EMPIRE Turf Late Winter Maintenance 2011

EMPIRE Turf – Late Winter Checklist

Video Notes:

As your EMPIRE zoysia starts to green back up after temperatures get warmer, you may notice brown spots or what appear to be dead patches that aren’t coming back like the rest of the yard. If this happens, there are two things you need to look out for.

The first is possible billbug damage. These insects can and will infest an untreated empire lawn even through a cold winter. You can tell by lifting up a section of the turf and you should be able to see them. The adult is a small dark colored weevil with a snout. The larve for the billbug will be in the soil and it looks like a white grub worm. If you find either one of these, you want to get on a spraying program. Apply bifenthrin products to the entire lawn….not just the dead area to kill off the adults. Then apply a chemical called midacloprid (mid-ah-cloe-prid) to kill off the larve. Even if your empire hasn’t greened up yet, its ok to apply those insecticides. Billbugs can be a year round threat and you want to stay on top of things or they can do some real damage. Check out more photos at sodsolutions.com/insects.

If you don’t find any billbugs in your dead area, you might have a lawn fungus called large patch fungus. You can recognize this disease by thin grass leaves that appear bleached out….and the area between healthy grass and the fungus might appear an orange-bronze color.

If you have large patch, you will want to spray with peroxide based materials like Oxidate. Then a few days later, come in with a systemic fungicide that is labeled for large patch. Oxidate cleans the lawn up…basically gets rid of the fungus, and then the systemic fungicide provides for future prevention. If you can’t find over the counter peroxide based materials, call a lawncare company and they will have access to them and can apply it for you.