N.B. - I apologize if you get this twice. When I first sent it, Substack was having an issue and it was unclear if this newsletter was actually sent. Thanks.

Walk around Seattle and you will observe what for many is a disturbing sight: green lawns with what looks like mange, or areas of shredded and denuded turf. They look as if the ground has been rototilled by an erratic, perhaps scatterbrained, and clearly inept, grounds maintenance person. The maltreated lawns are enough to drive any lawn lover to despair….or worse, to send them on a war path to annihilate whoever had the audacity and gall to show so little respect for that landscape icon, a green field of trimmed and tidy turf.

For those in search of the Destroyer of Lawns, they have several sources to seed their anger. The first is a non-native, nondescript scarab beetle, the European chafer (from the German Käfer, meaning gnawer). As their name indicates, they are native to Europe, having been first named scientifically in 1789 by Count Grigory Razumovsky from specimens in Lausanne. (Razumovsky, also written as Razoumowsky, was a geologist best known for his study of erratics!) You may be happy to know that Europeans have long considered their local beetles to be a pest, too, designating them “ravager of lawns.”

Entomologists first reported the European chafer (Amphimallon majale - in Greek, αμφίμαλλον means ‘hairy on both sides;’ majale comes from the Latin maius, meaning May, when the species is active in Europe) in the US from Newark, New York (~220 miles NW of Newark, NJ), in 1940. Reported at densities of 8.8 GSF (or grubs per square foot), the voracious insect had violated lawns in cemeteries, parks, and a golf course. Clearly, these interlopers had to be thwarted in their assault on verdancy. Researchers tried lead arsenate (now banned), micronized sulfur, calcium arsenate (now banned in UK, carcinogenic), various combinations of these three, and that wonderful, oh-this-won’t-be-a-problem insecticide, DDT. (“Applied to the turf as a suspension at the rate of 30 and 50 pounds per acre appears promising for the control of larvae.”)

Disregarding our futile attempts at dominance, the little pests began to spread, generally aided, unknowingly, by people. We shipped them via infested nursery stock. We ferried them when we moved grub-rich top soil in our cars, trucks, railroads, and planes. In fact, the first reported sighting of European chafers in Seattle was in 2015 at SeaTac Airport. (Adults can and do fly but neither far nor fast, except in a plane.)

Life for a European chafer begins between 2 to 8 inches underground in a small cell of about 20 eggs. About two weeks later the larvae emerge and mature to their plant-killing stage (their third instar for those who need to know) in about nine months. Grubs may move as much as ten inches vertically, typically descending to avoid frost, which allows them to overwinter. This is the stage when most pestiferous, when the white grubs eat plant roots, killing the above ground portion. When densities reach 20 to 30 GSF (they can peak at 62 GSF), turf death will be complete.

Adults, in contrast, are dainty eaters, if they eat much at all; they mostly rely on stored fat, aka the digested remains of our lawns. Their focus instead is sex during their short, two-week life as adults, which takes place in the summer.

Turning from the little seen to the big bad nemeses, the two other Destroyers of Lawns are crows and raccoons. Both are intelligent, mischievous, opportunistic, and omnivorous, and probably why people get their undies in a twist with this issue. For example, several years ago, I was on a morning run and passed a recently built house with freshly placed turf. Nearly every roll had its corners folded over, as if someone was seeking a hastily hidden prize. They were; raccoons had most likely furled the turf corners in search of European chafers.

I have also watched crows snortling and snoozling in search of the yummy white beetle grubs. Their strong muscles and stout bill allow them to penetrate the soil and tear up tufts of grass; unlike most other birds, crows also have the strength to open their bills to grab a meal in such a confined situation. Crows are aided by their intelligence and inquisitiveness. The birds are probably keen observers of signs produced by grubs, such as holes or loose sections of soil; remember where they previously encountered grubs; note where their fellow crows are dining; and cannot pass up an opportunity to satisfy their curiosity. I have also been told that raccoons may have learned their behavior from watching the crows.

Now that we are no longer poisoning the ground, and ourselves, with toxins such as DDT, we have taken new, more benign tacts in our battle against the white grubs. We have found a natural nemesis—entomopathogenic nematodes (roundworms)—to do the dirty work. The microscopic beasts penetrate a grub’s body cavity, release a bacterium that kills the grub, and then feast upon the bacterium and liquefying grub. I imagine that this macabre means of death delights those whose lawns have been destroyed. The nematodes appear not to cause damages to other organisms, or to humans.

Researchers have also found a sort of boom and bust cycle. Grubs tend to become more abundant two to three years after adults appear and increase their population during the next three to five years, then drop to relatively low levels and remain that way for some time. If history provides any answers to this situation, it’s that we are not stopping the European chafer. They are here to stay.

Paraphrasing Mr. Shakespeare: “To lawn or not to lawn, that is the question. Whether ‘tis nobler in the yard to sufferThe slings and arrows of outrageous crows,Or to take arms against a sea of grubs.”

As one of my birder friends told me: “Of course the best way to prevent the disturbance is not to have a stupid lawn.”

Word of the week - Entomopathogenic - Generally in reference to insect-killers, such as nematodes, viruses, fungi, and bacteria. From the ancient Greek ἔντομον (insect) plus Greek παθο- (of or relating to disease) plus Greek ‑γενής (Forming adjectives with the sense ‘generating, producing (the thing or effect specified by the first element))

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