Mole Crickets Anyone?

 

Horticulture Hotline 11/07/22

By Bill Lamson-Scribner

 

I guess the mole crickets didn’t drown during Ian. Between having 3 stores (Possum’s Landscape and Pest Control Supply), regularly scouting around, and having a whole bunch of friends in the business of killing mole crickets, when they get bad, I hear about it. Right now, they are bad! With some products being removed from the market, we are getting more complaints about mole crickets.   

 

These guys definitely damage turf.  Their damage is not caused by them eating the roots of the grass plants, as many people think, but is actually caused by them tunneling near the surface and separating the roots from the soil.  When the roots are separated from the soil, the grass plant dries out and dies.  This tunneling can cause big problems when there is little rainfall like we are having now. When the soil is dry, it separates quickly from the plant’s roots.  Regular rains, irrigation or rolling the ground with a sod roller, can help keep the plant alive by keeping the roots in contact with the soil.

 

To control mole crickets, it is best to scout for them.  Get two ounces of lemony dish soap in five gallons of water and slowly pour it over a 2 x 2 area where you may think you have mole crickets.  The soap irritates their equivalent to our lungs, and brings them to the surface gasping for air. This will bring them to the surface (and other creatures) and depending on how many come to the surface, you can then decide whether to treat your yard or not.  A golf course green because of putting would have less tolerable amount than a home lawn. 

 

This time of year, mole crickets are in their adolescent and adult stage. Now they are tunneling near the surface and flying with our warm fall weather. In late March early April mole crickets will be mating and flying. Often you will notice a little volcano with a hole in the center the size on a number 2 pencil. The male mole cricket uses this volcano to amplify his mating call. This is a good time to treat them because you will break up their life cycle before they produce new babies. 

 

Later, in June and July, if you use a soap flush again; you will see the baby mole crickets.  Baby mole crickets are easy to kill because they do not fly. Baby mole crickets look like little adults. You might also see some adults that are getting ready to die. 

 

In the fall, the small mole crickets will have grown into young adults, have wings, and will tunnel near the surface and fly around. In the fall and winter these young mole crickets do a lot of damage. The grass is going dormant so the damage is harder to see, people tend to cut back on their irrigation, and we have low humidity, windy days. Depending on the amount of mole crickets in your yard, these are the three critical times to treat for them. 

 

Many control products are available to kill mole crickets.  Some work better depending on the stage of life of the mole cricket.   There are baits, parasitic nematodes, contact killers, granular products, spray products, etc.  When going after the baby mole cricket, always be sure to use a product that goes through the thatch layer and into the soil where the baby mole cricket resides.  Depending on your population of mole crickets, type of soil (they like sand – easier to tunnel), and number of lights you have on your property that they attract to, the number of applications can vary greatly. Mole Crickets tend to inhabit the same area of a landscape year after year (usually because of lights or soil type), so with good mapping, you can concentrate your efforts in these areas and save money by using less product.

 

Always read, understand and follow product label. The product label is a Federal Law.

 

Soil Test, Milkweed, Large Patch, Mosquitoes

 

Horticulture Hotline 10/31/22

By Bill Lamson-Scribner

 

Well, I’m starting to get back soil test that people took after Ian’s rains, and I can tell a big difference! Some tests with high CEC’s (the ability for the soil to hold nutrients) have little to no nutrients. Potassium, a nutrient that leaches and is very important for the winter months, is coming back with very low values (as would be expected). Take a soil test now and be ready for 2023.

 

My Milkweed, the Monarch butterflies preferred food source, is putting on it’s seeds for next year. If you grow Milkweed, do not use a preemergent product near them or your seeds will not turn into plants. I usually collect mine once you can see the silk coming out of the seed pod and leave them in the garage for the winter. In the spring you can grow the seeds out in pots or just throw them on the ground. If you like, give some seeds to a friend. The Monarch butterflies and your friend will enjoy. The Milkweed’s habitat is getting lost to construction, and the Monarch butterfly’s numbers are suffering too.

 

While walking and driving around, it seems that brown patch/ large patch/ Zoysia patch (I will use these names interchangeable) has invaded the Lowcountry in a big way. As the cooler weather comes and the grass growth rate slows down, large patch / brown patch / zoysia patch fungus began to show up in our lawns. Does it seem to you that right when we got the army worms and sod web worms under control, here comes the large patch? Proving once again, the Lowcountry is the hardest place in the world to grow grass and why it is so important to have a program for your lawn. Do you see areas of your grass that are brown when other parts are green?

 

Large patch disease is always present in the lawn, it just manifests itself when the environmental conditions are right and your grass cannot outgrow the damage. Without any sustained cold temperatures, this disease is slowly spreading across lawns as the temperatures that favor its growth keep coming into play. This prolonged fall is great for outdoor activities like visiting local plantations, fishing, boating, golfing, shopping and working in the yard; however, the temperatures are also perfect for these diseases to develop. The grass is not fully actively growing (not mowing as much) and it is not fully dormant (brown), so these are perfect conditions for the disease to attack.

 

As your grass is going into dormancy and the temperatures begin to cool at night, large patch is ready to attack your grass. Large patch will go inactive when the temperatures get very cold; however, it will become active again when the temperatures favor the disease. If you have discolored areas in your yard that appear to be a disease, check with someone that knows. Even if it is during a cold phase and the disease does not appear to be active, you can still put out a systemic fungicide for protection. Our soils do not get so cold that the plant will not absorb the fungicide with its roots. Remember treating a fungus with a systemic fungicide is like getting a flu shot – you do it preventatively before you have the disease. If it is too late to use it preventively, when you want the disease to stop spreading, you can use the fungicide curatively.

 

 

A good granular one-two punch control strategy is T-Methyl and Strobe Pro G (all systemic fungicides that get into the plant).  Use these products in areas where you have had Large Patch previously at the preventive rates and intervals recommended on the labels. Be sure to use T-Methyl with Strobe Pro G, so you are switching chemistry classes and modes of action. Good control early on can help avoid flare ups in the spring also.

 

Large patch usually likes wet, heavy thatch, improper nutrition, and/or compacted soils.  Culturally you need to manage your irrigation system, raise any low areas, and correct drainage problems.  Reducing thatch (at Possum’s we have a great organic granular product for controlling thatch), maintaining proper fertility levels, and aerating to alleviate compaction, will also help control large patch. A healthy turf (following soil test derived feeding schedule) with a soil with a lot of bio-diversity (use of cotton burr compost, SeaHume and other organics) has shown to help manage this disease.

 

Mosquitoes are still out there and biting me!

 

Always read, understand and follow product label. The product label is a Federal Law.

Time to Winterize

 

Horticulture Hotline 10/24/22

By Bill Lamson-Scribner

 

The beautiful fall color has arrived in many parts of the United States. In the Lowcountry we will get the yellow from the Popcorn Tree (a highly invasive species), the red from Virginia Creeper (nasty vine), more yellow from the Sweet Gum Tree (the tree with the mid-evil spiked balls), and don’t forget the red from Poison Ivy. This year we seem to get a bonus red in mounds – the red imported fire ant! The yellow flowers from Cassia and the red flowers from bottle brush always make a great fall color show!

 

Yes, it is time to winterize your landscape. SeaHume should be used alone or with the 00-00-25, depending on the results from your soil test. Look for a product with a 00 for the first number (nitrogen). A 00-00-25 with sulfate of potash and minors would be great. If you do not need the potash, consider just the SeaHume, a wonderful combination of seaweed and humic acid. If you would like your yard to stay green later into the fall, try Possum Minors.

 

Possum Minors as its name implies is full of iron and other minor nutrients that promote ‘green ‘without top ‘growth’. By having your plants including grass plants green at this time of year the leaves can capture more sun and produce more carbohydrates to grow roots. Since the mowing has slowed down, you will be able to enjoy the ‘green’ for a longer period of time, since the ‘green’ won’t be getting mowed off. 

 

SeaHume will help grass, trees, shrubs, and flowers throughout the winter. SeaHume will help mitigate salt damage. The seaweed part of SeaHume has over 60 minor nutrients, carbohydrates, amino acids, gibberellins, auxins, cytokinin’s, anti-oxidants and other bio stimulants. The humic acid is also full of bio stimulants that help make nutrients that are in the soil available to the plant, help with soil structure, grow roots, and feed the microorganisms in the soil.

 

Trees grow most of their feeder roots over the winter. SeaHume will help grow these feeder roots over the winter preparing the tree for whatever the spring weather brings. Drought like this year?

 

Beware of the national ad campaigns talking about winterizing fertilizers for turf. These products are usually formulated for cool season grasses (rye, fescue). I saw one over the weekend that was a 32-00-10. Not exactly what we want to put on our yard in late-October in the Lowcountry. Just ask Clemson University.

 

Have you ever had winter kill? Now is the time to prepare your grass for the wide variations in temperatures we have. If you had winter kill in the past, you need to be sure to correct low and poorly drained areas, reduce thatch in the yard, increase air movement in low areas, keep your lawn hydrated and feed (with the right food for the winter).

 

Mow your grass lower than normal (centipede 1.0 to 1.5 inches, St. Augustine 2.5 to 3.0 inches). By mowing your grass lower, you will increase the air movement around the crown of the plant, so cold air will not settle at the crown of the plant and damage the grass. In Florida helicopters fly low over citrus groves that are in valleys to get the cold air out. Tall grass or thatch will insulate the crown of the plant like a goose down jacket, keeping the cold air near the crown where it can cause winter kill. Centipede lawns usually get winter kill the worst if temperatures plummet quickly.

 

Fine blade Zoysia grass can grow very dense and get thatch. De-thatching, aerating and verticutting are great cultural practices while the grass is actively growing. This time of year, using Bio Grounds Keeper, SeaHume and very light topdressing of Cotton Burr Compost should be part of your maintenance schedule.    

 

Moles?

 

Always read, understand and follow product label. The product label is a Federal Law.