St. Augustine Pest

pbaber – posted 24 July 2001 19:22

We think we have a chinch bug problem that we are trying to correct. Any suggestions on how to get the patches that have been damaged healthy again?

seed – posted 31 July 2001 18:00

pbaber, here’s some more on the biology and control of chinch bugs:http://floridaturf.com/chinch/index.html

Assuming that you have chemically controlled the bugs (otherwise they will almost certainly advance), there may be some inhibition from the thatch. I don’t know if it’s mechanical or what, but I have observed that chinch-bug-killed areas take weeks to start growing. So if you have dead, brown St. Augustinegrass, a light raking to remove the thatch may give the new runners a place to peg into the soil. If the destroyed area is large more than 5 feet across, it’s going to take some sod to get it pulled back this season. You can spot sod or even cut plugs to fill into the dead areas.

Phil