May, 2018 | Superior Lawn Care
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Lawn Turning Brown? You Could Have a Chinch Bug Problem

Everyone wants to enjoy a beautiful green lawn during the summer. Lawns can, unfortunately, be susceptible to insects year round. This is especially true when the weather starts to turn warmer and remain warm in the evenings, making the grass a very hospitable place for insects to live.

Although many people think of beetles as being summer’s biggest pest, they don’t mature until the middle of summer. For most of June and July, your lawn’s biggest bug problem will be an insect called the chinch bug.

How Do I Recognize Chinch Bugs?

These insects are little, and nowhere near as showy as hard-to-miss Japanese beetles. Young chinch bugs are very small and red with a white band (though it’s pretty hard to see the markings when they’re young). Adult chinch bugs are gray-black, with white wings that fold into the middle of their body.

What Kind of Damage Can Chinch Bugs Cause?

These insects are born in the late spring, and they feed off of the sap in your grass. Although they’re small, when there are a lot of them, they can destroy the grass quickly. After feeding on your grass, they grow to adults, produce eggs around August, and the whole cycle starts again. They overwinter in a safe, warm place, and then mate and produce even more new bugs in the spring. Their eggs will also destroy your grass, so your lawn will to look yellow-brown.

The yellow-brown color is not the same as when your grass dries out. For one thing, it’s only a few blades at a time that are affected, with untouched green grass mixed in. Eventually, though, once the bugs have gone through several growth cycles, you’ll notice more and more of your lawn is affected.

A good way to see if your grass is affected by chinch bugs, as opposed to too much sun and heat, is to disturb the thatch on the ground (the layer between the grass and the soil) on a sunny day. Look for these grayish-black bugs trying to burrow back into the soil, trying to escape the sun. If you see them, it’s time to call a lawn care company.

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How to Protect Your Trees and Shrubs

Ornamental trees and shrubs are a popular way for home and business owners to introduce elements of drama and interest into their properties’ look and landscaping. Trees provide height, and many also are colorful during parts of the year. Shrubs are designed to draw attention to areas around a home, building, or landscaped area. These plantings are an investment, and you’ll want to take good care of them so that you’ll be able to enjoy them for years to come.

Maintaining Your Shrubs and Ornamental Trees throughout the Year

Keeping your shrubs and trees healthy involves a certain amount of care during the spring, summer, and late fall. Regular maintenance is important, since these plantings will grow and change over a period of years. A tree that was once a sapling will look much different once it’s starting to develop into a mature tree. While they may look sturdy, these plantings can still be harmed by insects, weather, and disease. To keep them healthy, it’s important to:

  • Maintain trees and shrubs through fertilization. The custom fertilizer that works well on lawns is not formulated for trees and shrubs, so a custom-blended fertilizer should be used to ensure that trees and shrubs are growing, blooming, and healthy. The fertilizer strengthens roots and helps to protect against disease. In the late fall, deep root fertilization contains a balanced macro and micronutrient formula that’s delivered to the root system, enhancing the plant’s health and getting it ready for the winter.
  • Prevent insects from making shrubs and trees their home. These plantings offer a hospitable place to live, and once they make their home and starting reproducing, they can be difficult to eliminate. You should have your plantings treated before bugs set up home in your trees. Springtime care includes dormant oil to control overwintering insects and egg masses. Early summer care treatments protect against insects like tent caterpillars, spider mites, and birch leafminer. In the summer, the treatment concentrates on insects that thrive in hot weather, like Japanese beetles, mites, lace bugs, and weevils.
  • Keep shrubs and trees free of disease. A program for these plantings should always include protection against spring and summer diseases like twig blight, apple scab, powdery mildew, and leaf spots.

Healthy Shrubs and Ornamental Trees Start With Regular Care

Superior Lawn Care’s tree and shrub program keeps your investment plantings healthy and looking beautiful. We cover southwestern Pennsylvania, including Upper St. Clair, Wexford, Cranberry, North Huntingdon, Murrysville, Moon Township, Penn Township, and Indiana. To learn more about our program, call or contact us today.