. Grub damage starts with dead grass seemingly out of nowhere, and severe problems eventually turn into bare dirt patches. It’s best to identify the problem sooner rather than later, so if you suspect you might have a grub problem, try this simple hack before it gets out of hand.
Grab a towel or soapy water and go hunting for grubs
You might have grubs if your grass is still dying even though you’ve been watering it. Another sign of grubs is if crows and raccoons have been rummaging through your lawn. You can quickly check for grubs with just a bucket of soapy water. Grab any bucket, add some dish soap, and fill it with water. Pour generous amounts of water along the edges of the dirt patches, since this is where the grubs are hanging out. After 10 minutes, if you see grubs on the top of the soil trying to escape the water, you’ll know that this is the problem your yard is facing.
If you’re not comfortable pouring soap all over your lawn, use a towel instead. Dunk a towel in water and make sure it’s thoroughly wet, then place it over the dirt patches in your lawn and let it sit overnight. Doing this will encourage the grubs to come up to the surface of the lawn. In the morning, you’ll be able to see the grubs, and then you can start getting rid of them. If either of these methods doesn’t reveal grubs, another issue is probably causing the dry patches on your lawn.
