- Author: Lauren Fordyce
Published on: April 18, 2024
![Three white grubs of varying sizes curled up in a c-shape on-top of dark brown soil.](https://ucanr.edu/blogs/UCIPMurbanpests/blogfiles/106163small.jpg)
Grub size can be helpful in identification. Common white grub species left to right are: Japanese beetle, European chafer, and June beetle. Photo by David Cappaert, Bugwood.org
While preparing your garden for planting this spring, you may have found white grubs in the soil. Discovering these fairly large, white grubs can be alarming, but they usually won't cause significant plant damage.
Grubs are the soil-dwelling larvae of beetles in the Scarabaeidae family, also simply called scarabs. They are generally curled in a C-shape with whitish bodies and 6 legs. Grubs of some species may be less than 0.5 inch long, while other species may be up to 2 inches. Some grubs feed on living plant material while others do not.
Masked chafer beetle grubs are often what people find in garden beds in California. If you find large grubs in compost, those are likely the larvae of the green...
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Tags: beetles (0), garden (0), grubs (0), IPM (0), pest (0), pest management (0), soil (0), UC IPM (0), white grub (0)
Focus Area Tags: Pest Management, Yard & Garden
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