How to Kill Grubs on Roses

Visit your rose garden each morning while the weather is still cool. The grubs will be less active and easier to catch at this time of day.

Examine the grass below your rose bed, and the roses themselves, for grayish white grubs. These are the grubs of the Japanese beetle, and they can be very harmful to roses. These grubs are generally between half an inch and an inch in length, and they are typically found in the grass and soil below the roses.

Scoop up all of the grubs you see and throw them into a bucket of soapy water to kill them. Keep a bucket of water handy by your roses to remove any additional grubs during the day.

Add milky spore to the soil in the spring of the year to control grubs naturally. These helpful nematodes feed on the Japanese beetle grubs and help to get rid of them in the larval stage. You must apply the milky spore in the spring, however, before the grubs and resulting beetles have become a problem.

Repel grubs by surrounding your roses with catnip, geraniums and garlic. These plants are known to repel grubs and Japanese beetles.