Your home can be considered your castle, and your lawn is a major part of that kingdom. But when your Gainesville landscape is covered with pests like fire ants, it sure doesn’t feel that way. Instead of enjoying a blissful stroll through your front and back lawn, you may feel like you are walking through a minefield. Fire ants will attack your feet, ankles and legs in no time at all with one simple misstep. Their bites sting, and can often cause severe reactions—especially for those who are allergic. Even for those not allergic though, they certainly cause pain, frustration, and small infectious sores.

There are a few reasons why ants can be such a nuisance to the lawn. For one, they aren’t always easy to notice. One minute you are pulling the hose across the lawn to water the plants, and the next minute you are desperately trying to hose the pests off of your legs. When they attack, they attack in large numbers—and once they settle in they multiply quickly.

Of course, there is another thing you need to consider when ants take over your lawn, more than just your personal comfort. You always have to worry about your family and pets. A child  getting into a fire ant bed in your lawn is obviously dangerous, but having a pet attacked by fire ants is a major problem too,  because they're unable to communicate what's wrong - and many tiems their fur blocks your from being able to recognize the problem. 

There are several ways that you can rid your lawn of fire ants. The best way is to contact a professional. It is never safe to bring pesticides onto your property when you aren’t sure what you are dealing with. A professional lawn pest control expert can ensure that you are using the right products to treat the pests that are present, in a way that won’t harm your grass, your pets or your children.

How do many homeowners in Gainesville fight fire ants? They spread bait around the mounds from the local home improvement store. It works for a week or two, but then 1 or 2 mounds will pop up  about 10-15 feet away. Why? Because they didn't treat the entire problem - just one of the symptoms. The one mound of fire ants isn't the problem. The problem is fire ants being in your Gainesville landscape at all. 

Controlling fire ants in your lawn can be very difficult and may only last for a short time as the ants tend to reinvade in a few weeks. By contacting a professional, such as our team of experts at The Master's Lawn Care, we can not only rid your lawn of fire ants for a couple weeks - but we guarantee to keep your lawn fire ant-free for ONE WHOLE YEAR. That's only one treatment, too.  That's our guarantee. If we treat your lawn for fire ants once, you have 365 days of protection or we'll come back out and treat again - at no charge. 

The Master's Lawn Care provides full service lawn fertilization and pest control including Fire Ant elimination.  Fire Ants are a common problem in Florida lawns. If you have ant mounds in your lawn, contact the Gainesville Lawn Experts.  Ask about our Lawn care with fire ant elimination bundle, too! Our techs are waiting to meet with you. Call (352) 378-5296 or fill out our online form by clicking here!

This time of year, we have clients call several times a week about cinch bug infestions in their lawn. The call usually goes something similar to this:

"I have a chinch bug problem in my St. Augustine lawn. I bought the granular pesticide from Lowe's that guaratees to kill chinch bugs, but it either is not working or the treatment isn't working fast enough because my brown spot is still growing. I don't want to resod just because of lawn pests. What should I do?"

Chinch bugs are the most destructive lawn pests we have and are also the most difficult to control - especially without the right equipment. The heat of summer really brings them out. They damage the grass by sucking the plant's juices. Normally, we first see the damage to the grass in the hottest and driest areas of the lawn first - many times near the driveway or sidewalk. A clump will go from green to yellow to brown in color within about a week. If you get down on your hands and knees and look very closely at the interface of the green grass and the damaged grass, you should see small gray insects, a little smaller than a grain of rice. You can try to flush out the chinch bugs by making a bucket of very soapy water and pouring it over a couple of square feet of damaged grass. After a few minutes, the chinch bugs will crawl up the grass blades and you can get a better idea of how many insects you are dealing with.

You're probably spreading the same product many other homeowners and lawn pest control businesses have found ineffective. According to Dr. Eileen Buss, a UF/IFAS landscape entomologist, there are pesticide-resistant chinch bugs in localized areas of Gainesville. Chinch bugs have become resistant to Bifenthrin, a very popular turf pesticide. Bifenthrin used to be extremely effective against chinch bugs, but now the insects have developed some resistance to it over time.

Therefore, it is important that you have a Gainesville lawn pest control company that uses a management strategy that includes pesticide rotation, application rates, and making sure that the product they use is watered in. The problem with using a granular insecticide is that if the lawn isn't watered enough after it is spread, it doesn't provide great control. The lawn pests are controlled much faster with a liquid application that has just the right mixture and application to cover the lawn consistently.

One of the chemicals that is used in our rotation of prevenative treatment requires that the insects feed on the grass before they die. This prevents chinch bugs from ever getting to an infestation without using a chemical thay've developed resistance to. If your lawn service company is using the proper chemical rotation and using the right application rates, you can expect control of the chinch bugs. There currently is research going on to deal with the pesticide resistance in the chinch bugs in Florida, as well.

The best way to prevent chinch bugs from moving into your lawn is by following good cultural practices. Use a lawn company that treats your lawn more prevantively for lawn pests, rather than reactively. Use a company that fertilizes with good portion of nitrogen in a slow-release form. Frequent applications of water soluble nitrogen fertilizers may increase chinch bug survival, development time and the number of eggs that they lay. This is why we only use granular fertilization for better and long-lasting lawn results.

Mowing at the correct height is another good cultural practice that will make your lawn less prone to chinch bug damage. Mow your standard St. Augustine grass at 3 to 4 inches. 

By applying lawn insecticides preventatively, fertilizing with slow-release granular products, irrigating properly, and mowing at the correct height, The Master's Lawn Care can save your lawn from experiencing Gainesville chinch bug damage before it begins. Read more about our program here!

 

When we have record-breaking rain in Gainesville, Florida we usually find that a few things really like the conditions.  This summer it has been nutsedge which must love the flooding rains because we’re seeing a large crop of it in lawns this year.  It is so prolific that our phones are ringing with people asking what it is and how to they get rid of it.  Perhaps you’ve seen some in your lawn this year?  

Nutsedge is a dark-green leafed weed that looks a lot like grass that is sticking straight up.  Typically, it grows taller than most Gainesville lawn trufgrasses so it becomes very obvious a couple days after mowing. But nutsedge isn’t a grass, even though it can be mistaken for a grassy weed.  This often confuses other lawn pest control technicians because they treat it with a grassy weed product  instead of a sedge control product.  If you look closely at, or feel nutsedge, you’ll notice the leaf isn’t flat, its triangular – that’s what makes it different from a grassy weeds, grassy weeds have flat bladed leaves. Another way to recognize one family of the nutsedge is that the Globe Nutsedge and Kyliinga have a soft sandspur-looking seed (see photo below for example).

Not all Sedges have this seed, but it's a common question we get: Can you treat for sandspurs in my Gainesville lawn? And in reality they're just a Globe sedge.

How to you get rid of nutsedge?  First, and this is very important - Don’t pull it.  Most of the time pulling nutsedge doesn’t work because it has two nuts attached to the roots.  You can pull up the first one but if you don’t get the second one, and you almost almost never can get it, you usually end up with it splitting and getting even more nutsedge.  In fact, nutsedge reminds me of the stories of fisherman who tried to get rid of starfish by cutting them up and throwing them back in the sea.  What happens when you cut up starfish?  The pieces each turn into a starfish and you end up with a lot more starfish.  That’s pretty much what happens when you pull nutsedge in Gainesville landscapes.

If you can’t pull nutsedge (and grassy weed killer doesn’t work) what do you do?  You still have to kill it, right?  Actually wrong.  There is no product that will actually kill nutsedge.  They will turn it brown and stunt it but most of it will come back the following year.   If you’re treating on your own, you can find a product called Image which can be used both in your lawn and your landscape.  Image is very slow and will need at least a couple of treatments but it is effective in stunting the nutsedge's growth. This product can typically be found at home improvement stores. 

At The Master's Lawn Care, we treat our client's lawns with a product not available to the public called Halosulfuron. It can only be used in lawns but it works much more quickly than Image.  It won’t kill the nutsedge but the product stunts it so the next time you cut the lawn, it won’t pop back up above the grass which is the thing that makes nutsedge so annoying.  I call it a magic trick – we can make it disappear for a year but eventually the magic wears off and it will come back.

So the bad news nutsedge is definitely going nuts this year.  The good news is if it is driving you nuts, we can make it go away for you (for a while.)

If you have questions or need help, give us a call at (352) 378-LAWN or email us at info@themasterslawncare.com. We are here to help with Gainesville Lawn Maintenance, Lawn Fertilization & Spraying, Landscape Rennovation and Improvements, and Irrigation repairs too. 

Weeds are simply defined as plants out of place, or anything growing where it wasn't wanted. Technically, St. Augustine grass can be a weed in a Zoysia lawn, or vice versa. Here is a list of the most common Gainesville lawn weeds that can be found in our area.

Yellow Woodsorrel – Oxalis stricta
Annual to short-lived perennial, upright, with a single taproot, spreads by seed. Leaves of three, heart-shaped, pale green and bitter to taste due to the presence of oxalic acid. Bright yellow flowers have five petals. Prolific seed producer, pods will scatter seed for several feet when touched.

Bull Thistle – Cirsium vulgare
Bull thistle is a biennial growing into a rosette with large, fleshy, coarsely-toothed spiny leaves. The second year, a woody, flowering stalk produces a few, rose-purple blossoms. Produces less flowers than Canada Thistle but all flowers are fertile.

Quackgrass – Agropyron repens
Blue-green rough bladed perennial reproducing by seed and aggressive rhizomes. Erect stems leaves rolled in bud, sheaths hairy. Short membranous ligule, large, very prominent clasping auricles. Spike seed head resembling perennial ryegrass. Spreads throughout lawn and from ornamental beds. Very difficult to control.

Broadleaf Plantain -Plantago rugelii / Plantago major
A perennial rosette reproducing from seed. Leaves are large, rounded and deeply veined with wavy edges and purple petioles. Seed stems resemble a rat’s tail and support small flowers and seeds. Long tap root, similar to Dandelion, increases plants’ hardiness to stress and herbicides

Crabgrass – Digitaria sp.
Several species that are true annuals. Peak germination by early summer. Yellow green leaves rolled in the bud with hairy edges, coarse-textured, broad collar, membranous liguile and hairy sheath. Blade flat with a sharp point. Seed head composed of three to ten finger like racemes or spikes, may appear purple to tan in color. Plant declines after seeding with shorter days. Eliminated by frost. Occurs all over the U.S., although less in the North than in Gainesville lawns

Dandelion – Taraxacum officnale
Perennial with long taproot produces by seed. Stems short arising from a rosette bearing oblong, lobed, narrow leaves. Large yellow flowers mature into round puffballs full of seed distributed by wind for miles. Mostly germinates during late summer.

Goosegrass – Eleusine indica
Annual forming rosette of flat stems, usually silvery at center. Leaves are folded in the bud with overlapping sheaths. Membranous ligule with sparse hairs on collar. Seed head forms two to ten finger-like spikes, zipper like, much broader than crabgrass. Germinates later than crabgrass. Persists under close mowing, even on putting greens.

Nutsedge - Cvperus esculentus (yellow) Cvperus rotundus (purple)
Also known as nutgrass, but is not a grass. Perennial, reproducing by seeds and nut-like tubers on roots. Stems erect triangular. Leaves 3-ranked, narrow, grass-like basal. Seed on unmowed plants arranged in narrow spikelets on umbel like inflorescence. Yellow nutsedge has single fleshy tubers on ends of roots. Purple nutsedge has strings of tubers on wiry rhizomes.

Pennywort: ( Dollarweed ) - Hydrocotvle sp.
A perennial growing from rhizomes, tubers and seed. Erect leaves with scalloped margins on a long petiole in the center of an umbrella-like leaf. Found in moist to wet sites. Most common in Transition Zone, South.

Spurge - Euphorbia maculate, E. supine
A summer annual that begins germination from seed when soil temperatures reach 85° F and continues all summer long. Small, oval, opposite leaves vary from dark green to red with a brown blotch on the upper surface. Reddish low growing stems, that fan out from the taproot, form a dense mat. Milky sap is sticky. Prolific seed producer, several thousand from one plant. Plant matures in a matter of days in hot weather.

Matchweed – Phyla nodiflora
Matchweed is a mat-forming perennial with opposing leaves on hairy branching stems. Leaves have small teeth at the outer tip. The purple to white flowers emerge around the tip of the seed stalk forming a match-head appearance. Matchweed spreads by both seeds and stolons along prostrate stems.

This time of year our phones are ringing off the hook and when those calls are about a client's lawn, there are two questions I hear all of the time. The first is "What can I do about the weeds taking over my lawn?" and second,  "Why isn't my lawn as healthy as the others in my neighborhood?".

 

While I wish I had a quick and easy answer to these common concerns the truth is that are a myriad of factors from the type of turf and mowing height to micronutients in the soil and drainage that need to be taken into consideration. There are, however, some common themes I find when a client's lawn isn't where they would like it to be.  In simplest terms the health of your lawn comes down to its most basic needs being met - Sun, water, and food. By taking a look at your lawn you can make a quick evaluation that could rule out one or two of these issues.

 

At Least 4 house of Sunlight

If you have dense tree cover from large oak trees and get less than 4 hours of direct sunlight a day, this is going to be your top problem and it's one of the more challenging issues to correct. You may also have an additional concern because you haven't fertilized or had any weed control done in your lawn recently - but your main reason why the lawn isn't as healthy as you want it is due to excessive shade. Canopy trimming, shade landscaping, and a couple other ideas can really transform your lawn quickly. Take a look at our full article about how to salvage a yard in deep shade. 

 

The Right Amount of Water

If you have a good bit of sunlight and the nutrition of the lawn has been handled well, the third concern to address would be the lawn's watering. We recommend that you conduct an annual inspection of your irrigation system to verify coverage is corect. Many times we see plants have grown up to block sprinkler heads, valves don't open properly, or heads have gotten out of adjustment and are missing the very area of the lawn you were concerned about. Also, using that inspection to verify the rain sensor is working properly and that it's set to run enough during the week and at the optimum times as well. We have a full article on water in regards to what happens if the lawn is watered too much, not enough, and how to fix it. 

  Fertilization and Weed Control

If you know you haven't had your lawn fertlized in more than 4 months, a lack of nutrition may be the main problem you are facing. It's important that your lawn get the correct balance nitrogen, potassium, and iron to help green up and choke out the weeds.  Carefully managing weeds and turf pests is another area that can be a challange for some of our Gainesville lawns. A good lawn care program is one that focuses on the overall health of your lawn and encourages healthy growth rather than just spraying pesticides.   

We hope this quick tip has been of assistance to you in getting your lawn bouncing back for spring. If you have time, take a look at our full article on lawn nutrition and how The Master's Lawn Care differs from the competition in our area. We also have selective weed control products that won't harm your lawn but will kill out the weeds that are invading. If you would like to get our professional opinion please don't hesitate to call our office at 352-378-5296 or e-mail me directly at rusty@themasterslawncare.com. 

   

Part of caring for your Gainesville lawn is creating an environment that’s pleasing to the human eye, yet unattractive to pests. The good news is you don’t have to be a Gainesville lawn pest control expert to have a decent looking lawn. You just have to invest the right time, preparation, materials, and money to make sure your lawn stays protected - especially in the fall.

 

By preparing lawns in the late summer and early fall, you help strengthen lawns and prevent the growth of unwanted weeds and uninvited critters that like to pop up throughout fall and spring. .

 

Pests of concern

• White grubs: Grubs eat the roots near the surface of the soil, causing your lawn to die. The presence of white grubs often attracts birds, armadillos, and moles to dig up your Gainesville Landscape as well searching for food.. 
• Chinch bugs: In Gainesville Chinch bugs destroy St. Augustine lawns by sucking the moisture out of grass blades, leaving them looking drought stressed. 
• Weeds: Weeds germinate in the fall to prepare for springtime growth. Pre-Emergent weed control is a must to help keep these under control.
• Fertilize: Gainesville lawn fertilization companies often recommend the use of a natural winterizing fertilizer to promote lawn root development and pest resistance.   
• 
• Eliminate leaves:  Fallen leaves make great places to hide for insects and rodents. Turn the leaves into mulch and use it in your beds to avoid having to buy pine bark as often..
• Keep mowing: Use the highest setting on the mower through the year so the grass stays insulated and strong during the winter.              
• Clean up food sources: If a client has plants or trees that bear fall fruit, pick up produce that falls to the ground so it doesn’t attract pests.

 

Pest prevention
As a Gainesville landscaper, it’s not unheard of for us to encounter a pest infestation on a client’s property. When this happens to you, make sure to call a professional lawn and landscape pest service. The techniques that the professionals use are tailored to the type of pest in question and eliminate unnecessary pesticide use, which helps keep a landscape and the environment safe and healthy. 

 

A healthy lawn prevents the presence of unwanted pests. By employing smart lawn care techniques, you’ll simplify future landscape care and go a long way toward preventing pests that can destroy your hard work. Never hesitate to call a local pest control service that uses green practices to help maintain a pest-free landscape that’s in line with your wishes.

Sod webworms begin to show in Gainesville, Florida lawns around August and don't stop eating until the first frost. They can occasionally show up earlier though, if certain weather patterns occur. This pest feeds on all types of warm season turf, and the only way to protect from them is to be on a Gaineville Lawn Fertilization Program that includes a mixture of residual insecticide with proper nutrients that keep your lawn healthy and less suceptible to webworm invasion.

Above is a photo of a local Haile Plantation lawn with sodworm damage. Take notice of the chewed leaf blades and damaged turf from the little insects. Another way to be aware if you have webworms early are if you see moths flying up in the moring as you walk through your landscape. 

The caterpillar is 1/25" when hatched and grows to ¾" in maturity and are usually light green with black spots. It takes 12 weeks to mature to adulthood. The adult moth is brown and has wings that fold beneath the body.

Sod webworms destroy Gainesville lawns by chewing away the tissue of the grass blade leaving only a colorless membrane on the leaf. As the grass is aggressively attacked by the webworm its leaves become ragged and yellow to brownish in color.

Rapid growth from applications of nitrogen fertilizers attracts egg laying female moths. Using a slow release nitrogen fertilization rogram will reduce the incidence of damage from these pests.

Professional Gainesville lawn spraying is the best solution for controlling sod webworms. Retail pesticides sold in Home Improvement stores are also effective solutions for killing sod webworms, but be careful with mixing as they can be overmixed and damage your lawn and it's ecosystem if not used in accordance with the label.

Without a program in place to regularly spray lawn pest control and keep lawns healthy, webworm control in the fall will always be a losing battle. That's why we're doing this blog series on noticing problems in Gainesville lawns. For more information, feel fee to read the articles about Gainesville Chinch Bug Protection and Gainesville Lawn Weed Identification too. 

Gainesville lawn Chinch bugs love the heat of the Florida climate and prefer dry sunny areas of St. Augustine grass, which is we have seen so many active colonies of Lawn pests these past few weeks around Alachua County.

Chich bugs damage grass by feeding on the plant juices through a needle-shaped beak causing lawns to develop yellow and brown patches that resemble drought stress. Chinch bug eggs begin to hatch in Florida during early spring and multiply continuing well into summer when they start to be seen in 1 out of every 3 Gainesville lawns that aren't on a Lawn Pest Prevenative Program.

Their eggs hatch in 10 days and the young develop into adults in as little as 3 weeks. Although chinch bugs are most commonly found feeding on St. Augustine grass, they will infest other grass species. They rarely cause enough damage in grasses besides St. Augustine to matter though. See the photos above for great photos of the stages of growth for a chinch bug.

The nymphs start out red in color changing to orange as they begin to mature. They molt 5 times before reaching adulthood. An adult  Gainesville chinch bug is about 1/5 inches long and has black a body with white wings.

Chinch bugs can produce 7 generations in a year to feast on your Gainesville lawn. The time frame from hatching to maturity is about 3 weeks. One female chinch bug can lay up to 500 eggs.

Infested areas usually start along drive ways,sidewalks, and other concrete edges where its is warmest. Frequent application of nitrogen fertilizers can cause St Augustine grass to be more susceptible to chinch bug invasion, as well as drought problems.

Diligent lawn mowing keeping St. Augustine grass at a height of 3 to 4 inches will not only give better appearance but will make the grass more tolerant toward chinch bugs.

Problems are usually noticed first along concrete edges or in areas without adequate moisture receiving full sun. 

Professional Gainesville Florida lawn spraying is the best solution for controlling chinch bugs.

There are a number of products on the market that will kill Gainesville chinch bugs at various stages of the life cycle including the eggs. Granulated insecticides are usually the most effective for long term results for the do-it-yourself solution.

 Without a program in place to regularly spray lawn pest control and keep lawns healthy, chinch bug control in the summer will always be a losing battle. That's why we're doing this blog series on noticing problems in Gainesville lawns. For more information, feel fee to read the articles about Gainesville Sod Webworm protection and Gainesville Lawn Weed Identification too. 

Thanks!

    -The Masters Lawn Care Team

One of the most frequently asked questions I am asked on an initial consultation with a potential client is, "Why isn't my grass as green as the other people in my neighborhood?" My response always starts the same way, that a lawn has three relatively basic needs for long-term health: Food, Water, and Sunlight. In the past two articles, we've discussed the right amount of water and sunlight, so that leaves the last tip of the series to be about food, also known as lawn fertilization. 

Many homeowners in our area use the ‘feast or famine’ method fertilizing once or twice a year because of chain stores recommending the spring and fall lawn feedings. This is one of the many ways that turfgrass and the human body are very similar. This is not unlike eating one or two large meals a day and expecting a healthy physique – It just doesn’t work like that. In the same way that many nutritionists recommend 5-6 small meals a day because your body needs to be fed constantly, your lawn is at its best when it is given 5-6 doses of nutrients per year too.

Nutritionists also recommend not eating within an hour or two of going to bed so that you don’t go to sleep with a full stomach. Likewise, lawns do not take in any nutrients in the winter when it goes dormant. Too much nitrogen laid down at the wrong time of year can contribute to many environmental issues that are affecting our drinking water and our ecosystem. This is why we recommend early fall fertilization with a lower dose of Nitrogen (the first number on the fertilizer solution label), and focusing more on Potassium (the third number on the label) which increases the root structure.

One other commonality between humans and lawns are vaccinations. In the same way that getting properly vaccinated can help prevent diseases, one important piece of any fertilization program should include pre-emergents to help prevent weeds. Pre-emergents are formulas that bond to weed seeds before they germinate and render them useless so weeds cannot spread. This keeps the turf weed-free and healthy.

The ultimate goal of every homeowner who takes pride in their landscape is to have a thick, green, and lush lawn to enjoy. The easiest way to have that is to make sure it has the right amount of irrigation, a healthy dose of sunlight, and the proper lawn fertilization program. With those 3 things in-tact, your lawn will be the envy of the neighborhood.

If your lawn is not as healthy as you would like and you want some help getting on a fertilization program, call our office at 378-5296 or fill out our lawn care analysis form. We would be glad to serve any way we can!

Related Reading:

• 1st Basic Need of a Lawn: Sun
• 2nd Basic Need of a Lawn: Water
• Video Blog: Side by Side lawn comparison 
• TMLC Lawn Care Program: Six Visits explained