Horticultural riders

[dangerous]

No, its not a slag the Guzzi farm tractor thread
Green fingers... see the photos attached, whats my lawns problem? Im thinking Grass Grub maybe, if so whats the fix? an acre of lawns a lot to loose and re sow

[Virago]

Looks like grass grub to me.

DDT works wonders - if you can get some.

[dangerous]

Looks like grass grub to me.

DDT works wonders - if you can get some.

Whats DDT? and If I treat the lawn with something do I only need to do the brown areas or are they like bora and once ya see the damage the grub are well gone and I need to treat the good green areas?

[Virago]

http://kiwicare.co.nz/garden/product...wngard-prills/

[mashman]

Looks like a scorch marked crop circle. Time to invest in a laser.

[NinjaNanna]

if that's grass grub - I've heard a light sprinkling of laundry powder kills them.

[carbonhed]

Hard to tell from the photos but grass grub, porina caterpillar or dry patch could all be suspects. Take a spade and dig out a square turf about 100mm deep you may find grass grubs, 25mm yellowy brown beetle larvae C shaped. Some soil types once they get really dry actively resist rewetting in which case the soil could still be bone dry... that'll fix itself over the winter. Porina is a caterpillar that leaves something resembling worm casts on the surface except they're much coarser and have like a spiders web threads running through the cast itself. Diazinon granules as mentioned above will treat the Porina and grass grub.

There's other potential culprits too but that'll get you started. You may have to oversow with some fresh grass seed while there's still some warmth in the ground.

[Hitcher]

Laundry powder is excellent, but remember to wash it in with water. "How does that work, Hitcher?" I hear you ask.

It's the detergent base. You could do the same thing by mixing up buckets of dishwashing liquid and heaving that around. Insect caterpillars (and worms too for that matter) breathe through their skins in an osmotic-like manner. A coating of detergent prevents that from happening and the buggers suffocate. They generally crawl to the surface looking for air, and either get picked off by birds or just get wizzened by the sun.

Remember that this will kill worms (as will more toxic agents like DDT or organophospates), so I wouldn't advise using it over very large areas. However it will be ideal for patches about the size indicated in the photos above.

[RideLife]

Possibly 'Red Thread' disease as well.
Signs of Red flecks, grass is dieing, not eaten off.

[Asher]

I wouldnt recommend using DDT, there is a very good reason why it is now banned in almost all developed countries.
I have never heard of using laundry powder to get rid of grass grub but i do know it will be full of phosphates to get the grass growing.
Its something you will want to get done soon before the soil temp drops and the grass stops growing.

[Akzle]

why the fuck would you want an acre of lawn?

burn it all, then crop up...

[dangerous]

Hard to tell from the photos but grass grub, porina caterpillar or dry patch could all be suspects. Take a spade and dig out a square turf about 100mm deep you may find grass grubs, 25mm yellowy brown beetle larvae C shaped. Some soil types once they get really dry actively resist rewetting in which case the soil could still be bone dry... that'll fix itself over the winter. Porina is a caterpillar that leaves something resembling worm casts on the surface except they're much coarser and have like a spiders web threads running through the cast itself. Diazinon granules as mentioned above will treat the Porina and grass grub.

There's other potential culprits too but that'll get you started. You may have to oversow with some fresh grass seed while there's still some warmth in the ground.

very helpfull ta

http://kiwicare.co.nz/garden/product...wngard-prills/

yip ta... $66 later and its spread

I wouldnt recommend using DDT

opps... to late

why the fuck would you want an acre of lawn?

burn it all, then crop up...

to keep further distance from the likes of you

As for the rest of ya's cheers for the info, piss's me off all the hard work that has gone into the lawns from a lewcern paddock and to have it dieing in front of me. The acre behind the house seems ok but its quite long, does that help if I dont mowe?

[mashman]

As for the rest of ya's cheers for the info, piss's me off all the hard work that has gone into the lawns from a lewcern paddock and to have it dieing in front of me. The acre behind the house seems ok but its quite long, does that help if I dont mowe?

Happens to us in the burbs every winter. It decimates the piddly lawns we have. The fulla across the road gets some stuff from Bunning and it seems to do the trick, although he reckon it needs to go in before the season kicks in.

[Oakie]

Laundry powder is excellent, but remember to wash it in with water. "How does that work, Hitcher?" I hear you ask.

It's the detergent base. You could do the same thing by mixing up buckets of dishwashing liquid and heaving that around. Insect caterpillars (and worms too for that matter) breathe through their skins in an osmotic-like manner. A coating of detergent prevents that from happening and the buggers suffocate.

Good for spraying on aphids too! Or dishwashing liquid.

[Grumph]

For what it's worth D, the late Eddie Ridgen who'd farmed just up the road all his life, reckoned most of Greendale was too heavily contaminated by the DDT used to eradicate grass grub in the 70's and 80's to ever be used for dairying...

Unless when you dig you find fresh grubs I'd think it could be fungal.

And for the warm northerners, I'm just up the road and it's already too cold to resow - several frosts already.