As we wind down another summer, we begin to see how much of our turf damage is related to the summer weather, and that which leaves us looking for another explanation. Cooler days and nights will provide our landscapes with some much-needed relief and recovery; however, most of us will experience some turf that continues to look like mid-August.
At this point, it’s time to consider another cause for our problems. The cause that is usually the easiest to ID isgrubs. Picture one is a soccer field that “just didn’t want to recover no matter how much we watered.” This is always a good sign something else is going on.
The second picture was just over a square foot from the same field. Since it is early in the grub season and it was already loaded with grubs, not treating this field would most likely result in a complete renovation in the spring.
The last picture is from an irrigated home lawn that told a similar story: “we kept watering, but everything just kept turning brown.” Like the first case, if water and cooler temperatures don’t provide some recovery, there’s definitely another problem. In this case, it was chinchbugs that took out neighboring yards. Similarly, treating now will help minimize further damage and minimize the amount of seed work required.
