Have you been working the soil in the flowerbeds or vegetable gardens and found small grubworms? I have seen lots of cases this past week from customers who are finding them in the beds and also in the lawn. If you are seeing dead areas in the lawn, dig down with a shovel width size sample 6 inches deep and count how many grubs you find in that one square foot area. If you find more than 4 in a square foot area, it is recommended to treat. To treat for grubs organically, now is the time to spray out Beneficial nematodes. The soil needs to be kept moist to keep them alive and multiplying. Bayer 24 hour or Triazicide are 2 granular chemical products that can be spread and watered in to kill them. If you find them in the vegetables garden we carry Hi Yield Vegetable and Ornamental Insect granules. Killing the ones you see now will lessen the population soon to emerge, turn into a June bug, mate , lay eggs and start the cycle all over again. Treat now to kill existing grubs, and remember the end of April to the first of May will be time to spread the Bayer Season–long Grub Killer to give you 3 month protection.
-DeAnna
3 Comments on “Dead Areas In Your Lawn?”
Live in Flour Bluff, sandy yard. Have a lot of sticker thorns, whats the best way to get rid of them?
Also Tomas, a thick Floratam yard watered every week is not as subject to invasion by weeds especially grassburs. If you have too much lawn area to water frequently, you might change your landscape to have a much smaller lawn area just around the back patio that you can water a lot, and do the rest in either gravel and xeriscape plants, or go totally native with the plants that will fill the space so grassburs won’t grow, such as bushy bluestem, turks cap, yaupon holly, sand bluestem, cowpen daisy, etc. It certainly won’t look like your neighbors, but this will be the landscape of the future.
Best way, move! Next best way, mow frequently so not as much chance to make seed, and consider dragging a board with carpet attached to collect mature seed, and kill individual grassbur plants with Image herbicide. You could also spread or spray a pre-emergent herbicide that will prevent grassburs from successfully germinating and establishing, such as Surflan.