Video shows raccoons digging up lawns to get to the invasive grubs underneath the surface.
FEDERAL WAY, Wash. — Homeowners across western Washington are finding their lawns torn apart by an unlikely partnership: crows and raccoons simultaneously working to dig up invasive beetle grubs.
Lorena Denney noticed her Federal Way yard had been torn up and researched the issue. A previous KING 5 report showed her the culprit was the crows, pecking for a snack. Then, the destruction got worse.
“It was peeled back,” Denney said.
RELATED: Here’s the reason crows are tearing up Washington lawns
Gardening expert and KING 5 contributor Ciscoe Morris looked at the photos and knew exactly what caused this worse issue.
“That’s the classic sign of raccoon damage,” said Morris.
Morris confirmed the culprits were hunting European chafer beetles, an invasive species whose larvae feast on grassroots below the surface.
“The raccoons are the worst because they peel up the grass and chow down,” Morris said, digging up a live beetle grub from Denney’s lawn.
When Denney posted about the damage in a Federal Way community group, responses poured in from across the south Sound. One Lakewood resident even captured video of two large raccoons snacking on their front lawn.
The European chafer beetle has been spreading across the region in recent years. The invasive pests live in soil, eating grass roots and creating dead patches.
Morris said even if the raccoons and crows didn’t kill the lawn, the beetles would, so the beetles need to be handled to fix the issue.
He suggested several deterrent options, including motion-activated sprinklers, though the effects of that can wear off.
“A couple of times, it’ll scare the raccoons away,” he said. “Other times, the raccoons will go, ‘Oh, I’m getting a nice shower!'”
He said some people turn to hot peppers to deter, but that washes away during the current rainy season.
Physical barriers like chicken wire staked in the ground can help block raccoons, Morris said, adding with a smile, “Or you could get a wiener dog! Wiener dogs will chase anything out of your garden.”
But homeowners face a frustrating timeline: The beetle problem can only be treated next spring.
“Unfortunately, you’re not going to be able to do anything about this until next June,” Morris told Denney, saying it’s too wet to re-seed the lawn now.
Morris said a new natural product recently released can help deter the grubs without chemicals when application season arrives. It’s called Grub Out and is made from natural bacteria, so is much safer to use than chemicals. He advised using that in late spring/early summer to make sure the beetles don’t populate underground.
For now, affected homeowners must focus on deterring the nighttime raiders and salvaging what remains of their lawns until treatment becomes viable in spring.