Lawn Disease 101
Lawn care can be labor-intensive work, but always worth the effort when you can step back and appreciate a beautifully green and lush lawn. Trimming and watering your lawn are essential steps to take to prevent an unhealthy lawn, but your grass can be the victim of lawn disease!
Thankfully lawn diseases are preventable, but it can come down to acting fast ahead of time to avoid patches of unsightly dead grass or even mold! Here are just some lawn diseases we commonly see homeowners deal with and how you can spot them before they destroy your lawn.
Brown Patches
Much like the name suggests, brown patches are a type of lawn disease where you will notice areas of your lawn where the grass is sunken and discolored. Often brown patch lawn disease appears in a circular patch with brownish tones formed in high heat and humidity. If you notice that you have areas of your lawn with healthy grass surrounded by a somewhat circular area of yellowish or brown-tinged leaves of grass, you have a brown patch.
To prevent brown patches, ensure that your lawn has a good airflow to avoid water from pooling on top of your grass. An easy way to avoid poor drainage and airflow is to regularly aerate your lawns to prevent thatch and other organic material underneath your grass from not allowing water to be absorbed appropriately. If your yard has numerous brown patches, contact our team, and we can quickly treat your lawn with fungicides that can taper some of the brown patch growth and help you rebuild your lawn.
Red Thread
Grass should often be green, easy to remember, and hard to forget. So when you notice part of your grass with patches of grass blades that look red, you have red thread lawn disease. In high humidity, red thread will make your grass look thinner than usual, almost straw-like, and will leave your lawn looking uneven. Once again, to prevent red thread, make sure your lawn is properly aerated, fertilized, and cared for as poor airflow and excess water makes the fungus that causes the red thread to spread quickly. If your lawn has extra shade, consider finding ways to let in more sunlight to avoid fungus growth; this can include trimming trees.
Fairy Ring
Despite the delicate name, fairy rings can be unsightly for homeowners that want lawns that look uniform. Fairy rings are circular dark patches of grass caused by fungal growth. At first glance, fairy rings can look harmless, but over time the fungus will eat away at your grassroots, leading to dead patches of grass, eventually leading to those dead patches of grass being replaced by a ring of mushrooms. You can get rid of the early dark circles caused by fairy rings by fertilizing your lawn, but the best course of action is aerating and watering your lawn so that you can deter fungal growth over time. Fairy rings can take some time to get rid of, so try your best to spot them early on to avoid dead patches of grass.
Leaf Spot
During warmer and humid conditions, your lawn can be susceptible to pathogens that will cause the leaves on the grass to develop discolored spots. Depending on your grass, the spots can appear brownish or even tan-colored. The danger of leaf spots is that it not only makes your grass blades look unpleasant, but this lawn disease will damage your lawn’s roots. Look around your lawn for areas with known drainage issues or under heavy shade for patches of discolored or dead grass; once you find these patches of unhealthy grass, try to identify any spots on the grass blades. Set up an appointment with our team to avoid further lawn damage.
Dollar Spot
Similar to leaf spot, dollar spot is another lawn disease that will lead to patches of discolored and dead grass around your lawn. What makes dollar spot easier to identify is that the patches of affected grass grow up to the size of a silver dollar coin, or around 5 to 6 inches in diameter. While individual patches are small, your lawn can have numerous dollar spot growths that will accumulate and make your lawn look patchy. Take a similar approach to inspect your lawn for leaf spots to help identify a dollar spot.
At Price Termite & Pest Control lawn care is another one of our biggest passions, and we know how tricky it can be to deal with lawn disease. So call our professionals today at (888) 429-9725, that way we can get that lawn back to being healthy and lush for the Spring