If you hadn’t noticed already, you have bugs! Then again, we all do. It’s that time of year where all things creepy and crawly emerge, with oddly shaped wings and long legs, making buzzing noises and snapping their pinchers looking to invade our yards to feed their never-ending appetites.
That’s right it’s time to jump into action and pull out that pest control suit, shake up those aerosol cans, pump up that pesticide bottle, throw down the bait, and spread out the homemade bug killer concoctions. But, before you swoop down to save your Tallahassee yard from utter annihilation, let’s put the cape away and take a moment and look at five critical areas for easy insect management.
What are the five critical areas for easy insect management?
Every spring and summer we’ll get calls from new homeowners or commercial property owners about finding bugs in their lawn. Over the years, Dickerson Landscaping and Lawn Care have shared with many individuals the five critical areas of easy insect management.
But before you dig in, we must first point out there are three kinds of insects to be aware of,
1) harmless yet beneficial
2) harmful wanting to feed on plants and lawns
3) nuisance insects that bite animals and humans, invade homes, buildings, garages, and hover over and around pools and standing water.
Now that you know the differences, we can proceed to the first key area.
What type of bug is it?
Not all insects you come across want to destroy your yard or property. They assist with the growth of your plants and turf. Some beneficial bugs are fearless warriors and prey on the insects that set out to destroy lawns and flowers. As you look at the bug(s) in question, you must first ask yourself if this is a beneficial insect, a lawn destroying pest or a nuisance insect.
How long is the insect’s life cycle?
Once you have identified the insect, you’ll then want to know how long it lives and if it has a single life cycle or multiple life cycles per year. Some of these intruders will lay eggs in the plant leaves, and about 10-15 days later they hatch. That introduces another life cycle for this type of insect, into your garden or lawn giving, this pest a multiple life cycles.
How to monitor the yard?
To stay ahead of the insects that are coming and whether they have single or multiple life cycles, you must monitor your yard for any activity. Through our winter season, when temperatures are low and most bugs are not above ground, you’ll want to watch your yard every two weeks. However, during the other three seasons, you must inspect your grounds every 7-10 days. That is when bug and insect activity is at its highest.
What damage have you found?
As you monitor your property throughout the year, you will find some lawn or plant damage due to harmful and aggressive insect species. Each piece of loss you see is related to the type of insect feeding and in some instances, breeding habits. An example of this is when grass consistently wilts despite proper irrigation, then that is the tell-tale sign billbugs are root-feeding. The same applies to your garden. Just remember each bad bug leaves a specific type of damage behind.
How can you control lawn pests?
Living in Tallahassee, Leon County or any part of Florida, controlling lawn pests is a year-round process for homeowners, property owners, and landscaping companies. How the grass is grown and cared for will determine whether an insect thrives or dies.
What you’re ultimately striving for is keeping your lawn healthy all year to protect it from harmful pest activities. It will also recover faster should there be an outbreak or infestation. Furthermore, proper ground and plant nutrition, timely and accurate fertilizing, correct insecticide use, as well as established mowing practices and irrigation guidelines make up an easy insect management program for you.
If you found What’s Bugging Your Tallahassee Yard This Season helpful, then check out our other article “Did You Check Off These 6 Things From Your Yard’s June Checklist?”