Lawncare Info

Take the information for what it is worth and don't worry that a company sent it out.

  1. If you want to prevent grubs, now is the time to appy the products to do so. It helps with the environment because treating now with the specific product for grubs is a lot less toxic than treating after they are already doing damage to the turf and the lawn company has to use a general pest control that kills a lot more insects including the beneficial ones.

  1. Webworms are all over the south. Rather than let them do any further damage to very expensive trees in your landscape, get them sprayed. There are a lot of very environmentally responsible ways to treat the infestations. Just treat them so you don't lose your investments.

  2. Fall is fast approaching. The best time to seed a good local blend of fescue varieties. If you have shady, thin, bare, or existing fescue areas then it will be time to seed in September. It's not cheap or easy work so you should start to prepare the soil for better germination rates. Yes I should use spellcheck more.

  1. A soil test from a local reputable lawn company or extension office will check for your pH. If the soil pH is too hi or low then the plant investments in your landscape including your turfgrass will not be able to absorb the correct nutrients it needs to remain healthy. If you have had a pH test with bad results then late summer heat will be that much worse on your plants. Amendments to the soil the correct pH or soil structure will go a long way from now through winter to prevent more damage.

We care about everyones environment and want to be a reliable resource for anyone anywhere. We are a locally owned company and only treat lawns in the Greater Oklahoma City Metro area but are happy to answer questions from anywhere. We have been to a lot of conferences around the country and have made friends with many reputable companies. Maybe we can help you find what you are looking for. We don't want to spam. We just want to help make our environment look good with professionals doing the work correctly.

Reply to
travelinmatt
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I have to completly disagree with this statement. You CAN NOT prevent grubs but only kill the ones that may already be there. Laying down a "Preventive Chemical" is completly irrisponsable to the enviroment and the insect community at large. This application will harm all of the beetles that reside in your lawn. Many (more likely most) of the insects on your property are beneficial and the application will reduce all populations of beetles good and bad. This inturn will leave a vacuum in the enviroment and other insect populations will become overbalanced, thus casuing other issues in the landscape that you may feel inclined to treat.

I am by no means advocating for a strict organic standard but a moderate IPM approach. A healthy, well established lawn can handle 10 or so grubs per square foot. That's 10,000 grubs per 1000 square feet! These grubs will be hunted by many different insects like parasitic wasps or even other beetles. If the damage becomes too much for you, then you should consider treatment. Treatment options should be explored and the selection be made on your personal circumstances. Don't feel comfortable with the use of posion..? BT (Bacillus thuringiensis), nematodes or even pyrethrum maybe an option depending on the time of the year for the application. Not so worried about the chemicals, then start with the weaker pesticides like synthetic pyrethroids.

All in all it might be your lawn, but it's our community, country, world and it would be nice to ensure that there is something to hand to our grandchilderen.

Again this is all about tollerance. Most trees that are healthy and well maintained should be able to withstand a moderate to heavy defoliation for a few seasons or more. Least we forget that trees have been dealing with damaging insects for millions of years and they have figured out a few strategies for survival.

Many creatures feed upon webworms. Birds,parasitic wasps and even mice. If the damage becomes too much for the homeowner, than an application of BT (Bacillus thuringiensis) is in order.

Good call on this one.

Generaly the lawn company will send the samples to the extention office anyway and the extention office will charge you less for the test. The test returns should contain the big 3 (N-P-K) levels and the micronutrient levels and the extention office will generaly give you a recommendation sheet on what to supplement.

Reply to
Timothy

Actually Merit or Mach II only work as a preventitive, not a curative.

Reply to
Steveo

Correction noted. Thank you for exposing my error, I was un-aware of Merit as a product but I'm familiar with imidacloprid which turns out to be Merit's main active chemical. While it's true that imidacloprid is a systemic pesticide and will kill feeding adult beetles, it will kill ALL sucking/chewing insects. While many folks would see nothing wrong with knocking down whole populations of chewing/sucking insects, this is not a responsible management tactic in my personal opinion. My personal opinion be as it may, I must warn you and others about the use of imidacloprid. I sat in on a conversation a little while ago on imidacloprid and it's possible effects on the enviroment and people. All I can say is ..."Whoa"!

I strongly suggest that you and others read up on imidacloprid. Here's a few sites worth looking at:

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at the end of the day, I would only suggest that the use of this chemical if there was a serious infestation that was un-affected by other treatment options. Of course I'm only speaking to the infestation of turf areas and not commercial crop areas. Btw, it seems that there is valid evidence that imidacloprid will transmogrify readily in soil, has a long half life (six months or more) and it seems that it's has mutagenic effects on DNA. There is also very strong evidence of resistance build-up developing in many insects to imidacloprid.

Reply to
Timothy

-snip-

Yea, if it only worked that way. Once again, it only works on very small grubs so it is -not- a curative. If you wait until you find grub damage, you CAN NOT use Merit or Mach II for a control product, since the grubs will have too much body weight for these preventatives to be effective.

I'm not trying to argue with you, Tim, I'm just explaining the control window for these products.

Reply to
Steveo

No worries here Steve, no arguements noted. We're on the same page for the most part. One assumes that the homeowner is applying imidacloprid in early / mid summer before damage is noticed. At this time the beetles are making their first emergence and are laying the eggs that will become grubs. The point earlier is that the mature beetles are also be affected by the imidacloprid while they feed and lay eggs. I know, I know, big deal we want them dead also right..? It's the other beetles that worry me. The ones that are hunting your grubs/bad beetles and are otherwise doing good work for your lawn area. While the affected beetles may live on for a time (while the imidacloprid builds up in high enough concentrations to kil) other creatures are feeding on the affected beetles/insects. There is evidence that imidacloprid is making it's way into ground feeding birds, but the death rates ( if any ) is unknown.

Imidacloprid is just synthetic nicotine for the most part and is consumed while feeding on turf. The issue I have is that yes it will kill your grubs, but it will also kill any sucking/chewing insect feeding on your turf for up to 6 months. While many will see this as a bonus, I see this doing greater damage to benificial populations than other control options.

Reply to
Timothy

Gotcha, Tim. The big consideration to not using a very high LD50 # (less toxic) product like Merit or Mach II is you -will- be restricted to using a very low LD50 # (mucho toxic) product like Dylox to control grub infestations. That stuff kills -everything- in the soil.

Looks like a judgment call from here, so I suggest the products that have no effect on earthworms and such. (merit or mach2)

YMMV

Reply to
Steveo

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