Garden chafer (lawn grub)

Symptoms

Irregular yellow-brown patches of wilting turf in late summer and autumn that can be rolled back like a loose carpet because the C-shaped white grubs have eaten the roots underneath. The lawn feels spongy. Secondary damage often follows: birds, badgers and foxes tear the turf apart at night to dig out the fat grubs. In early summer the small (8-11 mm) bronze-and-green adults swarm over the lawn at dusk.