To reduce damage from chinch bugs- here are some suggestions
A long term strategy- shade the lawns. The judicious use of tree can enhance your enjoyment of your yard and reduce chinch bug damage. Choose trees with filtered shade (such as Honeylocusts) that will still allow grass to grow reasonably well underneath. Trees like maples will eventually make it difficult to grow grass beneath them as their shade is much more intense.
Mow high- longer grass increases the shade on that small portion of the lawn. Again not a cure, but this will tilt things in your favour.
Use perennial ryegrass in mix with Endophytes to reduce damage. Endophytic perennial ryegrass are not a preferred food source of chinch bugs. (Turf King uses Endophytic Perennial Ryes in our overseeding grass seed mixes)
Don't underwater the lawns during hot dry spells. Chinch bugs suck the sap from the grass. Underwatering puts additional stress on the lawn and chinch damage is more likely to be fatal if the lawn is underwatered. Spending some money on water is usually less costly than having to replace the lawn that has all died from chinch damage.
Don't overwater the lawn during the summer. Chinch bugs do prefer lush lawns over sickly dry lawns. Here it is trying to find the right balance of a nice summer lawn without encouraging chinch bugs.
Maintain lawn fertility to reduce stress on the lawn. Turf King uses fertilizers high in potassium. Potassium is an important nutrient to reduce damage to lawns due to the stress of heat, drought and insect damage. Supplemental applications of potassium may also be considered.
Often people call in mid-August. They say, "the front lawn hasn't come green after the recent rains. The back lawn did (or the neighbours did)." "We thought it was just the lack of water during the summer. We didn't water much- it's too expensive."
A few more questions often leads to a positive diagnosis of chinch bugs. The shady parts of the lawn are green. The worst damage is in the sunny parts of the lawn.
If you have a lawn/tree/shrub that needs some Tender Loving Care- get The KING OF GREEN:
or call us at 905.318.6677 or 1.888.TURFKING (887.3546)
If you would like more information, please Contact us
Follow us on Twitter http://twitter.com/turfkingofgreen
Copyright 2012 Turf King-Hamilton. All Rights Reserved.
Grubs are starting to be found in lawns by late August. If the lawn has been brown or dead since July, it is more likely to have been caused by chinch bugs.
People first notice a problem in one of two ways.
- Animals digging in the lawn
- Dead or dying patches of lawn
The digging by animals is a problem. Most likely there are grubs there. There are no insecticides currently allowed for the treatment of grubs. Nematodes can be used in warm weather (mid Aug to mid Oct). One problem with nematodes is that they may only control 50-75% of the grubs (if we are lucky). Also it does take time for the grubs to die therefore, sometimes, the skunks and/or raccoons may still come for dying grubs or for the ones that were not controlled.
To look on the bright side, the animals digging for grubs are at least getting rid of some grubs. If you could train them to put the sod back after they are finished, we could hire them!
Nematodes should be applied as early as possible. Smaller grubs are easier to control than larger grubs. The more the grubs feed on your lawn, the larger they become and harder to eliminate. Plus more damage is done to the lawn.
CALL NOW to order a NEMATODE Treatment 905-318-6677
What else should be done?
- Feed the lawn to help any surviving lawn to recover and to fill in the damage.Good quality fertilizer is important to help the lawn fill the spaces where the roots have been eaten by the grubs
- Keep an eye on moisture levels. Since grubs feed on the roots, the lawn will be under stress. When there is a lot of rainfall, the damage is less severe.
- Repair any damage by seeding. See seeding options below.
- Consider applying nematodes next season to prevent as much damage as possible.
Shall I do a treatment next spring?
The grubs do survive the winter. The animals may be back next spring, but I would not recommend treating at that time. Nematodes could technically be used in the spring once the soil warms up. Even when chemical insecticides were available, I normally did not recommend treating for grubs in the spring.
The grubs do survive the winter. The animals may be back next spring, but I would not recommend treating at that time. Nematodes could technically be used in the spring once the soil warms up. Even when chemical insecticides were available, I normally did not recommend treating for grubs in the spring.
Reasons for not treating.
1. Most of the damage to the lawn by the grub is done in the fall. Some feeding does occur, but generally it is minimal.
2. Spring grubs have now reached close to their maximum size and are harder to kill with insecticides.
3. Even if they could be controlled, the grubs in your lawn are not necessarily the source of the next batch of grubs to invade your lawn. (grubs pupate in May-June, then emerge as adults in June-July. The adults can fly. This means they can go to other lawns to lay their eggs that then hatch into baby grubs.) So even if we got rid of all the grubs in your lawn, adults from down the road, across the street or from a neighbourhood park, may still fly over to your lawn and lay eggs in the soil. Controlling the grubs in your lawn in the spring will mean fewer adults flying in your neighbourhood, but not necessarily any fewer eggs laid on YOUR lawn.
What should you do when animals are digging?
Once the animals have stopped coming to your lawn, replace the sod pieces as best you can (green side up). Don't do it every morning, because most likely they will come back and rip up the same piece tomorrow night.
If it is cool and damp and the sod, if it is still alive, will survive a few days on its back. If it is hot and dry, put a sprinkler on the disturbed lawn. By waiting you will be less frustrated - hopefully you replace the sod only once or twice.
There are animal repellers that usually work to keep the animals away. Contact us for more information.
How to Repair Damage
If the damage is very minimal, sometimes a couple of pieces of sod, may provide an easier fix. Do this if sod is available
There are several ways to seed your lawn to repair insect damage
One way is to add some soil as needed, and sprinkle lots of good quality grass seed that is appropriate for the sun/shade conditions of your lawn. If it is both sunny and shady, and you only want to purchase one type of seed, use shady grass seed. Shady grass seed will grow better in the sun than sunny grass will in the shade.
If the damage is very severe, the easiest way to get grass back is to aerate and overseed. Seeds falling in the aeration holes are protected from drying out, and from the birds.
If you have a lawn/tree/shrub that needs some Tender Loving Care- get The KING OF GREEN:
or call us at 905.318.6677 or 1.888.TURFKING (887.3546)
If you would like more information, please Contact us
Follow us on Twitter http://twitter.com/turfkingofgreen
Copyright 2012 Turf King-Hamilton. All Rights Reserved.
| Lawn care company marks 50 years in business | |
| Written by Mike Jiggens | |
| An Ontario lawn care company with franchises established throughout the province is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. Turf King is headquartered in Barrie and has franchises serving areas of Ontario from as far north as Sudbury and North Bay, in the southwest to the Lake Huron and Georgian Bay areas, and in southern Ontario in the Hamilton and Haldimand regions. The company’s roots were in the United States where it was previously called General Lawn Spray. It had maintained an office in Canada and billed itself at the time in the early 1960s as the largest lawn care company in the world. The manager of the Canadian branch had originally lived and worked out of the Orillia-Barrie area. The parent company eventually figured there was no money to be made in Canada, and the Canadian office was sold to a businessman who hired a sod grower to become its manager and chief operator. In 1986, Ken and Maureen purchased the Turf King Barrie franchise and, four years later, he became owner and franchisor of Turf King, establishing his Barrie location as head office. Ken remains today as CEO of the company. With a degree in agriculture at the time he joined the company, Murray said his knowledge of turfgrass was a little sketchy. “I knew absolutely nothing about lawns so I learned from him (the former sod grower who served as previous owner) and used my degree to my advantage.” Ken grasped lawn care in short order, ultimately teaching lawn care to professionals at Georgian College for 10 years. Shortly after he bought out the Canadian head office of Turf King in 1990, he turned to his longtime friend Gerry for help in running the company. The two go back to their years as teenagers, having been roommates in school and serving as each other’s best man at their respective weddings. Their wives are also best friends with each other. Gerry, whose background is in horticulture and who began in the industry working at his father’s garden centre in Mount Hope, became the franchisee of Turf King’s Hamilton operation in 1991. “I knew Gerry’s background was considerably more suited for something like this,” Ken said, adding his friend is one of the smartest and most trustworthy people he’s ever met. Ken said there are a number of reasons to explain Turf King’s success over the course of 50 years. For starters, he said the company is “a family-type operation.” Company meetings are held twice yearly, including an annual barbecue each summer. “Everyone’s opinion is valued,” Ken said. “Even though it is a franchise organization, we operate as one large team.” In the event he encounters a problem, he said he can count on any one of his franchisees to lend a helping hand. Another reason for Turf King’s success was its forward thinking toward alternate pest control products several years prior to the implementation of the Ontario cosmetic pesticide ban. “We didn’t jump on the bandwagon for banning pesticides, but we explored every single alternative we could find along the way. We tried things long before they were acceptable.” Turf King began experimenting with corn gluten meal long before it became an approved alternative product. “We try to be innovative,” Gerry said. ken said he would approach his customers with ideas for controlling pests without the need for traditional products which have since become outlawed. He told his customers that if the alternative products didn’t work to their satisfaction, that he could revert to the tried and true conventional products still available at the time for use. “Most of my customers were good with that idea,” he said. “They liked the idea of being avant garde.” Those customers, he said, were integral in allowing the company to see which products were effective and which weren’t in advance of the ban. Gerry said it is important for Turf King to be up front with its customers in the years since the implementation of the ban, letting them know that the products available for legal use don’t work quite the same as those banned. The customers are educated with an understanding of what Turf King is up against. “You don’t want to lower their expectations, but let’s say manage their expectations,” Gerry said. The company has lost some customers in recent years because the alternative pest control products aren’t working as effectively as 2,4-D and others which fell to the ban, and they are costlier than their predecessors. But other customers are coming back, he said, because they feel the newer products are sufficiently effective and aren’t as environmentally harsh. Gerry said he has a healthy percentage of repeat customers, some of whom date back to his days about 30 years ago when he worked at Oriental Garden Gallery in Mount Hope (now called Mountain Garden Centre). Turf King has introduced a 50th anniversary special this year to attract new customers. Gerry, who supervises six technicians in a territory which covers Oakville to Beamsville to Haldimand, said he believes that, politically, it would be difficult for the ban to be repealed, but added it could one day be amended to include certain products taken away. In the meantime, educating his customers is a priority. “We try to educate them with their expectations,” he said. “I’d rather be a little more up front with people and say it will kill some and some will take several applications, and there’s probably some it won’t control.” To Gerry, it’s a matter of treating customers the way he’d like to be treated. Among his customers within the Hamilton territory include seniors who are unable to tend to their lawns anymore themselves, high-end residential customers “who can afford not to do it anymore,” condominiums, commercial properties and sub-contracted work for landscape contractors. Some franchises offer more or different services than others, but the Hamilton franchise specializes in strictly weed and insect control, fertility and deep root feeding. Other franchises may offer tree and shrub care in addition to basic lawn care services if a specialist in that field is among that franchise’s technicians. Ken himself, in addition to his administrative responsibilities at company CEO, likes to get his hands dirty and does much of the field work himself for his own Barrie-area franchise. Gerry said a good working relationship over the years with supply companies such as Nutrite has proven to be a success for Turf King. At Turf King’s request, Nutrite has done such custom blending as a fertilizer and grub control combination product to meet the customer’s needs prior the pesticide ban. Ken said Nutrite “treated us like kings when we were more like paupers,” adding he suspects Turf King may now be among Nutrite’s largest customers. The use of a good, high-quality fertilizer is “the backbone of your program and gives you a good, healthy lawn and gives you a good start,” Gerry said. Hiring the right people is the key to a successful franchise, Gerry said, adding he has had good staff retention for the past four or five years. Some other lawn care companies will have crews of about three people at a job site, one of whom is the foreman. Turf King sends one technician to a job site. Gerry said he prefers to hire technicians who are knowledgeable in their trade, trustworthy, dependable and who can work independently. Ken said the time has come to consider growing the company. Turf King currently has 10 franchises in Ontario, employing about 50 people. He said he purposely kept the number of franchises to a manageable level because he liked the collective family atmosphere it represented. “But, in our business, if you don’t grow, you die,” he said. |
Turf King #Lawncare company marks 50 years in business - Turf & Recreation http://ht.ly/bTlN4
If you have a lawn/tree/shrub that needs some Tender Loving Care- get The KING OF GREEN:
or call us at 905.318.6677 or 1.888.TURFKING (887.3546)
If you would like more information, please Contact us
Follow us on Twitter http://twitter.com/turfkingofgreen
Copyright 2012 Turf King-Hamilton. All Rights Reserved.
