Lawn pest problems? If you do these things right, you will be able to create an environment in your lawn that will discourage pests, which will lower your need for pesticides.

Tyler Lawn and Garden: The basic components of lawn care:

Mowing.

Mowing is the one thing that if done properly, will yield the best bang for your buck. If all the other things are done reasonably well, this will make your lawn an oasis.

Make sure that you start with a good mower, with sharp blades. Sharp blades cut the leaves of grass more smoothly, lessening the chance for disease, and adding to the overall appearance. A dull mower blade makes for a ragged cut, and makes mowing harder for you and your mower.

You should mow as often as possible, at least once a week during the growing season. The more frequently you mow, the smaller the clippings, so they become easily available for your lawn to recycle into nutrients, and organic matter. If you bag your lawns clippings, you are taking away as much as sixty percent of the lawns fertility, and depriving your lawn of organic matter and other benefits. Avoid bagging like your lawn depended on it. 

Frequent mowing discourages pests, disease and fungus, and helps your lawn grass to grow laterally. There are many other benefits as well.

Cultivating.

Cultivating is something that doesn't have to be done as often as the other items on our list, but it is highly important.

If you have a thatch build up, or compaction problems, aerifying, or verticutting will aid in keeping your lawn in good condition.

If your lawn is in need of renovating, cultivation is essential. Top dressing could be a separate subject, but I mention it here because cultivation and top dressing are usually a  collaborative efforts. Cultivating twice per year will have a positive impact on your law, and more frequent cultivation in high stress areas can work wonders.

Fertilizing.

Getting the right amount of nutrients to your lawn is important. For the best fertilizer, follow the directions above about mowing, and don't bag your clippings. Of course, you will want to add more fertilizer, so start with something like one pound of nitrogen per thousand square feet of lawn space per application. Three applications per year should be sufficient.

Of course you will need to adjust this to the needs of your particular lawn. Most common lawn grasses can use as much as two pounds per thousand square feet, per application.

Some fertilizers use sulfur coated urea formaldehyde. The sulfur coating slows the release of nutrients, allowing for more time between applications. You can use these at higher levels, less frequently. If you use regular fertilizer, smaller doses at more frequent intervals are recommended.

Irrigating.

Keeping your grass healthy requires making the right amount of water available. Too little and it desiccates, to much and it will languish and invite fungus and disease. I am not going to go into the details of precipitation rates, or evapotranspiration rates (yes, they are real terms) but you should watch your lawn. If it is soggy two hours after watering, you should probably back off the water a little. If it is dry at a depth of one inch, you should increase the watering.

Overseeding.

Normally I don't recommend this, it competes with the permanent lawn grasses at just exactly the wrong time. It can be done with good results, but there is a lot of planning and work involved, and you will usually need to kill it off chemically in time to let your summer grasses grow and thrive. The effects of allowing overseeded grasses to creep into the summer grasses growing season can be cumulative, gradually destroying the health of your other turf  grasses. If you find that you need to overseed with cool season grasses, consult your local extension agent for the proper type, and details on planting and care in your area.

Pest Control.

If you have done everything else on the list right, the chances of having pest problems is greatly diminished. There can still be problems due to weather conditions, and other natural phenomena.

There are many good products on the market, both standard and natural that you can use to to get rid of problem pests. Follow the label recommendations to the letter. Doubling the recommended dose, will not give better results, and can have a negative effect on the environment. I have seen cases where doubling the amount of a common weed killer, actually had the opposite of the desired effect!

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