Lawn Treatments for Summer Pests

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.

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.