According to Cornell, now is the time to use beneficial nematodes against grubs in the northern climes. Beneficial nematodes are available here. They work by bringing a bacterial disease to the grub population. The disease is harmless to mammals, birds, reptiles, toads, and other higher forms of life but fatal to the grubs and many other insects (fleas and ticks for example). When you apply BN, the soil must be moist and you should water them in heavily. The nematodes move around on a film of water so once the soil dries out, they are stuck.

Beneficial nematodes will get rid of the grubs. Safe and organic.

Hi Linda I know this is a little late commenting on this post, but I just came across it. I have the same thing happen to me all the time. First off I'm saying skunks because this is always done overnight and squirrels aren't night critters I don't think. Plus we have skunks out here almost nightly. This year alone I've had many of my glads dug up and just pushed to the side,and two perennials I put in. I've just gotten used to going out first thing in the morning the first couple of days after I plant anything in the ground and see what's been dug up. I also end up putting large rocks around singular plants I plant and cover big area's of planting seeds or what not with a light leaf mulch..... My question is, could they be attacted to the fertilizer I'm putting down which is a mixture of 2 parts Pro Grow, 1 part green sand, and 1 part rock phosphate? Although just the other day we put in a shepard hook and dug up the area around the hook and the next a.m. there was 6 to 8 holes all over the area we had been digging. So maybe fresh dug up area's attact certain critters the skunks like to eat. The reason I ask about them eating the fertilizer is because I catch my cat and the neighbors cats eating the fertilizer I put down all the time. Doesn't seem like that would be good for them, but I can't be there to monitor what they do when I'm gone. Anyhow I guess the good thing is as long as they don't break the stems of the freshly put in plant it's not that bad. All I do is replant it. Now the woodchucks I have do much more damage, but that's another subject all it's own. Just wanted to let you know you aren't the only one dealing with this problem.

These traps especially the snap traps can kill unintended victims. I ignorantly killed a beautiful wren and crowned sparrow with traps intended for voles and ants. The sparrow got killed in the snap trap and the wren got stuck to a piece of sticky paper. I'm not really happy about all the voles I killed either. They are pests but also quite cute. Just sharing so nobody else makes the same mistake. It's better to find a solution that doesn't involve killing things, and how many animal lives are your precious bulbs really worth? These animals were here before us. We move into their territory and plant alien plants and then question when things don't go smoothly like we expect. We are eradicating and pushing out their native food sources.