Help! We thought our lawn was just stressed from drought last summer but now a LOT is just dead. We have found a few grubs while pulling up weeds. We did the Milky Spore thing back in 2002. Unfortunately we haven’t done anything with lawn for the last two years because we had so much other things to do in yard—we inherited a jungle!
We are wanting to reseed on parts of the lawn today as it looks horrible. …and of course again in the fall.
Basically, what times of year should we start doing the Merit and Permethrin applications? We will do what we have to to get this under control!!
Thanks for your help.
First, I strongly recommend you get the PH measured as explained in our PH Adjustment article. Insect infestations seem to develop more in yards with PH issues so I say to check this first and make sure it’s Okay before you do anything else. Unless the soil’s PH is up where it needs to be, all your effort to get it looking good again will be in vain. Get a good PH METER as soon as possible and make sure the soil is close to where it needs to be. If it’s below 6.5, you should raise it up before you do anything else. This will insure new seeds grow properly and that insecticides applied will work and do their job.
Second, there really isn’t a right or wrong time to get your lawn PH and insect issues under control. As explained in our article, there are so many species of grubs around the USA and many are active all winter so in most regions, having something down 8-10 months in the year is Okay and probably suggested if you have any real problem. Additionally, if you go with the MERIT GRANULES which last 3-6 months, you’re likely to have something down and active most of the year if you only did treatments every 6 Months. This would be a good starting point. After 1 year you can assess the problem and decide if you need to continue at this rate or drop back to once a year. At my home, I only have to use it once a year since I don’t have any problems. But I do keep the PH in check and I do treat every fall so I feel this keep any problem under control because it’s never really able to get started. If I had a problem, I’d be treating more frequently for sure.
And as our article on GRUB CONTROL explains, grubs will feed from the fall till the spring so this is a great time to have active product applied. In other words, now would be a s good a time as any to start. Additionally, spraying over the top with the PERMETHRIN or CYONARA RTS immediately after the Merit is applied will help. A day later you can start to seed again and with any luck (considering your PH is Okay), you should be able to get some if not all your grass back by summer. I would then apply the Merit again in the beginning of July or August and maybe even again around the beginning of the new year if I had a real bad problem. Keep in mind this would depend on what I found at that time. Since you haven’t done anything recently, applying three times this year could be needed for now if it’s real bad. But by next year, you should be able to get away with one application in April-May and be done for the season. Hope this helps!
Here are direct links to the information and products listed above:
PH Article: http://www.soil-ph.com/soil-ph
PH Meter: http://www.bugspraycart.com/equipment/testing/phmoisturelight-probe
Merit Granules: http://www.bugspraycart.com/insecticide/granule/grub-free-g-10-lb-with-merit
Grub Control: http://www.bugspray.com/article/grubs.html
Permethrin: http://www.bugspraycart.com/insecticide/liquid/perm-sfr
Cyonara RTS: http://www.bugspraycart.com/insecticide/liquid/cyonara-32-oz-rts
jonathan
Leave a Reply