Choose the Best Solution

Fortunately, we have three effective methods to protect your lawn, each with its own advantages. Choosing the best solution comes down to the size of your lawn, which pest is causing the problem and the application method you find the easiest.

1. Yates Lawn Grub & Porina Kill + Protect Hose-On

For gardeners who want maximum convenience, our new hose-on format is hard to beat. It combines powerful Acelepryn^® technology with an easy hose-end applicator, making it ideal for medium to large lawns. Simply connect the bottle to your garden hose and evenly spray the lawn, for a quick solution when lawn pest damage appears. That's all you need to do for porina; for grass grub, lightly water the lawn after application to help soak in the product. The 2L bottle treats up to 300m^² of lawn, providing excellent coverage with minimal effort.

Acelepryn^® effectively controls key NZ lawn pests, including NZ grass grub, porina caterpillars and black beetle larvae. When applied at the higher label rate, it can provide up to six months of protection. This allows you to plan ahead to interrupt the life cycle of these pests, to help prevent next season’s infestation. An application in late spring or summer stops newly hatched grass grub larvae from maturing, so it heads off the damage that usually occurs over autumn and winter when the grubs get bigger (and hungrier). Likewise, a summer or autumn treatment helps prevent porina caterpillar damage for the following season.

2. Yates Lawn Grub & Porina Kill + Protect Granules

For precise application and targeted control, the granular formulation is an excellent choice. This version uses the same trusted Acelepryn^® technology as the hose-on version but delivers it in a ready-to-use granular form. The granules are simply spread across the lawn by hand, from a shaker pack or with a lawn spreader. For porina, hold off watering for 24 hours; for grass grub, lightly water the lawn immediately after application.

The key advantage of granules is accuracy. You can tailor the application rate to suit the pest pressure, which makes the granular product very useful wherever pest activity is highly concentrated. If you have a particular spot that gets hammered by grubs year after year, this is the version to go for. Multiple pack sizes also make this granular product suitable for all lawns, from small urban lawns to larger lifestyle blocks. Granular products are often favoured by lawnies who already own a lawn spreader.

Like the hose-on formulation, the granules control both grass grub and porina caterpillars, along with a range of other common lawn pests. The granular version also provides up to six months of valuable protection, delivering the long residual performance needed to safeguard lawns for next season.

3. Yates Insect Killer for Lawns

When fast knockdown of active surface pests is the priority, Yates Insect Killer for Lawns is a valuable tool. Unlike the Acelepryn^® based products, which are designed to provide extended protection and target underground larvae, this product is a fast-acting insecticide that kills surface-feeding lawn pests on contact. While it isn’t a long-term preventative treatment for grass grub larvae or porina larvae, it’s very effective for fast control of insect pests like armyworm, sod webworm, African black beetle adults or billbug adults. When lawn damage becomes visible, quick treatment can help prevent your lawn from deteriorating further.

The ready-to-use shaker pack makes application simple and convenient; the granules can be spread directly over affected areas and watered in after application.

Which Product Should I Choose?

For most New Zealand lawns threatened by grass grub, porina, or other sub-surface pests, the Acelepryn^® powered products provide the best combination of control with extended protection.

Tackle these lawn pests as soon as you see symptoms, like birds making a mess by digging into your lawn, or dead patches of grass appearing. Even better, proactively treat once or twice a year, to prevent the damage from happening at all!

To protect your lawn from unsightly harm caused by NZ grass grub and porina, select the Yates product that best matches your lawn and gardening style…and enjoy a greener, healthier and more resilient lawn, throughout the year.