For the last 4-5 years in late July, we develop dead spots in our lawn. We have Kentucky blue grass in the yard around our house and the areas surrounding this (we're on an acreage) we have fescue which isn't as affected..spreads to it only when it is next to a spot in the blue grass. We have a mulching lawn mower so the grass clippings are not collected. My husband is on a fertilizer program which I believe is every holiday, so spring preventative, memorial day, 4th of July and fall winterizer. We also have an irrigation system which runs 3 times a week unless it rains. We also aerate every spring.
When the problem first started, I thought there was a problem with the riding lawn mower as the dead areas looked more like equal signs. But we have the mower serviced every year and the mechanics do not see this as a mower problem. Then circular spots started to develop close to the walks, patios and septic tank. Now, every exposure except the south side of the house, which has lots of trees, has brown spots and they are encroaching further into the lawn as the pictures show. Every year the affected area seems to be larger. Our lawn does eventually recover but it takes a while. When the circular brown spots first showed up we assumed it was fungus so we started putting down fungicide in June which I thought helped limit the spread. This year we didn't get the fungicide down until a week before it started to appear. Last year we also found grubs so we started using grub killer. This year we didn't get it down until the first of August which I know is late and, of course, the spots are worse than it has ever been.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Annual Lawn damage
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rainbowgardener
- Super Green Thumb
- Posts: 25279
- Joined: Sun Feb 15, 2009 6:04 pm
- Location: TN/GA 7b
Hi and welcome to the Forum!
Grubs seems like one of the possible culprits. Have you dug down to look for them? This time of year they will be in the top four inches or so of soil, fairly close under the bottom of the sod. To have that much damage, you would have to have a lot of grubs, widely spread under your lawn.
What kind of grub killer did you use? First of August is not late; it could possibly be a bit early. The grubs are the larval forms of Japanese beetles, June bugs or their relatives. During the summer they are in their adult beetle form. Then the adult beetles lay eggs in the soil, which hatch out into the grubs. The grub killer may not be effective until there are grubs in the soil (depending on what you used).
Grubs seems like one of the possible culprits. Have you dug down to look for them? This time of year they will be in the top four inches or so of soil, fairly close under the bottom of the sod. To have that much damage, you would have to have a lot of grubs, widely spread under your lawn.
What kind of grub killer did you use? First of August is not late; it could possibly be a bit early. The grubs are the larval forms of Japanese beetles, June bugs or their relatives. During the summer they are in their adult beetle form. Then the adult beetles lay eggs in the soil, which hatch out into the grubs. The grub killer may not be effective until there are grubs in the soil (depending on what you used).