The pristine green expanse in front of your home no longer resembles the smooth pasture you worked so hard to cultivate. Clumps of dirt litter your formerly manicured lawn. Your garden gnomes may be motionless, but in their stony faces, you could swear you detect a hint of judgment. Or is it horror?
What’s behind the destruction? Could it be the crows you see digging at your lawn?
Before you go all Caddyshack on your neighborhood crows, be aware that they’re not the only agents of chaos. (And that crows hold grudges). In fact, the crows are actually looking for another animal that causes damage.
The destruction starts with grubs. More specifically, the larvae of the European chafer, an invasive beetle that has spread in Washington state over the past decade. The larvae eat turf roots, and crows go ham for these larvae.
But the European chafer destroys your grass, too.
“ (The crows are) killing the invasive pest that’s really destroying the lawn,” said John Marzluff, emeritus professor of wildlife science at the University of Washington.
Raccoons and other critters, such as skunks, are also in hot pursuit of the invasive beetles. But you may not witness raccoons digging up your turf, given their nocturnal ways.
While you might be mourning the loss of your grassy patch of the American dream, Marzluff points out the crows are actually doing “some natural pest control.”
“They’re just there because of the grubs,” Marzluff said. “They’re pointing out an ecological imbalance that we wouldn’t know about otherwise.”
So, what’s a lawn-tender to do? Watering lawns seems to keep the beetles in check, said Jim Kropf, Washington State University Pierce County Extension Director. The beetles mate and lay their eggs in summertime.
“When the lawn is the most susceptible is also when the beetles are expanding their territory,” he said.
Registered insecticides or pest killers can also help, but the timing is key: Spraying in fall or winter months won’t be effective, Kropf said.
There’s another way to prevent the European chafer — and their predators — from destroying your patch of land: Try more diverse plants.
Marzluff said that when humans plant a lot of the same crop — whether it’s turf grass, corn or soybeans — it’s easily invaded by animals that can “take advantage of it quickly and completely.”
“Having a diverse ecosystem in your lawn, even, reduces the chance of a pest getting in there and just wiping out the whole thing, because they'll run into some plants they can’t eat, or some soil conditions that aren’t right for them,” Marzluff said.
King County has an online guide of native plants at green2.kingcounty.gov/gonative. The site includes plants that are native to Western Washington and tips on how to nurture them.
And just a reminder for anyone who needs to hear it: Don’t feed wildlife. If you feed, and then stop feeding raccoons, they can become very aggressive, Kropf said.
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