Sunday, July 23, 2017

Late to the party

But here regardless. The chinch bugs and the crabgrass have arrived.

With all the cooler, wet weather we've experienced this year, I was beginning to wonder if either would make an appearance. Yet, here we are, the end of July and crabgrass has been with us now a few weeks while chinch nymphs are starting to show visible signs of damage as of last week.

So what to do about these two annoyances when your tool box is devoid of essential controls.

In the case of crabgrass, you can pull it out since the root system isn't very deep, although many of you are probably beyond that point with the ubiquitous spread of this weed. The other solution is to wait for this light-green grass to simply die when fall arrives and seed the affected area.

Chinch bug, on the other hand can be more invasive and their damage more evident. The brown areas can spread fast as the weather remains hot and your lawn begins to dry out.

Keeping the affected areas drenched can help limit the spread as this insect is not fond of water and even less if you add dish soap like Sunlight, or Palmolive to the mix. You can also rake the affected section of lawn and shop-vac them out, or place a plastic sheet over the area, irrigate it and remove them when they attach themselves to it.

Still the best way to attack both of these elements is simply create a healthier lawn by cutting (3 inches high), and watering properly, ( 1 inch weekly at least). Annual core aeration, not over-fertilizing and annual fall over-seeding are also essential.

At least in the future, if they do crash your party, the clean-up afterward will be minimal.