September 27, 2009 - Nocturnal Raiders

Welcome to the Nature Notebook.

Do you have mysterious holes appearing in your lawn? They might be from a nocturnal raider. Dressed in black-and-white camouflage these stealthy foragers slip into yards for tasty treats. Striped skunks find beetle larvae irresistible. These grubs feed on the root system of grasses before turning into the adult beetles. You might notice brown patches in the lawn indicating grub activity. While skunks solve one problem—removing the grubs—they create another by digging up the lawn. Although this can be a spring and summer phenomenon, during periods of summer drought grubs move deep into the soil where there is more moisture. With the onset of autumn rains beetle larvae migrate toward the surface to feed. By the end of September most grubs are mature and cause serious feeding damage. That’s when they serve as tasty snacks for foraging skunks.
 
This is PPL's naturalist, Jon Beam, with the Nature Notebook for WVIA.