How to get rid of chafer grubs?

Chafers and mole crickets lay their eggs in bare, sun-warmed, freshly dug soil: we make their nursery ourselves. Do the opposite: during their flight and egg-laying (late April to late June, later in the north) keep beds under a thick mulch of about 15 cm, cardboard or fleece: the soil beneath stays cool and closed, and the female flies next door. A chafer grub lives 3–5 years in the soil, so this takes a few seasons, but no poison. Mole crickets often come in with manure: use it well rotted and check fresh loads. Don't confuse them: the C-shaped long-legged chafer grub is a pest, but the fat grubs of rose chafers (they crawl on their backs) and rhinoceros beetles in the compost are helpers that break down organic matter.