My area has a wild pig problem, and the advice is to kill lawn grubs to keep the pigs from destroying the lawn.

Fine. I bought Scotts GrubEx and will apply it this week. However, its instructions say "apply 2.87 lbs of product per 1,000 sq. ft."

Really? 2.87 lbs down to a hundredth of a pound? And now I have to determine the area of my non-rectangular lawn to a similar level of precision?

What do folks actually do with these kind of instructions? Do people actually weigh out 2.87 lbs into a spreader (proportional to the actual measured square footage)? Or is there an easier way to eyeball the right amount?

 

I'm surprised that Scott's didn't formulate their product to where it would be 2.5 or 3 lb per 1000 sq. ft. I like to hear their reasoning for that.

As to the square footage for a non-square/rectangle, I searched "apps to measure square footage of a lawn". I've never used these calculators. Maybe they aren't user-friendly, but they may work well enough. Otherwise, some phones that have GPS on them may be able to calculate the area by walking around with the app engaged. My hand held GPS will do that, though I've never done it.

As far as weighing the granules, I'd use a bucket or similar container and put an amount in and weigh myself on a scale holding the bucket, and then not holding it. I'd keep adding/subtracting until I got to a round number such as 3 or 5 lbs,, maybe even 1 or 2 lbs if the scale is sensitive enough. Mark the levels with tape and the poundage on the tape. Then doing the math should get you close to what you need.

If this works for you, then I suspect you are taking more care to be accurate than most people will, and that is a good thing. Hope this helps!

 

I have never used grub control but every other spreadable product has come settings for a variety of spreader products.

 

I use Grub Ex annually. It is very effective. The bag will have a spreader setting in the instructions. I use a drop spreader set at 5 1/2. If you use a rotary spreader it will be different.

 

I phoned Scott's consumer support line and the nice lady was unable to translate "2.87 lbs of product per 1,000 sq. ft." into anything useful. Guess I'll just wing it.

She was able to give me a setting for my small handheld spreader: "between 3 and 4" which is not an actual setting. So I guess I'll use 4.

 

I found an app from Scotts called, you guessed it, "My Lawn", which calculates this. It's pretty neat. You tell it your street address and it presents an aerial view of your property. You then tap around the periphery of the lawn until you return to your starting point. Then the app tells you the square footage.

So having learned that my front lawn is 2265 square feet, I now know to use 6.5 lbs of GrubEx. That I can measure, and I'll just spread it around evenly. (I don't need to treat my fenced-in back yard.)

 

You can use google maps also to calculate your lawn area. On GMaps right click and use the measure distance selection. Follow your path around your lawn clicking on points. When you click on your starting point it will give you the square footage.

 

Good job Rocket! It's a shame that technical support doesn't support much anymore. They usually just read off of the internet as opposed to solving problems. Sounds like she didn't even know about the app?

I found the app and will remember it for the future. Thanks for the update.