............ is finally settling in and not many folks are happy with it!
I have blogged here before about the loss of M.S.M.A. and what it means to the lawn care industry and consumers. Well talking about it and living it are two different realities and one many are struggling to deal with.
Simply put, M.S.M.A. was one of the top products for SELECTIVE grassy weed control - key word being selective.
It has been replaced by products that are not nearly as quick or effective and many homeowners who started lawn care programs in March of this year are now seeing the results. Crabgrass going nuts and limited options for control other than wait until next year.
For best results next year START NOW!!!!! If you arent happy with your company - get them out there now and assess where you are and plan for the coming year.
Your fall pre-emerge needs to be in place soon and you dont want to wait until NEXT March to decide what you want to do. Hire now and enjoy a great lawn next year!
One of the greatest challenges we see in the lawn care industry is the improper use of an automatic irrigation system.
At a recent meeting of lawn care professionals I asked 5 other company owners - as well as 3 owners of businesses whose primary occuaption was mowing services, how many of their customers who had irrigation systems utilized them properly and the answers ranged from 20-40%!!!!
Thats awful!! Realize these are folks who spend every single day going from lawn to lawn to lawn. When they make a statement like that it is based on thousands of home lawns inspected!!
One disconnect seems to be a general feeling that grass is like people and needs to be constantly hydrated. Nothing could be further from the truth!!!!! It does your lawn good to completely dry out before more irrigation is applied.
No system should run more than 3 times per week and it would be best to try it 2 times a week if at all possible. Each lawn will vary but no lawn can handle watering every day which is all too common in the height of summer. It drowns the root system and causes thin poor turf with poor color and lots of weeds like sedges such as nutgrass.
Remember - too little water is better than too much!!!!!!!
One trend we have seen this summer is an influx of American roaches. Since American roaches are primarily what we refer to as a "casual invader" ( I know there is nothing CASUAL about one of these in your house!!!) they are more readily affected by extremes in both temperature and rainfall.
They are known to live in hollow areas from sewers to dead spots in large trees - anywhere there is harborage and moisture outdoors is sure to hold a few.
How to solve?
The first step is to remove any harborage areas that you are able to. If that doesn't solve the issue then a perimiter application can help prevent them from infesting your home.
If you suspect that you may have a problem this is one where a trained inspector can be a huge benefit. Since their droppings are similar to mice, sometimes it can be hard to tell what pest you are dealing with and delay the correction of the problem!
If in doubt - call a professional! A delayed or misdiagnosed problem will only make it harder to solve down the road!
As this summer has heated up there seems to be one constant theme and that is that irrigation is a much misunderstood area of lawn care.
Best practices suggest applying anywhere from 1/2 to 1 inch of water per watering session. Due to dense clay soils in the mid-south we have found that going with 1/2 inch will keep turf green and healthy without too much runoff and water waste.
One key thing to remember is that you want the soil to dry completely before you water again. The key is to water for longer periods of time but with as little frequency as you can.
Less frequent but deeper watering is better for the health of your lawn for a variety of reasons including disease prevention as well as winter hardiness!
If you are unsure how much water you are applying feel free to contact us for a free rain gauge you can use to determine the amount of water your lawn is recieving.
Actually every Spring season has some common characteristics that can frustrate both homeowners and lawncare companies alike!
MY WEEDS WONT DIE!!!!!!!! As crazy as it sounds there is a reason you put food in a refigerator - cooler temperatures preserve things. Works on weeds too. The herbicide is slowed down for one and the decay of the weed is slowed by these cooler temps as well. Aggravationg but true. Mowing the grass will finish them off but many folks dont want to fire up the mower just yet and lawncare companies sure dont want to tell a customer " just go cut your yard! It will be fine" . True but not very service oriented.
Also - there are some weeds ( grassy weeds like poa annua and foxtail) that are going to require a prolonged stretch of 85 degree weather to eliminate. That usually doesnt happen until May so we struggle with control through March and April.
The worst part of all of this is this is a time of year when temperatures are soooo nice and it is such a joy to be outside - yet there is very little to be done with our lawns just yet.
Bermuda and zoysia lawns thrive best in awful hot muggy environments - like Memphis in the summer - and until we reach those warmer days we will all - customers and companies alike - struggle to see the results we want quickly!
Don Jamison will be running for the Presidency of the National Pest Management Association in the upcoming elections in May.
He is currently on the board of directors - a position he has held for the past 4 years. He is also on the Lawn care advisory committee as well as being a featured speaker for numerous industry conferences each year on both technical and customer service topics.
The recent warm weather has caused the first termite swarms of the season. Our first two swarms were very unique in that they were both located on the interior walls of the home where they are usually located on exterior walls.
One situation involved a plumbing access allowing entry right in the middle of a hardwood floor - not good and not easy top treat due to the diffuculty in gaining access.
The second one was coming up on a support pier under a crawlspace home. Again a construction flaw allowed this to occur but treatment was much easier.
To view some really neat photographs of these two situations check out our facebook page!
After an awful January and February for those of us who live to be outside, I have seen many folks taking advantage of the recent warming to fire up the mower for the first time.
Not so fast!
While I understand your excitement that Spring is finally "springing" we still have a long way to go with our turf on its journey from dormany to full blown growth.
Cutting too low (scalping) this early (and I saw some of this occur in February!!!) can cause a myriad of problems for your lawn. Greater weed problems due to increased sunlight reaching now almost bare soil. Root damage should we have another real cold snap. Rutting soggy yards which will lead to uneven cutting all summer if you use a larger or commercial mower this time of year. These are just a few potential issues and why I would suggest you wait until the latter part of March to get that first cut if possible.
This still leaves the lawn plenty of time to green up quickly - especially if you are on our treatment plan!
LITTLE KNOWN FACT - until overnight LOW temperatures are in the 60's your grass will not really take off and grow! That is why it will go back and forth throughout the spring as a warm spell wakes it up and a dip back into the 40's puts it right back to sleep!
While performing several inspections for potential new customers yesterday I noticed several things occuring in our Memphis area lawns.
First was that some of our turf was begining to "wake up" and come out of dormancy. Notably zoysia lawns facing South with direct sun are really coming on. This dance will go back and forth over the next few months as lawns try to decide when Spring is really really here.
That is also an indication that soil temperatures are rising and we are close if not past time for crabgrass to germinate!!!!!!!
While never good - crabgrass has always been kind of a nuisance weed but rather easily solved once temperatures got above 90 degrees.
NO LONGER!!!!!!!!
With the loss of msma (the number 1 grassy weed herbicide since forever) you are going to have more trouble than ever keeping this weed out of your lawn and the absolute best protection is with a quality pre-emerge applied BEFORE germination occurs.
Dont wait - if you are not on a program call us! If you do it yourself you better get on it! Trust me you will be sorry if you dont when you try to control this one through a post emerge with what will be available!!!!!
We just returned from a meeting where DuPont rolled out a new termiticide called Altriset.
This product is revolutionary in a number of ways.
First - it is the first and only termiticide to have no "signal word" or warning attached to the label. Everything manufactured for consumer use - household goods to insecticides to cleaners - has this section on a label - the three being Danger - Warning - Caution in that order from most to least toxic.
This product has none of those. As one of the researchers mentioned - based on labeling the EPA has decided the sunscreen our guys may wear while treating your house to protect them from the sun poses more of a health risk than the termiticide they apply!
THATS STRONG!!!!!!!!
This is not to say that other termiticides are not safe or effective but it does show the opportunites for growth and stewardship continue to get better and better.
The other and equally important key feature is that it works very well against all species of termites from around the world. Researchers from around the world presented their data at this meeting and all reached the same conclusions as to its effectiveness as well as its mode of action which is one of the keys to control.
This dependable performance is critical to Pest Management Professionals who support damage warranties based on these applications.
If you would like more information regarding this product call our office at 452-1505 or go to their website they set up - altriset.com