Curtis Pest Control, Inc.

This month we will continue spraying your turf with a custom blended, slow-release, fertilizer and an insecticide. We will also be checking your properties for any issues.

As we have a lot of new clients new to the south and unfamiliar with St. Augustine grass and its care, I want to take this opportunity to discuss a couple of our most common lawn destroying insects and how to identify them in your lawn.

Chinch bugs damage the turf by sucking the grass plant juices. The damage appears as gradually yellowing and/or dead grass, especially where heat is radiated into the grass from sidewalks or roadways—known as the ”hot spots” of your lawn. What’s important to remember is that the damage they cause closely resembles the damage of improper/inadequate irrigation, which is why we always ask that you check your irrigation before contacting us. 9 times out of 10, our service calls for suspected chinch bug activity turns out to be an irrigation issue. PLEASE REMEMBER it is impossible to verify by sight alone that the water from each head is providing the correct amount to each zone in its entirety so the first thing you want to do is check your irrigation by performing the “tuna can test”.  It’s very easy! Place several straight-sided cans (e.g., tuna fish, cat food or any like sized container) throughout your lawn, paying particular attention to the area with issues. Run your system as you normally would—once finished each container should have ¾-1 inch of water inside. If not, make note of what zones you need to adjust. To make adjustments to the areas that are not receiving the correct amount of water, place the empty containers in those areas again, run the irrigation for that zone again until the cans have ¾-1 inch of water inside, then record the time. Take your recorded run times for the zones and program them into your automated system. You may find that some zones require different amounts of time to provide the same quantity of water as the rest. If the difference in the amount of water in each container is significant, a more thorough audit of the irrigation system is most likely needed.

If the tuna can test shows your issue is not water related, the next step is how to reveal a chinch bug infestation. Find a suspected yellowing patch of grass, part the blades and check the stems and soil surface for them. Young chinch bugs are a reddish-orange color with a white band, no wings, and are very small in size. They grow white-colored wings as they mature, which can be either short or long, and their capsule shaped bodies turn black. If you are unable to spot them with the naked eye, another method we recommend is the “flotation technique”. Take a metal coffee can with the top and bottom cut-off, push it 2 –3 inches into the soil of the suspected area and fill with water.  Keep the can filled for 5 minutes and any chinch bugs should float to the surface. Repeat these steps over several areas.  If you suspect an infestation in your lawn, contact our office. Until we are able to treat your lawn, keep your lawn well watered to help curtail  damage.            

Another common St. Augustine grass pest is the sod webworm. It is important to note that the moths do NOT damage your lawn and there is no treatment for them. The moths can be seen at dusk flying over your lawn in a zig zag pattern. They’re a dingy brown color with a 3/4” wing spread. In the evening females deposit their eggs onto the grass blades which then take 10-14 days to hatch. Once hatched there are 5-6 larval stages and it is not until the 5th stage when damage becomes apparent as they begin feeding superficially on the upper leaf of the grass blades. The damage appears as scalped areas in your turf.  

 To reiterate, we cannot control the moths. For the application to be effective the insecticide must be made to the larvae, therefore, treatment needs to be made once you notice the damage. If you suspect sod webworms are in your lawn call our office so that we can make the appropriate application. Once treatment is made, the damage caused by them will disappear as quickly as your lawn grows.

Finally, what’s important to note about chinch bugs and sod webworms is that a correctly, a well maintained lawn (when you adhere to the proper cultural practices of correct mowing  height, frequency and irrigation— combined with the appropriate applications of fertilizer, insecticide and weed control) makes your lawn much less susceptible to insect issues. It may seem like a daunting task for those not familiar with the proper care of St. Augustine grass, but it truly isn’t. Your lawn should NOT be mowed lower than 3 1/2” per mowing which should be once a week during our growing season. If you want to mow higher, that’s even better! It is NEVER good to mow more than 1/3 of the grass blade during each mowing, therefore, letting it grow high, then mowing every 2 weeks and then cutting it too short is a big no-no. And lastly, your lawn needs 3/4”-1” water applied per zone on your allotted on your twice weekly watering days and any trouble areas and/or hot spots that seem to dry out quicker than others may require hand watering which is allowed any day of the week with a hand held device, such as a spray wand or nozzle, attached to a hose.

This month most children in our area return to school.

Please be mindful of this while traveling our roadways and

ALWAYS observe the posted school zone speed limits!