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Stop Summer Pests in Their Tracks with Lawn Treatments

people enjoying pest free lawn

If you have pets, you may already know that fighting a flea infestation can be a nightmare. Not only can they make your pet an itchy mess (especially if they have flea allergies), but they can also transmit parasites such as tapeworms and flea-borne spotted fever.

While ticks may seem like a small issue, they can still pass along some nasty illnesses such as Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever and Lyme Disease.

Having your lawn treated for these pests is the first step to preventing these illnesses. To help you defend your family, pets, and home, here are the answers to a few frequently asked questions from Custom Lawn & Landscape about flea and tick lawn treatments.

You Don’t Need a Dog to Need Flea and Tick Treatment

Even without pets, your home can still experience an infestation of fleas or ticks. Wildlife such as squirrels or raccoons can bring adult fleas, as well as eggs, to your doorstep just by crawling across it.

It’s even possible for you to take those adult fleas and eggs inside your home by means of your shoes. Even hardwood floors can harbor flea eggs!

When Is The Right Time to Treat Your Lawn?

For best results, we recommend treating your lawn April through September. However, specific recommendations for your lawn will be based upon your particular climate and conditions. If you have had ongoing problems with fleas and ticks, you will want to treat it more frequently.

There is a popular misconception that you do not need to worry about flea or tick treatments during the winter, but this is not always true. If the temperature doesn’t get cold enough for a long enough period of time, the cold will not kill all the fleas, ticks, or their eggs.

What Can I Expect from My Lawn Care Treatment?

At Custom Lawn & Landscape, we use eco-friendly products while treating your lawn for fleas and ticks. Each lawn we treat is treated for its specific needs, so there is no one-size-fits-all treatment plan.

We use the best products and our technicians know when, how much, where, and how to use it to keep your lawn looking its best.

5 Lawn Pests in Your Lawn Right Now

Summers in Johnson County are the time to show off your lawn and all the hard work you’ve put into into it throughout the year. You expect a luscious green lawn for your kids and dogs to run and play on, but there could be problems lurking somewhere in those green grass blades.

Here are five lawn pests that are common this time of the year and how you can rid your Olathe or Overland Park yard of them with the help of Custom Lawn & Landscape Inc.

1. Grubs

Have you seen Japanese beetles in your tree lately? What about dead patches of grass? You could have grubs. They are the larvae of Japanese beetles, June beetles and chafers. These pests feed on the roots of your grass and can kill your lawn.

To prevent them or treat an infestation, apply your lawn treatment when grubs are newly hatched or just before. Our Insect and Grub Treatment is most effective in June and July when the grubs head to the surface.

Related Read: Plagued by Brown Spots? Here are 4 Causes & Solutions for Your Lawn

2. Ticks & Fleas

You don’t want your dog or kids bringing ticks and fleas inside your home, but they are inevitable if you don’t pretreat your yard. Both fleas and ticks thrive in warm and humid weather and reproduce rapidly. To keep these pests at bay, make sure to treat your lawn earlier rather than later.

The professionals at Custom Lawn in Olathe use an effective eco-friendly approach that leaves your lawn greener, healthier, and free of pests.

3. Bagworms

Do you find your tree’s leaves are turning brown or needles are falling off your pine trees in the middle of the summer? Bagworms could be the culprit. While these pests use more than a hundred species of plants for food, pine trees are common in the Midwest.

These insects’ sacks are often mistaken for small pinecones. The good news is that they are slow spreading. To treat bagworms you must start at the beginning of their lifecycle, which is usually in May and June when they hatch.

4. Spider Mites

These hard to see pests can really pack a punch despite their tiny size. If you have yellowed leaves and tiny webbing between them, you can bet it’s probably spider mites causing the issue. To make sure they are the offender, hold a sheet of white paper under an unhealthy branch. Hit the branch and see what comes out.

If you see tiny red yellow, green, brown or black specks fall on your paper it’s spider mites. One thing you can do to prevent them is to clean up debris, dead plants, and weeds around trees and plants. If you have them, hire a professional lawn and yard care company to spray your plants with a bug control mixture.

5. Ash Borer Beetles

These non-native bugs are currently causing a lot of trouble in the Midwest. These beetles attack healthy Ash trees by tunneling into the trunks and roots to lay eggs. Once the eggs hatch, the larvae feed on the plant tissue. An affected tree is hard to pinpoint until it’s too late.

Look out for leaf dieback high in the canopy, bark splitting and tiny D-shaped holes in the bark that are formed when adult beetles emerge. All untreated Ash trees will die. If you have an Ash tree you suspect, get it treated right away.

3 Steps to a Mosquito-Free Backyard

Another pest to look out for this summer in your lawn is mosquitoes. There are steps you can take to ensure your lawn stays free of these unwanted guests, but you’d better get started early in the season. Once May hits and the Kansas City area is steadily warming up, you could have a very itchy problem.

Like ticks, mosquitos aren’t just annoying, they’re a serious health concern. Whether West Nile virus or Zika, it’s nearly impossible to turn on the news without hearing about the dangers of mosquitoes. Follow these tips to send those pests packing!

Step One: Cleanup

First, get rid of any standing water. Just clearing out the large puddles won’t do the trick, even so much as an upturned capful of water can become a breeding ground for these pests.

Check everything that could collect water, like sandboxes, toys, dog bowls, and plant saucers. Even if your gutters seem to be draining well, double check for any low points that might allow water to collect.

While you’re banishing standing water, don’t forget to clean up leftover debris. Mounds of leaves and grass clippings can hold on to the water and shade that mosquitoes love, so you’ll want to do a little extra clean up if you see lawn debris collecting anywhere.

Need more convincing? See what other problems a wet, soggy lawn can bring.

Step Two: Take Away the Buffet

Once you’ve taken away the mosquito’s breeding areas, it’s time to get rid of their favorite foods. Contrary to popular belief, a mosquito’s primary food source is plant nectar, not blood. But don’t worry, you don’t have to rip out your garden!

Keep the vegetation in your yard trimmed to cut down on the available feeding grounds. Just like the rest of us, mosquitoes enjoy cool, damp areas during the heat of the day. A well trimmed and mowed lawn doesn’t offer mosquitoes as much room to relax, and encourages them to buzz off.

Step Three: Bid Them Farewell for Good

Now that you’ve taken away all the mosquito’s favorite attractions in your lawn, there a few extra steps you can take to make your lawn the last place these pests want to spend their time.

Add the right plants to your garden. Did you know those citronella candles that are so popular for repelling mosquitoes are actually derived from citronella plants? Mosquitoes tend to avoid areas with citronella, catnip, lavender, marigolds, basil, or peppermint, which makes these plants a great addition to your yard.

Treat your yard for mosquitoes and other insects. Sometimes, even after you remove the mosquito’s favorite vacation spots, you’ll still keep seeing mosquito bites! Thankfully, there are insecticides specifically for these instances. If you and your family spend a lot of time in the yard, consider treating for mosquitoes regularly.

The trained techs at Custom Lawn & Landscape can help you treat fleas, ticks, mosquitoes, and more, so you can take back your lawn. Give us a call at (913) 648-9404 or contact us online and we’ll make sure there’s nothing about your lawn that bugs you!

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The Custom Lawn Advantage

  • Your Personal Technician has a college degree, is experienced, and is your trusted advisor.
  • Environmentally Responsible Approach - Our top concerns are you and your family’s safety & the long term health of our beautiful planet.
  • Always available with a friendly voice.
  • Our goal is to always provide honest advice & real solutions to our customers.
  • We provide full service-residential & commercial lawn care, mowing, & irrigation services. We also maintain your trees, shrubs and landscape.
  • Locally owned by the same family since 1981.

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    Or give us a call us at 913-586-2753

    Thank you to Troy Wingert and his team for customizing a program for my lawn. Great customer experience and look forward to working with Troy and crew moving forward!!!
    We are absolutely thrilled with the results of Cole Jensen's work from Custom Lawn! Throughout the year, Cole has diligently applied fertilizer to our lawn. Our lawn is lush, green, and immaculate, standing out beautifully compared to our neighbors' yards, which are plagued with weeds and dandelions. Cole's expertise and dedication have truly made a difference, and we couldn't be happier with the service provided. Thank you, Cole, for giving us a lawn we can be proud of!
    Sean O’Dywer was wonderful! Answered all my questions, very thorough and professional, always prompt!
    Sean O'Dwyer has helped care for our yard through Custom Lawn and Landscape for a few years. Sean is polite, prompt and very professional. We highly recommend Sean and the team at Custom Lawn and Landscape. Good Work, guys!
    Seth, at Custom Lawn and Landscape, is doing doing great job bringing our lawn back to life. After only a couple treatments it's already made a world of difference.
    Sean O’D took over the lawn care for my yard last year. It was in poor to mediocre shape with wild violets and bare spots. But after a year under his care, this spring my lawn is like green carpet. Deep green color and thick without weeds, violets and bare spots. My neighbors have commented on how lush my lawn looks. I’m very pleased.
    When Custom Lawn took over my lawn maintenance, I had a weak lawn with bare spots and weeds. Now I have the best lawn on the block, thick beautiful grass and no weeds. Cole is always willing to go the extra mile to take care of us.
    Sean O’ Dwyer has been taking care of our yard for the past several seasons and it is always immaculate because of the work he does. I never have to worry about weeds, sparse grass or anything. He is always detailed about what he does! Thank you Sean
    Our technician, Sean O’Dwyer, has done a great job on our lawn! I appreciate the advance notice that our yard will be serviced and he takes great care that our dogs don’t escape!
    Just like to say Seth our lawn technician does a great job! Our lawn looks great. Thanks Seth
    Daniel R. and Troy really got me out of a pickle and were quick/great with communication
    Seth, at Custom Lawn and Landscape, is doing doing great job bringing our lawn back to life. After only a couple treatments it's already made a world of difference.
    Seth does a great job, always professional
    I AM SO HAPPY WITH CUSTOM LAWN AND LANDSCAPE! MY GRASS WAS 2 FT TALL. NOW MY YARD IS SO BEAUTIFUL. THANKS TO TROY AND SAM. THANKS TO FRANCISCO AND JOSE P. YOU ALL ARE WONDERFUL FOLKS. YOU GUYS ARE 10 STARS IN MY BOOK. THANKS AGAIN!!!!! ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
    We have been very happy with Custom Lawn and Shawn has been very responsive! Our lawn has never looked better!!
    I wanted to thank Chad for all of his work turning on and replacing heads in our sprinkler system. He has excellent attention to details and is very friendly.
    Our experience with Customer Landscape has from the beginning been amazing. Everyone has been easy to work with.

    Sean O’Dwyer lets us know when he will be at our home. He is very detailed with what treatment he will doing and the condition of our lawn and what we need to do.

    This is our second season with Custom Lawn and Landscape and we have never been disappointed with the service and communication we have received from Sean and the rest of the staff.
    Cole is always awesome and quick with recommendations. Our lawn has never looked better. Customer lawn has given us the perfect lawn!
    Aric Peters
    We LOVE our guy Cole!
    Thank you for always greeting our crazy dogs and helping me pick their toys up at the last minute (I’m sorry 😬)! We appreciate you moving with us and the great service!
    Rene provided us with great service and helped especially with our box demonstrating how it worked and some of the quirks with our system.
    Cole does a nice job, communicates well and my lawn looks great.
    Custom Lawn & Landscape does a fantastic job of taking care of our yard and their communication and information are top notch!
    Cole is not only kind , professional but exceptional in his work ethic. I appreciate all he does for my lawn care. Thank you Cole🌻
    Cole is on top of his game and friendly!
    Just like to say Seth our lawn technician does a great job! Our lawn looks great. Thanks Seth
    Sean never misses a spot. He genuinely cares about my lawn and customers. Great communication as well. Thanks
    Sean O’ Dwyer has been taking care of our yard for the past several seasons and it is always immaculate because of the work he does. I never have to worry about weeds, sparse grass or anything. He is always detailed about what he does! Thank you Sean
    Our technician, Sean O’Dwyer, has done a great job on our lawn! I appreciate the advance notice that our yard will be serviced and he takes great care that our dogs don’t escape!
    Cole does a good job keeping me up to date on his servicing of the lawn. Have been pleased with Custom Lawn for a long time.
    We love custom lawn and landscape. They have great technicians but our favorite is Cole Jensen. He proactively communicates with us what day he will be coming. He always gives us great feedback on the condition of our lawn and information about each application he applies. He is kind and easy to work with!
    Michele Schwab
    Thank you to Troy Wingert and his team for customizing a program for my lawn. Great customer experience and look forward to working with Troy and crew moving forward!!!
    Talk to Troy today and he was extremely accommodating and eilling to customize services for our needs! I left today feeling like my patronage mattered!
    When Custom Lawn took over my lawn maintenance, I had a weak lawn with bare spots and weeds. Now I have the best lawn on the block, thick beautiful grass and no weeds. Cole is always willing to go the extra mile to take care of us.
    During the rainy season you may call it Chaos! I call it good lawn service from Custom Lawn. I have never had a tire Spin in my yard because of mowing wet grass! Luis and Elmer mow, trim, blow off my driveway and patio. They are very courteous, respectful and when they leave my home it is always "a good job well done." Thank you Luis and Elmer. I highly recommend Custom Lawn Service to do your Landscaping and mowing.
    Jason is very professional, polite and takes great care of us year after year!
    Sean O'Dwyer is THE BEST Lawn Specialist....he helps make our yard look amazing!!
    Jason has serviced my irrigation for years and does a great job! Always friendly and professional. Has a thorough knowledge of the system.
    Cole has been great informing us & doing a great job for our lawn!
    Cole at Custom Lawn does a great job of keeping us advised on the needs of our lawn. He responds to our requests quickly. Cole lets us know when treatment is scheduled and never treats our lawn unless we have given the ok. We appreciate Cole’s high level of communication. We have used Custom Lawn for 2 years and notice and HUGE difference in our lawn. It is beautiful!!!!
    Always can count on Custom Lawn to meet and exceed my expectations of a great lawn. Always on time, great products that do the job, expert lawn specialist to give me needed information on keeping my lawn looking great. Always on time with applications. Thank you, Sean.
    I recommend Custom Lawn and Landscape for your lawn needs. Troy has been great to work with!
    We are very pleased with the service we recieved from Custom Lawn. Jason was very helpful, professional and efficient. He arrived on time, explained the services he was to perform and he was able to troubleshoot and rectify another problem we were having with our sprinkler system. Thank you for the great customer service.
    We have used Custom Lawn for all of our lawn care needs for several years. We have found them to be reliable and responsive to our concerns when we call. Shawn has really been helpful and diligent. I would recommend them if you are looking for a professional lawn care service.
    We are absolutely thrilled with the results of Cole Jensen's work from Custom Lawn! Throughout the year, Cole has diligently applied fertilizer to our lawn. Our lawn is lush, green, and immaculate, standing out beautifully compared to our neighbors' yards, which are plagued with weeds and dandelions. Cole's expertise and dedication have truly made a difference, and we couldn't be happier with the service provided. Thank you, Cole, for giving us a lawn we can be proud of!
    Sean O’D took over the lawn care for my yard last year. It was in poor to mediocre shape with wild violets and bare spots. But after a year under his care, this spring my lawn is like green carpet. Deep green color and thick without weeds, violets and bare spots. My neighbors have commented on how lush my lawn looks. I’m very pleased.
    Sean O'Dwyer has helped care for our yard through Custom Lawn and Landscape for a few years. Sean is polite, prompt and very professional. We highly recommend Sean and the team at Custom Lawn and Landscape. Good Work, guys!
    Jason does great work, awesome as always! We like that he shows us what he did, explains it and answers questions. Very professional
    Jason did a tremendous job repairing a break in the irrigation system and getting the sprinklers ready for the year. He was very knowledgeable, easy to work with, and communicative. I’ll be working with Custom on winterization of my sprinklers moving forward.
    Jason at Custom Lawn and Landscape was absolutely wonderful. We had an issue getting our sprinkler system to start up this season and he knew exactly how to fix it. Was very informative, answered all my questions and was very personable. Highly recommend Jason.
    Sean O’Dywer was wonderful! Answered all my questions, very thorough and professional, always prompt!
    Custom lawn have always taken great care of us. Highly recommend!
    We had winterization done by technician Rene Flores and he was patient, respectful, and detailed-oriented. I was very happy about his great service and will sign up again next year!
    Rodrigo came out to winterize my sprinkler system. What an amazing ambassador for your company and very knowledgeable and efficient w the Rachio system! Custom Lawn is fortunate to have such a quality team member and technician! Thank you Radrigo and Cuatom Lawn!
    CWO.
    Wonderful service all year. Always on time, my yard had never looked better.
    Thanks for the extra care you have shown me. Thanks, Pam Thomas