BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES: The Grub Game

If you’re familiar with grubs then you’re aware of the havoc they can wreak on your clients’ lawns and the way they can make you look like you’re not on top of your landscaping game.

For example, throughout Michigan, grubs attack about twice a year to devour the succulent roots of the turf grass you’ve so painstakingly been tending for your clients.

To make matters more difficult, the second feasting takes place so late in the season that, if unattended, the damage isn’t noticeable until the following spring. By then, says Chris Ostrander, operations manager at Battle Creek Landscape Service in Battle Creek, Mich., it’s too late.

This is why lawn care operators (LCOs) who do battle with white grubs attempt to convince their clients that a preventive control service is more effective than eradicating the problem only curatively. In the process, a preventive grub control program can become an easy add-on service LCOs can rely on for early- and late-season revenues.

THE BATTLE OF BATTLE CREEK. Battle Creek Landscape Service first offered grub control services seven years ago in response to client demand. However, the service didn’t become a company staple until the summer 2004 when entire lawns in the Battle Creek area were devastated by the insect.

By then, local LCOs had already locked horns with Japanese beetles, but the dry, hot weather that season – beetle-friendly conditions – contributed to a population explosion.

The late-season larvae hatch the previous year killed the lawns, but the true extent of the damage wasn’t noticeable until spring 2004, when many Battle Creek lawns showed signs of damage.

That season’s infestation actually helped their cause because now that customers had seen the damage, they were more willing to add a grub control program to their routine service. Ostrander says their services are offered a la carte.

While they didn’t lose customers, Battle Creek Landscape Service, which today includes grub-control programs in every job proposal, did have to begin educating their clients that grub infestation doesn’t happen over night.

Battle Creek Landscape Service recognized an opportunity to educate their client base so they could begin to make intelligent service choices rather than just considering the financial bottom line, says Tom Barry, the firm’s founder.

To address the need to educate clients, Barry produces a quarterly, black-and-white, two-to-four page newsletter, written in-house by his employees, and distributes it to current and past customers. The content highlights landscaping issues and warns customers of each season’s hazards. Nearly 90 percent of Battle Creek Landscape Service clients will purchase the preventive service once they are educated on the severity of lawn damage, not only from the root-hungry grubs, but also from the raccoons and other critters that dig them up, Barry says.

Today, aside from maintenance and mowing, grub control is one of Battle Creek Landscape Service’s most profitable services because customers believe the treatment process is beyond their expertise and they’re less willing to risk it themselves because the condition of their lawn is at stake.

ON THE ATTACK. Putting a program in place to educate clients was only one phase of Battle Creek Landscape Services plan to eradicate the underground grub menace.

Timing is the key for successful grub control because the pesticides need to be active in the ground at specific times of the year in order to effectively control an infestation. To remain true to this timetable, Battle Creek Landscape Service sends their proposals to their customer base by Feb. 1 and attempts to get them signed by March 1.

Then, the first grub control application goes down in June after the first hatch of the season, Ostrander says. The second application should be completed around end of July to the middle of August, right after the second hatch.

“The two applications ensure both hatches are killed before too much damage is done,” Ostrander says. “You can’t kill the egg, so you have to wait until they hatch. Then the grubs grow pretty rapidly. But after you apply the product, instead of a newly hatched grub eating the lawn, it eats the grub control product and dies.”

Battle Creek Landscape Service chose two grub control products, and the particular product used correlates with the time the client requests the service. One product lasts longer, Barry says, and it’s applied in a low dosage. The second product works faster but doesn’t remain active in the soil for as long. 

Although one product is more expensive, Barry made the decision to charge a flat fee of $7 per 1,000 square feet for the pesticide in order to alleviate the client confusion often encountered when dealing with price differences. Barry covers the cost difference by basing the prices off the more expensive brand. “The biggest challenge with grub control is the timing of the application,” Ostrander says. “The more expensive product works longer so if the application is a little too early or late, it has a better chance of still being effective. We use this product more often.”

For treatment, Battle Creek Landscape Service charges about $8 per 1,000 square feet plus a $15 base fee, less if the client has a larger area to cover, Barry says. “As we approach an acre or more we start giving discounts,” Barry says. “We have a rate sheet. As square footage increases, the price per 1,000 square feet decreases. For half an acre we charge $178, but for an entire acre, we charge $289. We know the cost of labor and the cost of the product and we know it doesn’t take much longer to treat an acre than it does to treat a half acre. If it takes a half hour to treat half an acre, it will take 45 minutes to treat an entire acre.”

Since they utilized granular grub-control products, Battle Creek Landscape Service was able to use its existing spreaders and didn’t need to incur new equipment costs. Likewise, labor costs were not impacted by the program. The labor involved is just one certified technician, making about $12 an hour. That technician checks the label and treats the square footage, according to the rate printed on the product label.

Battle Creek Landscape Service also develops a job cost report for each job. When they return the following season, they have history on that job and know exactly how much everything is going to cost. They have a formula for pricing each service based on square footage. They adjust their prices depending on the profit they made the previous season.