Natural Green Lawn

Ok guys, listen and read carefully – grub worms are a real threat to lawns across the United States and if you have an infestation, you are going to lose big areas of your lawn or even the whole thing. I am a HUGE proponent of natural lawn care, but there are times when you gotta break out some pesticides to ensure your lawn stays safe. But the WAY YOU DO IT can still be minimal impact and get maximum results. We call this “Integrated Pest Management.”

Brown Spots – Is It Grub Worms?

Towards the latter part of the summer, I get dozens of emails from people wondering why and what those brown areas are in their lawns. Now, there are any number of reasons your lawn turns brown in the summer. It could be from poor irrigation, heat stress, sod web worm insects, dollar spot fungus or maybe, just maybe — GRUB WORMS!

what caused these brown areas?

What you need to do is get down on your knees and start digging in that lawn! try to pull up the brown grass and see what you find. The tell-tail sign that you have grub worms is your lawn will pull right up and roll back like you are rolling back a carpet.

Does the lawn peel back?

Once you peel back the  lawn, start looking for little shrimp underneath – if you find them, then you have grub worm issues. I also recommend you look in several places. Look around the edges, in the middle of the brown spots, everywhere. If you find them, this is what they look like.

lawn grubs

How To Kill Grubs

Now you are going to need a pesticide to kill these guys. I know you want your lawn to be natural, but would you have it become naturally DEAD? No, so we need to treat it, but do it responsibly! Use the product below, use a hand spreader and only apply the product to the brown areas and 24″ outside of the brown areas. Don’t blanket treat the lawn. This is what we call Integrated Pest Management – just using enough pesticide to cure the problem but not going overboard. Be sure to water in the treatment immediately and then go ahead and re-seed in 3 weeks. Remember, the idea is to only put the pesticides in and around the affected areas and no where else. Of course, you need to monitor the situation to see if damage shows up in other areas of the lawn. The idea is to be conscious of what you are doing!

I tell you what guys, this year has been one of the worst ever for the very common lawn disease called “Dollar Spot.” In most years, in fact, dollar spot isn’t some thing I am very concerned with. But this year is very different.

Dollar spot appears mostly in lawns that are “sod on clay” which means areas of the country where sod was laid directly on top of clay soil. That pretty much covers a good portion of the midwest and south. It’s a fungus that resides in the soil and attacks weakened root structures in turf causing small brown spots that start out the size of silver dollars. In the picture below, you can see the start of dollar spot in a very healthy lawn.

I have seen it in all kinds of grass from kentucky blue, perennial rye and st augustine. Like I said, in most years, I don’t see it as that big of a deal. But this year we have had sustained dumping rains pretty much all summer with intermittent super high temps and humidity. Now, I know we get these kind of conditions every year, but this season they have been long sustained over and over and over. This has made the disease spread faster and further in lawns where permanent damage may be seen.

In the second picture below, you can see a severe case of dollar spot. This is in a “heat zone” between the street and the sidewalk and the added heat allowed the fungus to spread very fast.

So How Can We Stop Dollar Spot Fungus?
The best way to cure dollar spot disease in your lawn is to prevent it using a natural fungicide called Serenade Disease Control. This product works very well on many lawn fungus problems, including dollar spot.

But you are here because you already have brown spots in your lawn! And the good news is that Serenade Disease Cont32 Oz Con is still the product of choice because using it will STOP the spread of the fungus any further. You will need to apply it a few times following the label instructions.

In addition, I would suggest cutting your watering and irrigation habits down to about once per week. When you do water, water for a solid hour in each spot. We want to go with infrequent yet deep waterings when dollar spot is evident.

I also want you to mow very tall and catch your clippings. Dollar spot can be spread through contaminated clippings so catching them and disposing of them is best when the disease is raging in your lawn.

Finally, I want you to fertilize normally using one of my recommended organic natural fertilizers. This will give you slow release nitrogen that will keep the lawn growing throughout the course of the problem.