Grubs are the larva of May/June beetles, masked chafers, Japanese beetles, and green June beetles. While the adult beetles can cause problems, it is the larva that cause dead spots in the lawn.
Grubs are white insects with a brown head. When disturbed, they curl in a C shape. The larger the grub is, the harder it is to kill. Damage due to grubs usually becomes noticeable in July and August, when the grubs are in their third instar or growth period.
Symptoms of Grubs
Grubs feed on the roots of turfgrass. When the roots of the grass are eaten, the grass wilts easily, then dies in irregular patches. You can pull on the turf above the surface of the ground and it will pull away easily. In fact, you can roll the turf up like a carpet.
Treating For Grubs
There are two kinds of treatments for grubs. The first is a stomach poison, which kills the grub after they eat roots with pesticide in them. The second is contact poison, where the poison is in the soil and the grub touches it. Both types of insecticides are effective when used properly.
Applications of insecticide are done in late July/early August in our area. You should water with about half an inch of water two or three days before pesticide application to bring the grubs up to the surface, where the insecticide can reach them. Spread the pesticide and carefully follow the directions on the package. After applying a granular insecticide, water the lawn with at least half an inch of water to drive the insecticide deep enough in the lawn to kill the grubs.
Problems After Treatment
If the thatch in your lawn is deeper than half an inch, it will absorb most of the insecticide. Since grubs don’t eat thatch, they will not be poisoned. Aerate or verticut your lawn to remove the thatch before treating the lawn if the thatch is deep. The other problem is caused by not watering enough after an insecticide application, so the poison doesn’t reach the grubs. In either case, you will not control the grubs despite the cost and effort of applying pesticides, so be sure to be thorough and diligent.
We Kill Grubs
Royal Creations Architectural Landscaping’s Blue Crew will kill the grubs in your lawn. We will also reseed the lawn, if needed, when fall arrives. Sign up for our lawn care subscription and we will make sure thatch doesn’t build up, the lawn irrigation is doing its job, and any grubs are treated and destroyed. Call (816) 825-2524 to sign up and let us handle the grubs.
Do you live in an area with an HOA? Royal Creations Architectural Landscaping loves our customers. While we will always serve individual property owners, we want to keep the common areas in your HOA in good condition just as we keep your outdoor living spaces ready for you to use.
Target Areas
We are targeting some specific neighborhoods that are close to our new shop. These include:
Loch Lloyd
Lakewood
Hallbrook
Iron Horse
Lions Gate
Mission Hills
Mission Farms
The Woods
Our Service Area targets are in the red and green areas.
Referrals To HOA Board Members
If you know anyone on the HOA board for our target neighborhoods, we would love a referral or to be introduced to them. We do everything from designing landscape upgrades to keeping the grass green and inviting. Is there something your neighborhood needs that just isn’t getting done? We can help by talking to your HOA about fixing the problem.
Referrals To Property Management Companies
Do you have areas in your neighborhoods that are managed by property management companies? Many apartment complexes are managed by property management companies that are good with leasing but not as good at maintaining the green spaces around the apartments. Introducing us to the property management companies can pay off for both parties. If we are managing the green spaces, the property management company can spend more time helping residents.
Who do you know involved with the HOA in Loch Lloyd? We would love an introduction and a referral to help your community.
We Can Help Each Other
Lackluster common areas drag down property values. They look like no one cares enough to keep the outdoor living areas looking nice. Lackluster green spaces can negatively impact your ability to enjoy your outdoor living area. You don’t want to sit in the yard looking at dead plants and brown grass. Royal Creations Architectural Landscaping can help if you give us an introduction or referral. Give us a call at (816) 825-2524 to find out how we can help each other.
Bagworms are a real threat to both evergreen and deciduous trees and shrubs. They are unsightly and weaken the host plant. Bagworms attack many species of trees but prefer evergreens. They defoliate the tree they live on, damaging it or even killing it if the infestation is severe.
Description
When the caterpillar hatches, it crawls out of the bag it hatched from. Bagworms start weaving their own bag immediately. The silk is covered in plant debris and can be hard to see when the bagworms are young. Most people start to notice bagworms in August and September when they are one to two inches long.
Life Cycle
The larvae hatch in May and early June. They grow through the summer and continue to add organic matter to their bag for camouflage. In September, the bagworm attaches its bag to a twig. The bags look like Christmas tree ornaments all over the tree.
In the fall, a female bagworm is ready to mate. She has no wings or legs and is inside her protective bag. The males hatch in September and crawl into the bag and mate with the female. She lays 100-200 eggs inside the bag and dies. The eggs overwinter in the mother’s bag.
Control
The most practical method of control is to pick the bags off the tree and crush them, then throw them in the trash. Removing the bags not only kills the eggs and larvae within, but it also prevents that generation from reproducing more bagworms.
The bag around the caterpillar makes chemical control difficult. Chemicals need to be applied to the foliage, not the bag. Spraying a pesticide on the tree that the caterpillar will ingest along with the needles or leaves of the tree is the best way to kill them. The younger the caterpillar, the easier it is to kill it. By August, the bagworm is mature and is not feeding much, so chemical control is unlikely. Don’t waste your time or money on chemicals then.
Both Bacillus thuringiensis and Spinosad will control young bagworms when applied to the foliage. These pesticides are allowed in organic gardening. Products containing acephate, cyfluthrin, or permethrin are also effective chemical control agents when applied to the foliage in early summer. Wet the foliage completely with any pesticide you use, or you will not get good coverage.
We Can Help
Royal Creations Architectural Landscaping customers will be relieved to know that we can treat trees for bagworms. We have the proper equipment and know-how to safely spray every inch of your tree or shrub to kill bagworms before they defoliate your plants. To subscribe to our garden care program, call our office at (816) 825-2524 or schedule a consult.
A lot of people think that hardscapes, the solid surfaces of the landscape, don’t need any maintenance. After all, concrete and paver stones are hard as rock, right? To look their best, they do need some tender loving care.
Clear Debris
Sweep or blow your hardscape regularly. Leaves and other debris can keep your hardscape damp and cause stains to occur. Over time, the constant moisture begins to break down concrete and the finish of the pavers. At that point, the sand between the pavers can also wash out, destabilizing the stones. One tip is to clean your hardscape on the same day of the month every time, you won’t forget to do it.
Power Wash Your Patio & Driveway
Once a year, you should use a power washer to wash the hard surfaces of your property. Power washers force water out in a strong stream, so it washes off the dirt that has been ground in over the last season. Be careful not to direct the power washer on the joints between paver stones. You want to keep the water moving over the stones, not wash out the joints. Many tool rental stores carry power washers if you do not have one.
Chemically Clean and Seal
Every two or three years, your concrete and pavers need to be cleaned with special chemical cleaners to remove the particles that can be removed by the power washer. This step also prepares the pavers to accept the new sealer. You can do this on your own with a pump sprayer and scrub brushes, but the chemicals are harsh, and it is better to let a trained professional do this correctly and be safe. Once the patio is completely cleaned, you may need to touch up some of the sand joints. However, you will have to wait for it to completely dry again before applying any polymeric sand to avoid it sticking to the surface of your pavers. We like to use a wet-look sealer on most applications to bring out the colors of the pavers and give them a wet look.
Let Us Do The Work
As mentioned above, chemically cleaning and sealing pavers and concrete is best left to the professionals. At Royal Creations Architectural Landscaping, we have the right equipment and training. If you subscribe to our hardscape maintenance program, we will come power wash your hardscape once a year. Every two years, we will chemically clean and seal your hardscape. To take advantage of this affordable program, call our office at (816) 825-2524 or schedule a consult soon.
After all the great rain we have gotten this spring, everything is growing in leaps and bounds. Unfortunately, that includes the weeds. If your pre-emergent control is failing, here are the ways Royal Creations Architectural Landscaping deals with weeds.
Thriving Turf
The best defense against weeds is to maintain a thriving lawn. Most turfgrasses will crowd out weeds when they are healthy.
Pick an appropriate turf grass and plant the recommended variety. The Kansas City area is in the transition area from warm season turfgrass like Bermuda and Buffalograss to cool season turfgrasses like Kentucky bluegrasses, perennial ryegrasses, tall fescues, and fine-leaf fescues. Most lawns will be cool season turf and we typically use tall fescue for residential lawns unless there is deep shade where we may use bluegrass as an alternative.
Maintain the soil pH between 6-7
Mow, water, and fertilize properly
Control insect and disease damage
Control thatch
Aerate compacted soils
Mechanical Control
Set your lawn mower at the correct height for the species of grass you have. Frequent weekly mowing will control many types of weeds because they never get tall enough to seed. We recommend 3 ½” to 4” height on fescue lawns. If you have a few weeds in your grass, you can pull them by hand. It is harder to eradicate weeds with deep root systems by weeding by hand.
Herbicides
Sometimes the weeds are so bad you must use an herbicide to kill them. Care should be taken when choosing a herbicide to make sure it will not only kill the weeds involved but won’t damage the turf grass you want. For this, we use a selective herbicide. If the lawn is badly infested with weeds, a broad herbicide that kills everything may be your only choice. After the weeds are dead, you can de-thatch and reseed the lawn to start over. Sometimes, this is necessary in areas where insects or disease has killed an area of your lawn and the weeds have taken over.
Landscape Beds
This time of year we are re-visiting our garden care clients at least once a month to help manage the weeds in their mulch and rock beds. We will spray in areas where the weeds are heavy and there are not a lot of ornamental plants. If it is planted more densely and the weeds are here and there we will pull them by and as often as possible.
Help Is On The Way
Royal Creations Architectural Landscaping is developing a comprehensive lawn care program to care for your turfgrass, eliminate weeds, treat disease and insect pests, and establish a thick, lush lawn. Call our office at (816) 825-2524 to get on the lawn care subscription list, and we will contact you with the details soon.
