Get Your Lawn In Shape This Spring
If you had trouble with lawn pests last summer, it pays to get an early start on control measures this spring. Exact timing for these control measures will vary according to where you live and which insect pests you want to control. For specific timing in your area, consult the Bayer Advanced calendars or your local cooperative extension office. But for the most southern parts of the United States, February is the month to take action to prevent last year’s problems from becoming this years problems.
Control weeds. Weeds compete with grasses for water and nutrients and make your lawn look lousy. To control existing weeds, use Bayer Advanced™ All-In-One Lawn Weed & Crabgrass Killer Ready-To-Use. It kills lawn weeds like dandelions and clover, plus grassy weeds, like crabgrass and nutgrass, in one easy step. For St. Augustine lawns and other Southern lawns, use Bayer Advanced™ Southern Weed Killer for Lawns Ready-To-Spray to control your broadleaf weeds.
Control chinchbugs. Chinchbugs are surface-feeding lawn pests that damage St. Augustinegrass. You may see them on grasses such as Zoysia, Bermuda, and Centipedegrass, but infestations usually occur where high populations have built up on St. Augustinegrass. Signs of infestation include small, round patches of brownish-yellow grass that first appear in hottest, driest areas of lawn, such as near paved areas or the sides of buildings. Left uncontrolled, large areas of lawn may die.
To confirm you have chinch bugs, remove both ends of a coffee can and push it into the ground between a damaged area and healthy turf. Fill the can with water and, if present, the chinchbugs will float to the surface within five minutes. You can see what chinch bugs look like in the Insect Identifier.
To control chinchbugs and other lawn pests, use Bayer Advanced™ Complete Insect Killer For Soil & Turf Granules. It combines two Bayer ingredients and acts like two products in one, providing protection against both aboveground and belowground insects. Aboveground pests like chinchbugs will be killed on contact. It protects against soil insects, like white grubs and mole crickets for up to three months and is a very effective replacement for diazinon.
Controlling fire ants. Warming spring weather marks the start of another fire ant season in the southeastern United States. Fire ants sting more than 5 million Americans every year. Those stings can be so bad that approximately 25,000 people are forced to seek medical attention annually.
“Fire ants are extremely aggressive insects that thrive in sunny, open environments such as lawns and gardens,” said Bayer Advanced™ Garden Expert Lance Walheim. “When a mound is disturbed by a child or pet stepping or lying on it, worker ants boil out, swarm over the victim and inject venom repeatedly.”
Fire ants are 1/16 to ¼-inch long and reddish brown in color. They live in mounds with many underground tunnels. A queen ant lives up to seven years and produces an average of 1,600 eggs per day, so a fire ant colony can consist of as many as 250,000 ants at a time.
So how can you prevent fire ants fast? Bayer Advanced™ Fire Ant Killer Dust is a ready-to-use dust that kills fire ants fast. And it doesn’t have the strong odor associated with many other fire ant dusts. Just shake the dust on the mound using the built-in shaker top and water it in. The worker ants track the powder into the mound killing the queen and the entire ant colony quickly. The 1.5-pound size can treat up to 200 mounds. Bayer Advanced™ Fire Ant Killer Dust can be used on lawns, flowerbeds, ground covers and around trees and shrubs.
Fertilize. If you didn’t fertilize last fall, fertilize with a complete lawn fertilizer this spring. Wait until the lawn has started to “green-up” before feeding.
Products Mentioned In This Article
Bayer Advanced
