What Your Lawn is Telling You

Beautiful green grass with home in the background. Grasshoppers serving Orlando FL talks about what your lawn is telling you.

Beautiful green grass with home in the background. Grasshoppers serving Orlando FL talks about what your lawn is telling you.Your soil serves as the foundation for a healthy lawn. Whether you have lush green grass or brown spots on your lawn, one thing is certain, your lawn growth (or lack of) reflects the quality of your soil. This is why we came up with this helpful guide to help you determine what is going on with your soil and how you can properly care for it.

Arc of Mushrooms

Has a mushroom-formed circle appeared on your lawn? This is called a fairy ring. No, it’s not a magical portal. Fairy rings are a fungus infestation. They start as dark green circles and develop into mushrooms that will break down organic matter in the soil, eventually killing the grass. If you have fungus on your lawn, you’ll want to avoid watering at night. A fungicide may also help treat the affected area.

Brown Spots

Brown patches in your lawn are a sign that your soil is too acidic. A soil test can help determine the pH of your lawn soil. These pH testing kits can be found in many hardware stores and garden centers. If the results show your soil is highly acidic, you may want to consider a lime treatment to help balance the pH.

Clumps of Grass

If your grass is coming up in clumps, you most likely have grubs. Grubs are the larvae of Japenese Beetles. They typically look like small white worms; the bigger they are, the more damage they cause. You can check for grubs by cutting out a small section of grass and lifting it up like a piece of carpet. They’ll be just under the surface. Most grub-control products sold in stores are preventive measures. If you have an existing grub infestation, you’ll want to hire a professional. They’ll be able to apply a fast-acting insecticide to eliminate these pests quickly and effectively.

Wilting Grass

Wilting can be a sign of a pest infestation, disease, a lack of soil moisture or heat stress.

  • You can get a better idea of the moisture in your soil by pushing a screwdriver into the soil in brown and green areas. If the blade easily slips into green areas but not through brown areas, the soil in those areas is dry.
  • If footprints remain on your lawn after a person has walked on it, in addition to wilting, heat stress may be the culprit.
  • Detecting lawn pests is a little more difficult. You could cut a section of grass and pull it back to located potential pests since most live just below the soil surface. For lawn pest care, you’ll want to contact your local landscaping company. Many landscaping companies offer lawn pest control services that provide safe treatment options for your family and pets.

If your lawn is showing any of these symptoms, we recommend you take action before your problems get worse.

Lawn-Damaging Insects in Florida

Patches of brown on lawn. Grasshoppers talks about common lawn-damaging insects in the Orlando, Fl area

Patches of brown on lawn. Grasshoppers talks about common lawn-damaging insects in the Orlando, Fl areaDoes your lawn have dead patches despite all the care you provide it? You may have insects calling your lawn, “home.” In this blog, we’ll talk about lawn-damaging insects and the signs you may have them.

Insects That Damage Your Lawn

Billbugs

Billbugs have become more of a problem in recent years for Floridians with the most damage occurring during the spring and fall seasons. Billbugs lay their eggs in lawns during spring. Then when their grubs hatch, they’ll feed on your grass, hollowing out the stems. They might also eat the grass roots. It is often difficult for a homeowner to determine whether or not they have a billbug problem. Grubs are extremely small and live deep in the thatch layer of your lawn.

Southern Chinch Bug

These tiny pests live in the thatch layer of your lawn. Chinch Bugs feed in groups and will suck fluids from your grass’ stolons, stems, and crowns creating widespread damage to your lawn. People in Florida often see damage from Chinch Bugs anywhere from March to November.

Fall Armyworms and Cutworms

These pests are big caterpillars that love to feed on blades of grass. They are not typically a big problem unless you have a high population of them. This is because they feed at the same location at the same time. These pests are most common during the spring, summer, and fall. You’ll be able to determine if you have these insects if you have dead, circular spots of grass or depressed spots on your lawn.

Tropical Sod Webworm

When larvae, these pests will come out at night and feed on your lawn. While these pests are highly destructive during the warm, summer months, their damage is often not noticed until winter, when the grass is dormant.

White Grubs

White Grubs are the larvae of scarab beetles. These pests lay their eggs in the spring and when they hatch, the larvae feed on grass roots through the rest of fall. Their feeding cuts off the ability for your grass to soak up water from the soil, so it eventually dies. You’ll be able to determine if you have these insects if your lawn has brown patches or pulls up easily like a rug.

Other common insects in Florida lawns include Fire Ants, Grasshoppers, Ground Pearls, Mole Crickets, and Spittlebugs.

Hire a Professional for Lawn Pests Control

You work hard to keep your lawn lush and green, don’t let a small insect ruin all that hard work. Your first instinct may be to apply a pesticide on your lawn, but that will just kill it. So if you have an insect infestation on your property, you may want to contact a professional landscaping company. They have contractors who are knowledgable about all things “lawn care.” They’ll be able to identify which type of insect problem you have and properly take care of it without ruining your grass.