Grubs in garden soil (and sometimes in lawn soil as well) usually aren't numerous enough to cause enough plant damage to warrant the use of insecticide. If you're not finding noticeable root damage on any plants growing in the bed, no intervention is needed.

The active ingredient listed online for Grub Beater is imidacloprid, and unless the manufacturer has reformulated the product with another ingredient, that class of ingredient is prohibited in Maryland except for licensed individuals: only certified pesticide applicators are allowed to buy and apply imidacloprid and related chemicals. You can learn more on our Pollinators and Pesticides web page. Aside from cost concerns (as the association would need to hire a pesticide applicator to use such products legally), neonicotinoid pesticides pose a risk to pollinators visiting the flowers of plants which have absorbed the chemical (the roots of nearby plants might pick it up, even if you didn't deliberately treat them), as well as a risk of harm to any other non-pest insect eating the foliage of a treated plant -- they can kill much more than just grubs, and their ingredients may persist in plants for a long time (months, or for some trees/shrubs, potentially a few years).

Our White Grubs in Lawn and Garden Soil page does include one neonicotinoid-class pesticide (imidacloprid) as a last-resort option for controlling grubs, but there are several other lower-risk alternatives that should be tried first if killing the grubs is warranted, such as beneficial nematodes.

Grub "outbreaks" can be localized (such as occurring in one portion of a lawn rather than evenly across an entire lawn), so just because neighbors may or may not be treating their soil for grubs won't necessarily determine whether soil in your yard winds-up with a grub population. Different beetle species have different preferred host plants, both as juveniles (the grubs) and as adults. Trapping adult Japanese Beetles in one yard and not across a stretch of several yards can be less effective, yes, but that doesn't necessarily apply to other scarab beetle species whose grubs look nearly identical to each other.

Spotted Lanternfly is present across Maryland as well as in many states around the eastern U.S. They might diminish in number in a few years after the initial population boom subsides due to more wildlife predation. Birds, for example, are learning to eat them. We saw this happen with areas first inundated with lanternflies several years ago, where their numbers have reduced but not disappeared. The insect will likely remain in our ecosystem in perpetuity at this point, but in lower numbers, as has happened with other invasive insects that were introduced to our area (Brown Marmorated Stink Bug as one example). There is no lanternfly-specific pesticide or control method, and while more options among organic or lower-risk pesticides are being tested for efficacy, such treatments will still pose a risk to other insects since they are broad-spectrum in action.

Miri