Brown Patch – & Grubs – St. Augustine Grass

shirl – posted 24 November 2003 09:41

I have been told different things by several lawn care companies. I live in Austin, TX – the temperature is about 68 degrees during the daytime, and 30-40 degrees at night. I have dead grass areas throughout my lawn. Some companies say I have Brown Patch (which two $80 treatments need to be applied) – some say I have Grubs, which requires some kind of treatment. One person said we need to rake out the dead areas where the Grubs killed the roots. Others say, to leave the dead areas – they’ll grow back in the spring. My question is – for this time of year, what is the best action for dealing with Grubs which were probably more active in previous months – and Brown Patch?

ted – posted 24 November 2003 13:23

this is an easy one. first of all, there’s nothing you can do chemically now to help this problem. you probably don’t have grub damage, it’s probably brown patch. if you want to scratch out the dead areas you can do so , but it’s a matter of how much work do you want to do. first if it’s in circles with green dots in the middle it’s brown patch. if you can pull up the sod like carpet it’s grubs. i’m not buying the grub story, but it’s possible. next spring start on a generalized pest control treatment program for the lawn and this should minimize most pest problems. i always apply insecticide on a monthly basis, because of a fire ant allergy, so i never have any lawn damaging insect problems..as for the fungus, you can start next september with a preventative application ( or two) of prostar fungicide. you can’t buy this but a licensed lawn care applicator can. that along with cutting back on the watering and not fertilizing too much in the late summer will minimize your fungus situation. also, why don’t you overseed the lawn with rye grass for this winter? generally most pros would say that’s it’s too late, but in south texas you can hit some long periods with warm temps that will allow the fast germinating ryegrass to hit quickly.- i’m just down the road in houston, so i’ve dealt witht these problems alot.