What Happened to the Grass?

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Old 08-03-2009, 01:03 PM
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Default What Happened to the Grass?

Please excuse me if this has been discussed previously, but does anybody know what happened to all the grass on Buena Vista? One day there was beautiful grass, and the next day the grass was all dead-looking. Now they're digging out the dead grass and replacing it with new grass. Does anybody know what happened to the grass?
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Old 08-03-2009, 01:42 PM
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When we were there last week the Village Rep who was showing us around said they were replacing certain areas of grass that had been affected by...I think he said chinch bugs.
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Old 08-03-2009, 02:46 PM
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UU...thanks for asking; I was curious about this too; BB may be right...chinch bugs. That is a potential problem with the St Augustine turf...one of the reasons (along with needing less water) that TV changed to Empire Zoysia sod 3-4 yrs ago.

There is one house in Winifred heading north on Kingston toward the cut through to Laurel Manor where the entire front yard looks like chinch bugs have destroyed it. These folks must be away for the summer...I can't imagine letting it get so bad. Surprised their lawn service company hasn't gotten them to take action.
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Old 08-03-2009, 02:48 PM
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Chinch bugs is also what I had heard.
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Old 08-03-2009, 02:58 PM
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Question Chinch Bugs?

Okie...I'll "bite" no pun intended (yikes do they bite?!? ). What are chinch bugs? I love a nice green lawn too.
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Old 08-03-2009, 03:01 PM
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Can't imagine what the cost of all the replacement grass will be. Our neighbor did not have a regular lawn service--guess they did it themselves. She got chinch bugs about 4 months ago. Had to have ground treated, sod replaced, etc. --said it cost over $1,000.00. Needless to say she now has a service that comes regularly. That house in Winifred may not have a lawn service but you would think the neighbors would call them if they are away and let them know what's going on with their yard.
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Old 08-03-2009, 03:13 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by JeanneBeannie View Post
Okie...I'll "bite" no pun intended (yikes do they bite?!? ). What are chinch bugs? I love a nice green lawn too.
JB, take a look here http://insects.tamu.edu/extension/bulletins/L-1766.html

Hope thgis helps.
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Old 08-03-2009, 03:26 PM
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Originally Posted by downeaster View Post
JB, take a look here http://insects.tamu.edu/extension/bulletins/L-1766.html

Hope thgis helps.

Thank you so much for the web site, very informative. One thing for sure is when I move I will definitely have my yard treated. It is so sad to see things go brown, i.e. grass, trees etc. We have our problems up north here with gypsy moths and now we have a new beetle that destroys trees. I appreciate the info...thanks again.
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Old 08-03-2009, 04:14 PM
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Scotts was running a special last week spraying lawns for chinch bugs for$49. We had ours sprayed . Had to replace our front lawn 3 years ago due to these critters. Cost$1100. Better to get sprayed and be safe.
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Old 08-03-2009, 06:52 PM
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I wonder why TV is not replacing the St. Augustine with Empire Zoysia the that area Buena Vista as needed? I know it will not match in the patch method that they are doing but when I was there 2 weeks ago I saw vary large sections being replaced with St. Augustine and a few more feet one way or the other and everything would have been replaced.

Aslo wonder the cost per sq. foot defference between the two.
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Old 08-03-2009, 07:40 PM
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Thanks to everybody for the great information! If we have the exterminator guy spray around the house and bushes, does that mean we're protected against chinch bugs, or would that be a separate treatment?
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Old 08-03-2009, 08:34 PM
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NOPE..........
Gotta have your lawn Fertilizer service spread insecticide made for cinch bugs......One time my service got a little lax in their spreading and I had two spots about four feet square that had cinch bug damage , I went to Lowe's and bought some powerful stuff and put it on and that took care of it.....However I said one time and thats because I notified my service that if it happened again while I was gone they would be replaced with a new service....Funny how that cured the problem....

cruel and mean Fumar
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Old 08-03-2009, 09:56 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by The Great Fumar View Post
NOPE..........
I notified my service that if it happened again while I was gone they would be replaced with a new service....Funny how that cured the problem....

cruel and mean Fumar
Oh, you're a big meanie, Fumar!
What happens if it happens again while you're there? Hahaha.
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Old 08-04-2009, 11:35 AM
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Default Empire Zoysia not all its cracked up to be!

We have empire zoysia for a lawn and I call tell you its not all its advertised to be as far as I can see. The lawns with Empire Zoysia in general look shoddy and seem to be getting worst as I look around south of 466. Our lawn and next door neighbors has been replaced in sections once and isn't looking much better after another year. Villages tells us to cut it closer (grass cutting guy says no I'll be sorry). Next Villages tells us not enough water then tells us too much water the tells us fungus and sprays for it - that doesn't fix the problem. They spray it again and that still doesn't fix the problem. Then they redo the drainage that doesn't fix the problem then they send samples to Un of Fl and they have no real recommendation then they replace sections and a year later it looks as bad as it did before they replaced it. They gave up!

So I think the are using Augustine Grass in common areas because it looks better and has less problems.
Moral of the story don't wish for Empire Zoysia.
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Old 08-09-2009, 02:10 AM
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Default It's not all chinch bugs

In our case our lawn was beautiful until the rains this spring. We also experienced a lot of winter kill from the cold weather.

Our lawn chemical folks advised the problem is fungus caused by too much rain combining with high nitrogen fertilizer often used. This exacerbates the fungus problem. It is being treated and hopefully will recover in some measure. No re-sodding until fall though. We're suffering through a brown lawn summer and hopefully it can be saved.
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