The chinch bug calling card is here.

Birds Foot Trefoil has been noticeable for the past few weeks. It hangs off curbs and invades boulevards. It is also the business card for the emergence of the Chinch Bug from your garden areas and on to your lawn.

This destructive insect can quickly destroy your grass with its voracious appetite, so be aware.

Most of the damage in the early days of July is done by the nymphs (these happy little fellows) and can be found around gardens, sunny areas and sources of greater heat (on edges near pavement etc.)

 This grass mosquito will suck the life out of a blade of grass. leaving it with a dry, unhealthy appearance. If you get them in the thousands...well, you can imagine the devastation to your curb appeal.

Now, since the good people of  the Federal Government took away all means to kill the little bastards, we have to resort to other methods of control.

First determine if Chinch Bugs are the cause  by checking around damaged areas. Agitate the grass vigorously with your fingers, peel back the blades. You should be able to see them scurrying for cover into the thatch layer of your lawn.

Another method is to insert an hollow coffee can into the ground, fill it with water, and wait for them to float to the surface.

What can be done?

Hopefully, you have been keeping your grass at 3 inches and above (or ankle high). This will slow the feeding. Think of it as an all you can eat buffet with too much food.

Also, this insect loves over-fertilized lawns, so we caution people  to keep the nitrogen enriched products to a minimum.

Chinch Bugs hate water. A deeply watered lawn is no friend to them. Soapy water is kryptonite as it dehydrates them. A daily dose of soapy water (dish soap works best) to the affected area and perimeter will help your cause greatly.

I have seen some who try to Shop-Vac them out of a lawn, but a better method is to wet the affected area in the evening, then lay a plastic tarp down. In the morning they should be clinging to the tarp, and you can simply remove them from the grass.

Even if you let nature run its course and do nothing, there is still hope. Chinch Bugs are top feeders. Your root system is still intact and will recover in the fall with some TLC...unless you are also blessed with a grub infestation.

Either way, Chinch Bugs are here, right on schedule, and it would be wise to schedule a plan of attack for them.

The leopard lawns are back

 

It's a common sight as spring melts into summer---the leopard lawns are here and there. Some of the damage caused by Round-up and unsuspecting homeowners, who never took the time to read the label, wanting to kill weeds at any cost, and others, for a different reason.

More often and than not, I now see lawns like this caused by another culprit---Scott's Turf Builder. 

It's not the fault of the Turf Builder or the good people at Scott's. Again the blame falls squarely on the shoulders of the homeowners who don't realize the consequences of applying seed, soil, or other products enriched with nitrogen to an already fertilized lawn. 

Overloading grass with nitrogen, especially at this time of the year, will lead to the lawn burning at the point of application. In most cases, straw-like markings throughout the lawn, or worse, EVERYWHERE, if enough was applied. Who wants that?

 

It is this mindset which caused the banning of products like Killex and Par III long ago.

Using more doesn't solve problems. It creates them. And please read the bag's instructions prior to applying the product.

Remember that the next time you want to put more on....hmm....moron?

Part time partners need not apply.

 Last week I pulled up to a longtime customer's property to do her first weed control of the season. The lawn looked terrible. It was covered in weeds, top-dressed and seeded, and was cut to 1 inch in height.

The customer was not happy and came out to tell me so.

"Look at all the weeds," she said.

"The lawn is cut too low," I told her. "And we have had this conversation before, 'when you cut that low, you will have more issues with weeds and insects'. You need to raise the mower."

"I didn't cut it, my neighbour did," she informed me.

"You are paying for a service. You need to tell your neighbour not to cut your grass or you will continue to have the same results, and there is nothing we can do."

"What about the weeds today?" she asked.

"I'll do my best," I said. "But I can only spot spray ones that are not surrounded by seed, otherwise the grass won't germinate." 

We sent her, as we did everyone of our customers, a spring newsletter in April advising 'waiting to the fall for seeding because spring seeding interferes with proper weed control,' but I guess she didn't read it. 

I can understand her disappointment. I would be angry if my lawn looked like hers. I would also follow the advice of the company I paid to do my lawn. I would water it deeply once a week at least. I would raise my mower to the highest setting. I would do my seeding in the fall as recommended, and if it still looked bad, I would question why I had a lawn service in the first place.

BTW. The picture above is not of the customer's lawn in question. But it is on the same route, and like many others, was done on the same day, with the same products.

Look, I don't want to put our sign on a lawn that looks awful. It doesn't do my company any favours.  So, we do our best to make sure the lawn responds to our treatment, like the one pictured above. It's just that, some people are better partners in their lawn care than others unfortunately.