You may have notices some changes in your Calgary lawn over the years. The overall health of your lawn may be declining or you may see specific changes that are obvious. Lawn pests in Calgary are quite common and they can really affect the health and look of your lawn. It is important to know what pests you have in your lawn and how best to deal with them.
Dew worms
Dew worms or night crawlers as they are often called do not enhance your lawns health at all and in fact can be very damaging to your lawn. Dew worms are provably the most destructive of all the lawn pests in Calgary. Dew worms can grow up to twelve inches in length. Most worms are healthy for your lawn as they excrete worm castings that are full of nutrients. Also the worms themselves provide nutrients to the soil when they die. Dew worms are quite a different story as they do nothing but make a mess of your lawn. The damaging effects of dew worms can be noticed by mounds or bumps that appear throughout your lawn. These mounds or bumps are caused when dew worms excrete a clay like substance after you water or after a rainfall occurs. These large mounds can making mowing your lawn a real hassle and walkway on your uneven lawn will be uncomfortable especially if you do it with bare feet. The clay like substance that comes from the dew worms prevents good drainage and also interferes with the grasses rooting systems.
Dew worms are hard to get rid of
Dew worms are not easy to get rid of as they live under patios, walkways or deep within the surface of your lawn. There are natural predators for dew worms like coyotes robins and other birds. Trying to dig out dew worms is next to impossible as they are usually too deep to encounter with a shovel and they will scurry away quickly. Totally replacing your lawn will definitely help with eliminating your dew worm problem. New sod care will very much help your lawn stay healthy for years to come and fertilizing your lawn will help prevent dew worms in the future.There are no proven chemicals or pesticides that work for killing dew worms.
Fairy rings
Fairy rings are caused by a fungus that can appear more often in drier locations or areas with poor soil conditions that have low nutrients including some soils in Calgary
You will typically notice a fairly uniform circle or ring of mushrooms appear on your lawn. You may also notice dark green grass rings bordered by another inside ring of dead grass. There may also be mushrooms growing within these rings of discoloured grass. These mushrooms are typically a light brown or tan colour. There are many other mushrooms that grow in lawns but these fairy ring mushrooms are distinguished by their small size and brown colour. You may notice these fairy rings and mushrooms more during the rainy season or after you have watered heavily. As lawn pests in Calgary go, fairy rings are very common and can be seen most often during spring and early summer
Controlling your fairy rings
The cause of fairy rings is a fungi but as there have been no fungicides developed that will control the mycelium fungi you will need to address the fairy rings by doing some manual digging.
Lawn & garden care are the keys to keeping your lawn healthy. A healthy lawn that is watered and fertilized will will be affected less by lawn pests in Calgary. We have found great success by using a pitchfork to punch holes in the lawn wherever the fairy rings exist. It is best to make your holes as deep as possible ( up to 12 inches) and they should be about 3-6 inches apart. After you have throughly punched the holes in the affected area you can then apply water. Soak the area thoroughly with water every couple days or as much as every day for at least a month. if your fairy rings have gotten so bad that they have left the grass brown and unhealthy then we recommend watering daily. You can also apply some generic dish washing liquid to the fairy rings before you apply the water. To do this, simply mix a couple teaspoons of water in a large gallon bucket and pour it over your fork holes. Then soak the detergent into the holes by applying more water.
Replace your lawn if yard pests have taken over
If you have found that dew worms, fairy rings or other lawn pests in Calgary have taken over your lawn then you may want to consider replacing your lawn and soil. You may not need to do complete sod removal and replacement if there are only small affected areas. If for example you only have a small patch of fairy rings then totally removing the sod and lawn and replacing it will likely be less work than fighting with the fairy rings for weeks or even months. We have found dew worms to be very persistent and are definitely the most damaging of lawn pests in Calgary. Customers often ask us
when is it time for lawn removal? If your lawn has been over run with bumps and mounds caused by dew worms then it is probably best to totally replace your lawn. Chinook
landscaping Calgary would be happy to provide you with a free estimate for your lawn replacements.
