Scotts Grubex vs Bayer Grub Control

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Scotts Grubex vs Bayer Grub Control: Which One Is Best?

There are endless troubles involved in trying to make a smooth green lawn. Choosing the right grass, deciding whether to seed or sod, watering and mowing, and all the other steps necessary to make certain that your lawn stays full and healthy.

Even if you do manage to properly maintain your lawn or yard, though, the work is still not done. Other things may be living there, and their ‘contribution’ towards your plans are rarely benign.

Insect damage is the perennial bane of anyone trying to grow anything, and your lawn will be no different. Any given part of the world has its own set of floral pests, seemingly bent on either cutting off the leaves or killing the roots of any plant or tree in their way.

Some of the more common parasites, such as ants or termites, will even attack the seeds or fertilizer used in most gardens, preventing them from growing at all.

Because they are insects, these particular threats tend to occur in several stages, each one tied to a particular point in the insect life cycle. These stages are generally egg, larval, and adult stages, although some insects have a pupal stage as well.

Each stage poses its own danger to plants around it, and should be treated separately. Thankfully, there are a number of products available to handle any stage of infestation, for nearly any parasite.

If for any reason you elect to treat only one stage of the infestation, then focus on the larval or grub stage. At this point, the pests have neither the protection of being eggs nor the resilience that comes with adulthood.

Moreover, larval infestations tend to remain in the first layers of soil or thatch, meaning that they are less likely to escape any preventative measures. Adult pests will simply leave the treated area and return once hospitable conditions return.

Among the various products available for grub control, two of the leading names are Scotts and Bayer. Here we will put the two side by side to see which one treats more pests more effectively.

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We will also cover what side effects these products may have on your lawn once your insect problem is gone.

Scotts Grubex

You may recognize the name Scotts from some of your garden tools or equipment. They are a longtime leader in yard care products, and have innovated several advances in many areas.

This grub control product is actually blended into a granular form specifically intended to work well with other Scotts products, and can be fed into the brand’s many spreaders for thorough and even distribution.

Grubex is rated to control the grub cycles of no less than six of the most common and damaging insects, including the notorious Japanese beetle with its distinctive white grubs. This product has been reported to have the added advantage of forcing moles, crows, and similar minor predators to abandon your lawn.

Although not harmful, these animals will be left without a food source and be forced to depart.

Grubex can be applied in spring or early summer, and is rated to protect your lawn for up to four months. In specialized cases such as crane flies, you can use Grubex in the fall as well.

If you do so, be aware that the treatment will likely be neutralized by winter precipitation and necessitate a second application in the spring.

Scotts backs up their products with a guarantee up to four months, and produce options for 5,000-10,000 square feet. It can be blended with other Scotts lawn care products and should not harm beneficial organisms or animals.

The chemical composition is not recommended for use near vegetables to be eaten.

Bayer Grub Control

Bayer seeks to distinguish itself by mixing the grub killer with a revitalizing formula that gives the product a fertilizing action as well. Effectively two products in one that saves not only the time and effort for the user, but also the wear on possibly damaged turf and the unnecessary passes with a spreader.

Bayer markets its grub control products both in granular and liquid form, making them easy to use in a broad variety of dispensers, and easier to spread over a larger area.

This product is called ‘season long’ grub control, and lives up to its name. There are multiple reports of Bayer product lasting through a summer with only one application.

It brings with it a welcome deterrent against other pests by eliminating their food supply. Like with Scotts, crows, moles, and similar foraging animals will find nothing to eat, forcing them away from your lawn.

This package is rated for up to 5,000 square feet of prevention. Along with the pesticides, there are significant quantities of chemical stimulant that will kick-start the regrowth of moss and grass.

This will fill in the areas damaged by grub and get your lawn back to healthy state in no time. It is marginally safer to use near food crops, even though they are treated with a pesticide specially designed for use on edible crops.

Winner – Scotts Grubex

Although there are a number of attractive features to Bayer, the first consideration in a pest control product has to be whether it can keep your lawn clear of as many species as possible. Scotts rates higher in providing a more comprehensive protection that target more species.