Outdoors -- starlings II

I don't like starlings.  They're noisy.
They're worse than squirrels at stealing bird food because they come in flocks instead of pairs.
There are only two good things about starlings.
They eat bugs.
And they can diagnose that you're mowing your lawn too short.
If you get a lot of starlings on your lawn in summer, you know that you mow your grass too short.
The starlings are there to eat Japanese beetle grubs.
There wouldn't be Japanese beetle grubs in your lawn if you weren't mowing your grass too short.
Japanese beetle mothers love short grass because it lets them lay eggs on the ground.
It also lets the sun keep the ground so warm that the eggs will hatch.
If the grass is 3 inches long, no eggs can reach the ground and it's not warm enough to hatch them.
Don't mow your grass shorter than 3 inches.
Then you won't have Japanese beetle grubs in your lawn.
And you won't have flocks of starlings coming to eat them.

© Patricia Jo Heil, 2013-2018 All Rights Reserved