Centipede Problems….

Tigervoice – posted 22 April 2003 02:42

History of my backyard. Been in the house nearly two years and the yard is roughly three and a half years old. Wasn’t very healthy or thick before last summer. I fertalized it once and it came up strong but all summer I fought dead spots that popped up. I went through everything trying to figure out what it was. Mole crickets, grubs and all of that…no luck.

My dad’s lawn man told him it’s a fungus that is spreading here in Alabama. I lightly sprayed the yard with Daconil last week. Not sure if it’s done any good because today I saw several new spots appearing in healthy grass. I’ll take a picture tomorrow and post it. Some other parts of the lawn are a significantly darker green also. Going back to the spots. When I say dead spot, I mean dead. Everything in the spot is toast and is all a uniform orangish brown.

I found info on Centipede Decline, but my yard isn’t very thick with thatch. What can I do?

George777 – posted 24 April 2003 19:36

I would call your local county extension agent and have him came out to your house. He can take a sample of your turf and put it under a microscope and tell you what is going on. He will do this at no cost to you. It could be several things and you may spend a lot of money trying to treat something and find the problem remains. I would look in the yellow pages and try him out.

George777 – posted 22 May 2003 20:31

I took a sample of cent to my agent and found several problems. the signs are a orange halo in big spots about 4-8′. This lawn has brown patch, pythium, and leaf spot. I will apply a product from lesco called 2 sum. I will not fertilize and the water system is off. Weather here in Bama has been awesome for turf diseases. Warm temps, high humidity, and lots of rain. I expect to see more problems in the coming days. Yesterday in 12 hours we got 3″ of rain. Once a plant gets a disease it will allways have it. It will just wait until conditions are right before you see it.

certified-in-florida – posted 30 May 2003 21:25

I agree with the prevoius posts. If the grass is “yellowing” before dying, it could be spittle bugs. I’m in the panhandle of Florida, and despite what they say, I have seen spittle bugs damage turf. It turns yellow before dying. I don’t know the range of spittle bugs enough to know if they are in your area.

I think if the extension service will visit (in some area they won’t), that would be a good piece of advice. If not, you may want to concider taking a sample to them.

I agree, it could save you a bunch of $$.

good luck,

Scott

eldyfig – posted 07 June 2003 15:20

I have plenty of spittle bugs in my St. Augustine here in Jacksonville, Fl. I am rather pleased with my lawn. On the other hand, I do feel my lawn could be a darker green and more lush. Could the spittle bug be preventing my lawn from reacing its maximum green?

When I mow the lawn, the bugs hop all over the mower. When the grass near the sidewalk is watered, they jump out onto the walk. My 7 yr old likes collecting them at this point, and do what kids do with bugs. Fine with me, one or so less spittle bugs back to the lawn.

certified-in-florida – posted 07 June 2003 17:37

Hi,

They can cause damage in St Aug., but usually if it is healthy otherwise, it will be fine.

The only thing to remember is that st aug may not get as green as some of the other types of grass and that even within st. aug., different varieties will have varying shades of green.

You may want to make sure you are cutting at a proper height and fertilizing properly.

If my entomolgy is correct, spittle bugs have piercing/sucking mouthparts simmilar to chinch bugs. I haven’t seen them do anywhere near the same damage as chinch bugs though.

I suppose in large enough numbers, they could account for a bit of yellowing.

Best wishes,

Scott

Will-PCB – posted 08 June 2003 09:04

You can also trying to put some iron down if you want to turn your St. Augustine darker green. We are getting to the point in the season that I would not push the grass too much though.