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Chinch bugs can be very damaging to a lawn. As seen in the photo, they will eat the grass, but leave the weeds alone.

Chinch bugs are tiny insects about the size of an ant. Chinch bugs have short legs while ants have long legs. (I describe chinch bugs as roadsters and ants as monster trucks.)

If you end up with too many chinch bugs, the lawn will turn yellow. The chinch bugs suck the sap out of the grass plants. The lawn often looks as if it is lacking water, which in a sense it is. Watering the lawn just helps the grass to stay hydrated so that the chinch bugs can continue to feed.
  Free Chinch Bug Protection 
Chinch bugs prefer the sunny areas of the lawn. I inspected a lawn once that was in front of a building facing north. Most of the lawn had been destroyed, except for about 8 feet near the building. Unusual, the the edge of the damage was in a nice neat straight line. I realized that the chinch bugs were happy to feed on the lawn in the sun, but stayed away from the lawn shaded by the building. (Now if they ran out of lawn in the sun, would they have gone to the lawn in the shade?)

We have found that an organic insecticide is usually effective in controlling the chinch bug damage.

We have realized that with insects and chinch bugs in particular, stopping the lawn from going brown is possible without necessarily eradicating all the chinch bugs.

More information on chinch bugs in our website library.


On June 19/07 Jeff, one of our technicians found chinch bug nymphs on a sunny lawn in Ancaster. They had caused a patch about three feet in diameter to go yellow. Normally we think of July as the month for Chinch bug damage. I believe the warm weather of the past three weeks has hastened the maturity of the chinch bugs and also hastened the damage to the lawns.

 

If you have a lawn/tree/shrub that needs some Tender Loving Care - get The KING OF GREEN:

 

 

 

or call us at 905.318.6677 or 1.888.TURFKING (887.3546)

 

If you would like more information, please Contact us

 

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Copyright 2007 Turf King-Hamilton. All Rights Reserved.

 

Gypsy Moth Caterpillar

Gypsy Moth Caterpillar

 

A destructive pest
Gypsy Moth Caterpillar - these caterpillars are dark and hairy with a double row of five pairs of blue and six pairs of red spots from head to tail. They feed on many tree species. Favourites include birches, lindens, crabapples, mountain ash, willows, oaks, blue spruce and many other trees. Voracious feeders, these caterpillars have been known to defoliate trees.

Trap caterpillars by tying a band of burlap around tree trunks. Inspect daily and destroy caterpillars.

Use Acecaps to prevent damage or foliar treatments. These must be applied by a professional

Turf King uses either Acecaps for larger trees or an organic insecticide to control the Gypsy Moth Caterpillar

If you have a lawn/tree/shrub that needs some Tender Loving Care - get The KING OF GREEN:

 

 

 

or call us at 905.318.6677 or 1.888.TURFKING (887.3546)

 

If you would like more information, please Contact us

 

Follow us on Twitter  http://twitter.com/turfkingofgreen

 

Join our Facebook page  

 

Copyright 2007 Turf King-Hamilton. All Rights Reserved.


See the CBS news report on these pests from YouTube

There have been a couple of articles in Hamilton Spectator about the Gypsy Moth Caterpillars.

I was at a home in Ancaster today where I found a baby caterpillar on a fruit tree. These little guys can be voracious feeders and given enough time and enough caterpillars, these critters can defoliate a tree.

Please keep your eyes open for signs of leaves with holes in them. And for sightings of the caterpillars themselves. Control may be recommended to prevent extensive defoliation of your landscape trees or shrubs.


 

 If you have a lawn/tree/shrub that needs some Tender Loving Care- get The KING OF GREEN:

 

Home Page

 

 

or call us at 905.318.6677 or 1.888.TURFKING (887.3546)

 

 If you would like more information, please Contact us

 

Follow us on Twitter  http://twitter.com/turfkingofgreen

 

Join our Facebook page  

Copyright 2007 Turf King-Hamilton. All Rights Reserved

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