Knowing the effects of pests and fungi on your lawn is vital.
Grubs munch on grassroots, weakening your lawn, while fungi like dollar spot create discolored patches.
To protect your lawn from damage, maintain proper mowing, aeration, and watering.
Applying integrated pest management (IPM) also keeps nasty bugs from destroying your lawn.
When it comes to fungi, most turfgrass will grow out of the disease if you provide the correct lawn maintenance to stop the fungi in its tracks.
Some areas of the U.S. have constant high humidity, where you may need fungicides to cure your turfgrass. Staying on top of lawn maintenance helps prevent many turfgrass diseases from destroying your yard.
Identifying Common Lawn Pests and Fungi
The severity or threat of lawn pests and fungi depends on the type of grass that’s growing in your yard, where you live, and how well you take care of your lawn.
If you ensure good lawn maintenance by fertilizing your turfgrass based on its nutritional needs, only taking off the top third of your grass when you mow and don’t over- or under-water your yard, you may not experience most pests and fungi that could destroy it.
Read more: Mowing Your Lawn: 6 Hacks for Keeping Your Yard Looking Tidy and Well-Maintained
Lawn diseases can erupt on properties where there are damp days and muggy nights for some time over the summer, such as
- Brown patch
Your lawn may have brown patch if there are tan or brown circles of dead turfgrass; after the grass dies, the ring turns a smokey gray.
Brown patch attacks lawns with perennial ryegrass, tall fescue, Bermudagrass, Kentucky bluegrass, fine fescue, and St. Augustine grasses. Warm or hot days in spring and fall with high humidity promotes the right atmosphere for brown patch.
Allowing wet leaves, overfertilizing, and overwatering your turfgrass also contribute to brown patch.
- Dollar spot
Your turfgrass has dollar spot when you see circles the size of silver dollars on your lawn. These spots join together into larger patches.
Turfgrass with dollar spot will cause it to have straw-like areas that look soaked with water. You also see cobweb growth (mycelium) in the mornings.
Dollar spot attacks Bermudagrass, bentgrass, centipede, fine fescue, Kentucky bluegrass, perennial ryegrass, and tall fescue in late spring through fall, where there are mild to warm temperatures.
Cultural factors include under-fertilizing, too much moisture, drought stress, and too much thatch also play into grass getting dollar spot.
- Gray leaf spot
Your turfgrass has gray leaf spot when darker circles on grass blades encase tiny bleached circles. These spots grow and merge, creating large patches of dried-up turf.
Gray leaf spot targets perennial ryegrass, tall fescue, and St. Augustine grasses. High daily temperatures with substantial rain from spring through fall encourage gray leaf spot.
Lawn maintenance practices that lead to gray leaf spots include poor air circulation, overfertilizing and overwatering. Turfgrasses in constant shade are more at risk for gray leaf spot.
- Leaf spot
Instead of bleached spots, grasses with leaf spot have dark brown circles encased with purple-brown margins. Also, leaf spot attacks the grasses’ crowns and roots where they thin out and die.
Ironically, warmer than normal temperatures cause leaf spot in cool season grasses, while unusually cool temperatures encourage leaf spot in warm season grasses with heavy soil compaction. High humidity plays a part in leaf spot as well.
You’re putting your turfgrass at risk for leaf spot when you mow your lawn too short and use too much high-nitrogen fertilizer. Before applying fertilizer, always test your soil to see what nutrients the ground needs.
- Pythium
Turfgrass leaves have the greasy, black look of dead grass that expands outward and follows the water flow through the lawn. You’ll notice that turfgrass roots rot and the grass dies.
Pythium lawn disease affects bentgrass, bluegrass, fine fescue, and perennial ryegrass.
Wet, warm conditions with high humidity that start in the early summer and extend to the fall make the perfect recipe for pythium lawn disease. Cultural problems include compacted soil, too much fertilizer, and shady conditions.
- Red thread
Turfgrass tips start to wither, and red or bleached patches emerge on grass blades. You can spread the disease throughout your yard when you walk, mow, or use other lawn equipment on red-thread diseased turfgrass.
Red thread appears on bluegrass, bentgrass, fine fescue, and perennial ryegrass lawns. Cool, wet, mild early spring temperatures with high humidity set the stage for red thread disease.
Poor cultural management, such as under fertilizing, poor air circulation due to shade, excess thatch, wet leaves left on turfgrass, and soil compaction, encourage red thread growth.
- Rust
Turfgrass starts to weaken with yellow flecks that turn rusty. Like red thread disease, rust spores also get on shoes, mower blades, and anything else that moves across affected turfgrass.
Bentgrass, fine fescues, Kentucky bluegrass, perennial ryegrass, tall fescue, and zoysiagrass can contract rust disease.
Weather conditions like mild to warm early summer temperatures, drought, high humidity, too much shade, and constantly wet conditions are ripe for rust disease.
Watch more: FAQ: How to Get Maximum Depth from Your Brinly Aerator
If you neglect to fertilize your stressed lawn adequately, there’s a higher probability that your turfgrass will develop rust.
Common lawn pests that damage your turfgrass include
- Fall armyworms
These lawn pests work at night, eating your turfgrass and other plants. If you have circular spots on your lawn that aren’t a disease, you may have armyworms.
- Chinch bugs
Chinch bugs do their damage between June and September as they move through their life cycles. You’ll find irregular turfgrass patches with a purple tinge that later wilts.
Chinch bug damage looks like drought stress, but you’ll see chinch bug activity when you closely inspect your lawn.
- Cutworms
Another pest that does damage at night, cutworms can have up to three to six generations in a year, especially in areas with mild winters.
Cutworms live in burrows and come out at night to cut off the grass’s stems while eating the plant’s base. Avoid cutting your grass too short to avoid cutworm infestation.
- Grubs
You have a grub problem if you pull back your turfgrass like a carpet and count more than five grubs in 1 sq. in. Also, you’ll notice birds, skunks, and moles feeding at a particular spot which indicates a grub problem.
- Sod webworms
You know that you have sod webworms when you see pale moths starting to fly over your turf at dusk. These moths will lay their eggs while flying, and the eggs hatch within a week.
If your lawn has brown patches that look like turfgrass has been completely eaten, you may have a sod webworm problem. You’ll also find silk tunnels and holes from birds eating the webworms.
Read more: Using Native Plants for Local Ecosystem Support
Integrated Pest Management (IPM): A Holistic Approach to Pest and Fungi Control
Your first line of defense starts with IPM, which includes cultural methods to keep your lawn healthy and dense. IPM incorporates the following:
- Proper mowing techniques include having sharp blades and removing the top third each time you mow. You also want to cut your grass after the dew has dried. If you have cool season grasses, don’t mow your lawn while it’s dormant during the hottest part of summer.
- Prune your trees so that air circulates through shady areas. Since some lawn diseases come from a lack of air circulation and too much shade, you can eliminate this problem when you trim your trees in late winter and early spring.
- Regular aerating and dethatching where you aerate your lawn every two years and dethatch your yard on the opposite years if the turfgrass develops over a half inch of thatch. This helps turfgrass breathe, doesn’t trap pathogens or larvae in the thatch, and allows moisture to reach the soil line.
- Test your soil before adding any fertilizers or soil amendments. Your soil test results will show you what nutrients are missing and the soil’s pH. From there, you can put down the appropriate fertilizer and soil amendments.
- Allow natural predators to control your pest problem. For example, certain wasps, lady beetles, and spiders kill sod webworms, naturally protecting your turfgrass. Avoid using broad-spectrum pesticides that kill beneficial bugs.
- Use targeted, eco-friendly treatments. While you may want to grab the first pesticide off the shelf, opt for natural treatments that won’t kill off the natural predators. There are many organic solutions to pest problems.
- For lawn diseases, changing your lawn maintenance habits, and avoiding the spread of spores, your turfgrass will heal itself without the need for fungicides. As your grass grows, it’ll recover from the fungi affecting it.
Brinly Lawn Care Attachments Help You Keep Your Lawn Free from Pests and Fungi
We have many lawn and garden attachments to help you with lawn maintenance that prevents pests and fungi from invading your lawn:
- Garden sprayers
- Ground engaging
- Lawn rollers
- Lawn sweepers
- Push spreaders
- Spike and plug aerators
- Tow dethatchers
- Tow spreaders
- ZTR products.
You can buy your following Brinly lawn care equipment online. If you have questions about your Brinly lawn care product, contact our customer service today by dialing 877-728-8224 or filling out our contact form.
Sources:
GardenTech.com, How to Detect and Treat Common Lawn Pests.
Penningto
Knowing the effects of pests and fungi on your lawn is vital.
Grubs munch on grassroots, weakening your lawn, while fungi like dollar spot create discolored patches.
To protect your lawn from damage, maintain proper mowing, aeration, and watering.
Applying integrated pest management (IPM) also keeps nasty bugs from destroying your lawn.
When it comes to fungi, most turfgrass will grow out of the disease if you provide the correct lawn maintenance to stop the fungi in its tracks.
Some areas of the U.S. have constant high humidity, where you may need fungicides to cure your turfgrass. Staying on top of lawn maintenance helps prevent many turfgrass diseases from destroying your yard.
Identifying Common Lawn Pests and Fungi
The severity or threat of lawn pests and fungi depends on the type of grass that’s growing in your yard, where you live, and how well you take care of your lawn.
If you ensure good lawn maintenance by fertilizing your turfgrass based on its nutritional needs, only taking off the top third of your grass when you mow and don’t over- or under-water your yard, you may not experience most pests and fungi that could destroy it.
Read more: Mowing Your Lawn: 6 Hacks for Keeping Your Yard Looking Tidy and Well-Maintained
Lawn diseases can erupt on properties where there are damp days and muggy nights for some time over the summer, such as
- Brown patch
Your lawn may have brown patch if there are tan or brown circles of dead turfgrass; after the grass dies, the ring turns a smokey gray.
Brown patch attacks lawns with perennial ryegrass, tall fescue, Bermudagrass, Kentucky bluegrass, fine fescue, and St. Augustine grasses. Warm or hot days in spring and fall with high humidity promotes the right atmosphere for brown patch.
Allowing wet leaves, overfertilizing, and overwatering your turfgrass also contribute to brown patch.
- Dollar spot
Your turfgrass has dollar spot when you see circles the size of silver dollars on your lawn. These spots join together into larger patches.
Turfgrass with dollar spot will cause it to have straw-like areas that look soaked with water. You also see cobweb growth (mycelium) in the mornings.
Dollar spot attacks Bermudagrass, bentgrass, centipede, fine fescue, Kentucky bluegrass, perennial ryegrass, and tall fescue in late spring through fall, where there are mild to warm temperatures.
Cultural factors include under-fertilizing, too much moisture, drought stress, and too much thatch also play into grass getting dollar spot.
- Gray leaf spot
Your turfgrass has gray leaf spot when darker circles on grass blades encase tiny bleached circles. These spots grow and merge, creating large patches of dried-up turf.
Gray leaf spot targets perennial ryegrass, tall fescue, and St. Augustine grasses. High daily temperatures with substantial rain from spring through fall encourage gray leaf spot.
Lawn maintenance practices that lead to gray leaf spots include poor air circulation, overfertilizing and overwatering. Turfgrasses in constant shade are more at risk for gray leaf spot.
- Leaf spot
Instead of bleached spots, grasses with leaf spot have dark brown circles encased with purple-brown margins. Also, leaf spot attacks the grasses’ crowns and roots where they thin out and die.
Ironically, warmer than normal temperatures cause leaf spot in cool season grasses, while unusually cool temperatures encourage leaf spot in warm season grasses with heavy soil compaction. High humidity plays a part in leaf spot as well.
You’re putting your turfgrass at risk for leaf spot when you mow your lawn too short and use too much high-nitrogen fertilizer. Before applying fertilizer, always test your soil to see what nutrients the ground needs.
- Pythium
Turfgrass leaves have the greasy, black look of dead grass that expands outward and follows the water flow through the lawn. You’ll notice that turfgrass roots rot and the grass dies.
Pythium lawn disease affects bentgrass, bluegrass, fine fescue, and perennial ryegrass.
Wet, warm conditions with high humidity that start in the early summer and extend to the fall make the perfect recipe for pythium lawn disease. Cultural problems include compacted soil, too much fertilizer, and shady conditions.
- Red thread
Turfgrass tips start to wither, and red or bleached patches emerge on grass blades. You can spread the disease throughout your yard when you walk, mow, or use other lawn equipment on red-thread diseased turfgrass.
Red thread appears on bluegrass, bentgrass, fine fescue, and perennial ryegrass lawns. Cool, wet, mild early spring temperatures with high humidity set the stage for red thread disease.
Poor cultural management, such as under fertilizing, poor air circulation due to shade, excess thatch, wet leaves left on turfgrass, and soil compaction, encourage red thread growth.
- Rust
Turfgrass starts to weaken with yellow flecks that turn rusty. Like red thread disease, rust spores also get on shoes, mower blades, and anything else that moves across affected turfgrass.
Bentgrass, fine fescues, Kentucky bluegrass, perennial ryegrass, tall fescue, and zoysiagrass can contract rust disease.
Weather conditions like mild to warm early summer temperatures, drought, high humidity, too much shade, and constantly wet conditions are ripe for rust disease.
Watch more: FAQ: How to Get Maximum Depth from Your Brinly Aerator
If you neglect to fertilize your stressed lawn adequately, there’s a higher probability that your turfgrass will develop rust.
Common lawn pests that damage your turfgrass include
- Fall armyworms
These lawn pests work at night, eating your turfgrass and other plants. If you have circular spots on your lawn that aren’t a disease, you may have armyworms.
- Chinch bugs
Chinch bugs do their damage between June and September as they move through their life cycles. You’ll find irregular turfgrass patches with a purple tinge that later wilts.
Chinch bug damage looks like drought stress, but you’ll see chinch bug activity when you closely inspect your lawn.
- Cutworms
Another pest that does damage at night, cutworms can have up to three to six generations in a year, especially in areas with mild winters.
Cutworms live in burrows and come out at night to cut off the grass’s stems while eating the plant’s base. Avoid cutting your grass too short to avoid cutworm infestation.
- Grubs
You have a grub problem if you pull back your turfgrass like a carpet and count more than five grubs in 1 sq. in. Also, you’ll notice birds, skunks, and moles feeding at a particular spot which indicates a grub problem.
- Sod webworms
You know that you have sod webworms when you see pale moths starting to fly over your turf at dusk. These moths will lay their eggs while flying, and the eggs hatch within a week.
If your lawn has brown patches that look like turfgrass has been completely eaten, you may have a sod webworm problem. You’ll also find silk tunnels and holes from birds eating the webworms.
Read more: Using Native Plants for Local Ecosystem Support
Integrated Pest Management (IPM): A Holistic Approach to Pest and Fungi Control
Your first line of defense starts with IPM, which includes cultural methods to keep your lawn healthy and dense. IPM incorporates the following:
- Proper mowing techniques include having sharp blades and removing the top third each time you mow. You also want to cut your grass after the dew has dried. If you have cool season grasses, don’t mow your lawn while it’s dormant during the hottest part of summer.
- Prune your trees so that air circulates through shady areas. Since some lawn diseases come from a lack of air circulation and too much shade, you can eliminate this problem when you trim your trees in late winter and early spring.
- Regular aerating and dethatching where you aerate your lawn every two years and dethatch your yard on the opposite years if the turfgrass develops over a half inch of thatch. This helps turfgrass breathe, doesn’t trap pathogens or larvae in the thatch, and allows moisture to reach the soil line.
- Test your soil before adding any fertilizers or soil amendments. Your soil test results will show you what nutrients are missing and the soil’s pH. From there, you can put down the appropriate fertilizer and soil amendments.
- Allow natural predators to control your pest problem. For example, certain wasps, lady beetles, and spiders kill sod webworms, naturally protecting your turfgrass. Avoid using broad-spectrum pesticides that kill beneficial bugs.
- Use targeted, eco-friendly treatments. While you may want to grab the first pesticide off the shelf, opt for natural treatments that won’t kill off the natural predators. There are many organic solutions to pest problems.
- For lawn diseases, changing your lawn maintenance habits, and avoiding the spread of spores, your turfgrass will heal itself without the need for fungicides. As your grass grows, it’ll recover from the fungi affecting it.
Brinly Lawn Care Attachments Help You Keep Your Lawn Free from Pests and Fungi
We have many lawn and garden attachments to help you with lawn maintenance that prevents pests and fungi from invading your lawn:
- Garden sprayers
- Ground engaging
- Lawn rollers
- Lawn sweepers
- Push spreaders
- Spike and plug aerators
- Tow dethatchers
- Tow spreaders
- ZTR products.
You can buy your following Brinly lawn care equipment online. If you have questions about your Brinly lawn care product, contact our customer service today by dialing 877-728-8224 or filling out our contact form.
Sources:
GardenTech.com, How to Detect and Treat Common Lawn Pests.
Pennington.com, Identifying, Fighting, and Preventing Lawn Diseases.
n.com, Identifying, Fighting, and Preventing Lawn Diseases.
