Recovering from Chinch Bugs

mister – posted 29 July 2004 15:07

Greetings:

I laid sod down May 30th, did great for a while and then it suddenly started dying. I finally realized it was chinch bugs about a week ago(actually brought them up from the soil), and then realized two days ago triazacide wouldn’t cut it. I brought out the big dogs (Talstar EZ), and it looks like it destroyed the chinch bugs(as far as i can tell). My question is where do I go from here? The lawn is in very poor condition, but none of the really unhealthy spots are bigger than maybe 3 feet. Should I just give the turf some time before I do anything(like plugs, or new pieces of sod), or should I immediatly start doing something like perhaps put down topsoil in some of the ugly spots(or maybe sand?) Any suggestions would be helpful. I guess I should also say I live in Tampa, FL (95 degrees everyday) so fertilizing is definetly out of the question.

Thanks

Alex_in_FL – posted 08 August 2004 21:46

My approach would be to:(1) Raking dead areas.(2) Buy a few strips of sod and make plugs.(3) Put plugs on 4-6″ centers(4) Put out a good, slow release fertilizer like lesco 16-4-8 (or similar).

I would say water but if you are like me, you are getting plenty of rain every day or two.