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Nobody likes the sight of their beautiful lawn destroyed by lawn pests. But with help from Mower Source, you can get your grass back to looking lush, healthy and green.


Chinch

Chinch Bugs: The Original Grass-Muncher

Hardly any lawn’s been immune to the devastation caused by chinch bugs, which are about a fifth of an inch long with black bodies, white wings and a white stripe across their body. They can be kind of hard to recognize, but if you head out a little before noon, you’ll have the best chance of spotting them. When they’re babies, you’ll be looking for little yellow specks. Chinches take a month to a month-and-a-half to reach maturity, in which case you’ll be setting your sights on red dots. And if you can’t be bothered to look for them, you can spot the destruction they’ve caused by seeing if your lawn has restricted circular patches that turn yellow, then brown, before the grass dies.

How to get rid of them: It may sound odd, but using a shop-vac to vacuum your lawn can be an effective way to battle chinches. You can also try one of the two soapy solutions on this page — whichever method you choose, water the heck out of your grass and set your lawn mower blades higher than usual so your grass has a chance to recover.

"Meikeverlarven (Melolontha melolontha)" by Rasbak - Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Meikeverlarven_(Melolontha_melolontha).jpg#/media/File:Meikeverlarven_(Melolontha_melolontha).jpg

Grubs: No Fun for Anyone

Grubs, those milky-white C-shaped critters that live for either one or three years (or less, if you can get to them!), attract predators to your lawn like raccoons and skunks. These lawn pests typically start breeding right around now and don’t take long to reach maturity; depending on the type of grub, their complete life cycle is one or three years. Because grubs feed on grass roots, you’ll want to attack them as quickly as possible because it’s not a superficial issue.

How to get rid of them: The trick to treating grubs is to figure out how many you have, and you can do that by taking small soil samples (read our post on soil samples if you need a refresher). Five or fewer grubs per square foot means you get off scot-free because your grass can handle their feeding, but more, and you should look into curative chemical grub treatments.

"Ant hill cm02". Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ant_hill_cm02.jpg#/media/File:Ant_hill_cm02.jpg

Ants: A Surprisingly Small Enemy

Ants may seem harmless enough, but like grubs, get enough of them together in one spot, and it could spell trouble for your lawn. Different types of ants can wreak havoc on your lawn, but more than that, big anthills are just not pretty to look at.

How to get rid of them: Luckily, this is a really easy fix. Go to your local gardening store, and pick up some nematode Steinernema feltiae to biologically control ants on your grass.

Moles

Moles: The Underground Scavengers

Moles can do lots of really cool things, like live in low-oxygen environments, has 12 fingers so it can be super efficient at digging, and takes care of earthworms for you. But…they can also cause damage to your grass by making an unsightly mess with their criss-cross tunnels.

How to get rid of them: There are essentially two ways of going after moles. The first involves removing their source of food — things like grubs and earthworms — so they’ll burrow elsewhere. The second involves setting mole traps. No matter which one you choose, for the next few weeks, water your grass a little less than usual so you can dry it out and prevent moles’ food source from attracting the rodents.

Next week, we’ll take a look at other bugs that cause problems for your lawn and how to deal effectively with them. For now though, browse our catalogue to see how you can care for your lawn as best as possible. And remember, no matter what you choose, it’s free shipping and tax-free prices (except in MN) all the way!

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