Springtime Lawn Duties and Pests

As temperatures are warming, your lawn responds to spring’s wake-up call, and preparing it for a year of healthy growth revolves not only around grass care. For duly effective lawn care, it’s important to identify common lawn pests or invasive pests and how to prevent and get rid of them before they cost you a considerable amount of money, and this article will show you how.

Being able to identify common pests is quintessential in keeping a manicured lawn. Not many may realize it, and that’s how some end up with unsightly brown patches and plants that wilt throughout the season.

Mole Crickets

Mole crickets harm grass, pastures, crops, and gardens by tunneling under the surface of the soil in search of food, disturbing the fragile root systems of your lawn. These bizarre, alien-like creatures usually live in the thatch layer of your grass, and therefore aeration can break up the nesting grounds of these pests and prevent them from moving into your yard.

Japanese Beetles/Grubs

The notorious Japanese beetle can cause extensive damage to the foliage of your trees and shrubs as they feed at night, and adult grubs feed on the roots of your grass in the spring and fall, leaving you with a decimated lawn in a few seasons. To check for grubs in your yard, pull up the sod in affected areas, and check if there are several grubs in a square foot of dirt.

Chinch Bugs

If you notice small circular patches of grass turning yellow and brown, this could be a sign of chinch bug infestation. As these pests feed, they inject a toxin into the blades of grass that block the transport of water and nutrients up the stems, making it worse during drought conditions. You can reduce chinch bug damage with  proper irrigation techniques.

Sod Webworms

These moths aren’t a problem themselves, seeing that they just flutter about your grass. But their offspring can pose a threat as the sod webworm can skeletonize grass blades and even cut them down. As they mature into adults, they pull the blades into their burrows to feed on. The damage they inflict on your grass can result in brown patches and bare spots.

Maintain your lawn

Proper lawn care during the spring season can prevent lawn pests from cultivating in your yard, and here are a few tips that can help you achieve that healthy, manicured lawn:

  1. Rake and dethatch
  2. Overseed
  3. Aerate (if necessary)
  4. Weed
  5. Fertilize
  6. Mow

Get rid of the pests in your lawn!

Now we know the common culprit critters that could inflict damage on your lawn, and at this point it’s important that ant control or any type of residential pest control system is in place. Lawn pests are easily drawn to a dormant or struggling lawn, and although a light infestation of bugs will correct itself, be prepared to treat severe problems promptly. Proper irrigation can go a long way to preventing fungal diseases in the first place. However, if you do need to treat, be sure to use an organic lawn fungicide for the best results or contact pest control professionals to effectively remove infestation. To put it simply, pest control and lawn care go together for a well-manicured and infestation-free lawn. You have invested time and money into your lawn, and it’s only fitting that it’s looked after and protected. 

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