[Babybird]

How to kill grubs in you soil, mostly active spring, summer​

How to Spray Yard with Dawn Dish Soap?

Dish soap or any other household soap will work well for this natural formulation. Some people mix in some lemon, but it is not necessary. If you don’t have dawn dish soap, you can use an insecticidal soap.

Here’s how to use dawn dish soap to kill grubs in your lawn:

Add 3 tablespoons of liquid dawn soap in 1 gallon of water.

Stir thoroughly to make a soapy liquid.

Spray the soapy liquid onto the areas with brown patches of dying grass.

Wait for about an hour.

Dig up a square foot of your treated lawn and check if there are grubs.

Treat with the dawn dish soap again if there are some grubs still alive.
Pro tip: If you want to make the DIY solution more potent, you can mix liquid dish soap with lemon and mouthwash and then spray it all over the lawn. It will act as a grub worm deterrent and killer without causing any damage to your grass.


The right time to treat for grubs in the lawn is between spring and summer. This is the time when the Japanese beetle larvae are very active feeding and developing into adult beetles. See also my article on white grub lifecycle.



Controlling them at this time means you will stop the damage come the next season.



The dish dawn soap solution is also used to check for grubs and the extent of their damage.



If you notice there are more than 5 grubs per square foot, the infestation is too of concern.


You may want to consider using more effective natural grubworm killers or even chemical solutions.

Milky spore and nematodes are a great natural solution you can try but milky spore also have some disadvantages.

Packaged top-quality grub killers include GrubEx, BioAdvanced Grub Killer, and Sevin.