Pest Control For Your Lawn: Grub & Chinch Bugs
In your journey of establishing a thick and green lawn, it is very likely that you will encounter lawn pests along the way. The most common lawn insects in Nova Scotia are grubs and chinch bugs. Both species can surely wreak havoc on your lawn and will cause serious damage if left untreated. To help you detect and manage such lawn pests, we’ve compiled an informative article on warning signs and maintenance tips to help you preserve your lawn. Enviro Masters’ team of expert lawn care technicians have the knowledge, training and experience necessary to help save your lawn from these harmful lawn pests.
Grub Bugs 101
White grubs are extremely destructive and will take no time to compromise your beautiful, healthy lawn once infested. The European Chafer, Japanese Beetle and June Beetle are to blame for such damage. White grubs are the larvae of these beetles and live in the soil. They are most commonly found feeding on the roots of turfgrass. As grubs continue to feed on grass roots, patches of grass begin to wilt and turn brown. Due to the similarities of grub infested grass and grass experiencing drought stress, these “dead” patches of grass often get mistaken and misdiagnosed. Damaged grass that has been fed on by grubs will easily lift from the soil as the grass roots have been eaten. This allows pesky critters such as birds, racoons, and skunks, to easily dig up and pull back the dead layers of grass in search of a meal of grubs. If animals are tearing up your lawn, this is another telling sign that your gross is infested with grubs.
Enviro Masters’ team of lawn care specialists are keen on diagnosing and treating dead grass caused by grubs. To ensure the best results with grub control, it’s important that measures taken are aligned with the grubs life cycle. Specifically, grub control should be implemented during the grub’s most vulnerable larvae life stage. Our synthetic grub control treatment is highly relied upon to eliminate grub infestation.
Reducing Your Lawns Susceptibility to Chinch Bugs
Chinch bugs are common lawn pests that cause serious damage to lawns in a short amount of time. Their destruction is a result of injecting toxic fluids into the grass while they feed. Similar to grub bugs, chinch bug infestation resembles drought conditions. Chinch bugs feed throughout the whole summer, however they can do the most damage in July and August when the weather is hot and dry. Chinch bug feeding will typically appear as scattered dead patches of grass throughout your lawn. If you begin to notice these suspicious discoloured areas on your lawn, this is a sign to call Enviro Masters immediately. It’s crucial to detect and treat chinch bugs early on, as their infestation can lead to permanent damage and will require extensive lawn repair to bring your lawn back to life. Additionally, chinch bugs can do more damage to grass when it is in rough shape from a lack of moisture or poor fertilization practices. The key to protecting your lawn from chinch bugs is keeping up with good cultural practices.
Here are a few lawn maintenance tips to help protect your lawn from chinch bugs:
A consistent watering schedule will promote healthy turfgrass that is viable to chinch bugs. Additionally, watering your lawn in the morning will help reduce the amount of hydration lost to evaporation.
Properly fertilizing your lawn will energize grass roots and promote healthy growth that can withstand chinch bugs. Fertilizer also helps grass recover during stressful periods of drought.
Keep the right amount of thatch on your lawn. Chinch bugs live in thatch, if your lawn has too much then it can increase further infestation.
Mixing more resistant grass varieties into your lawn by way of overseeding can help combat and mitigate damage from chinch bug infestation.
Following the proper detection and treatments of grubs and chinch bugs, your lawn should be able to fully recover from such harmful species. With help from Enviro Masters team of expert lawn care technicians, your lawn will be restored and revitalized. We want to help you achieve, protect, and maintain the beautiful lawn of your dreams.
Contact Enviro Masters today for assistance with lawn maintenance and pest control.