Hours are spent mowing, watering and fertilising a man's precious patch so it is boast-worthy to all his mates.
To ensure all of this hard work does not go to waste, listen up - it's grub season and they'll decimate your lawn if you don't act.
Organic gardener Annette McFarlane explains there are two types of lawn grubs - those that come from moth larvae and those from beetle larvae.
The larvae from beetles are usually referred to as white curl grubs. They live underneath the lawn and are in the shape of the letter 'c'. They have a similar appearance to witchetty grubs but are not to be confused with them.
"They eat the root system of the grass so that's what dies out in patches," McFarlane tells AAP.
"Often you can tell if it's beetle larvae because when you go and grab the grass and go to lift it up it'll actually come away because the roots have been eaten off."
McFarlane, who has authored three books including her latest Organic Fruit Growing (2011), says home gardeners can check their lawn by digging up a patch of soil and seeing if any grubs exist.
"Now everybody who goes and digs up a bit of their lawn will find some curl grubs," she says, "that's really quite normal. It's when the population increases substantially that you've got a real problem. So if you find two or three, they're not going to do much damage."
Most people would recognise the moth larvae as your usual caterpillar, and they are either grey or brown in colour, and some have stripes.
These grubs feed more on top of the grass and on the stems, and McFarlane says if you go out into your yard at night with a torch you will often spot them.
There are different types of these moth caterpillars - armyworms, cutworms and sod webworms. There are a lot of species of moth larvae within the three groups. The difficulty in controlling these lawn grubs, McFarlane says, is that some products will control one type but not another.
For lawn lovers, grubs can be a serious problem.
"When the lawn is young or ... the more you feed your lawn up and the more you water it, often the more grubs you get because they come to eat the nice succulent nitrogen-rich lawn," says McFarlane.
"Caterpillars are much more likely ... to feed on really soft lawns but the beetles will feed on lawns even that aren't watered."
If the population of grubs in your grass gets large enough they can decimate your lawn. That said, it will usually ultimately recover.
The beetles are more destructive because they target the roots and are more difficult to control because any products applied to the soil need to get into the root system.
There are ways to prevent the number of lawn grubs you get in your patch. Some people leave an insect night light on overnight to reduce the population, while people with chickens can let them free-range so they can eat the grubs.
McFarlane also suggests putting lawn clippings back into the grass after you mow so it builds up the level of beneficial fungi and bacteria.
She says a lot of organic material in the soil will increase biological activity and the bacteria, fungi and nematodes (worms) will attack grubs.
Some people also use soapy water to bring the grubs to the surface so local birds can eat them.
Once your lawn is infected, there are a range of products that can be used, some of which are based on tea-tree oil, such as EcoGrub.
You can also use spinosad-based products such as Yates Success. Spinosad (an insecticide) is an organic product and is particularly effective on the moth larvae. The EcoGrub has to soak into the soil to control the beetle larvae but is also said to work well. Both are liquid products to be sprayed onto the lawn but you can also use products in the form of granules.
The grubs are present in soil all year round but their population increases dramatically during the warmer months of the year across Australia.
A common mistake gardeners make, McFarlane says, is waiting until the lawn shows obvious signs of a large infestation.
She says as soon as you discover you have lawn grubs you need to act quickly because it's much easier to control them in the early stages than when your grass has been heavily attacked.
By Jennifer Ennion
