These things???

{{gwi:92693}}

Where do you live?

If it were me I'd skip the chemicals and put in a bird bath, bird feeder, and bird house.

Yup, those things!! I've been dealing with them for the past couple of years following a full yard renovation. My lawn usually looks great up until mid July when I start seeing the dead grass around the edges. Each year it gets worse and worse so I'm trying to be preemptive in dealing with them.

I live in Utah.

Utah. Thanks. I am sometimes mistaken for a tree hugger because I like organic lawn care. My first inclination to fight insects is natural predators. Birds, toads, and lizards are the more prevalent natural predators against beetles. When you spray herbicides, insecticides, and even some chemical fertilizers, you are chasing the predators away. By setting up a bird habitat, you are inviting them back despite any unforseen applications of chemicals.

Have you looked at the life cycle of these critters? Is it the adult that does the feeding and not the larvae?

It's the larvae that do the most damage but from what I've read the best defense is killing the adults before they lay their eggs in late spring...given the warm weather we've been having my guess is it's too late to kill the adults. I've nuked the lawn with Grubex which should kill most of the larvae but finding the adults in my lawn worries me.

Even after spraying some insecticide on the lawn I'm finding live ones still in the lawn...which further supports your advice about not using pesticides...because they apparently don't work.

Hey, did you ever find a solution to this? Treating them sometime in late April to early May, right before the eggs hatch, is the most effective. In summer if you treat your yard, it can help your grass bounce back. http://www.domyownpestcontrol.com/how-to-get-rid-of-billbugs-a-628.html