A few weeks ago, my Quick Tip was about the armyworm invasion of North Texas. In today’s Quick Tip I’d like to share a quick update about them, and pass along a funny story.
If you read my last Quick Tip, you know that army worms can cause extensive damage to your lawn, but that damage is short term.
One of my neighbors doesn’t take care of his lawn. They don’t water, and certainly don’t have a fertilizer or weed control program in place, which is evident in what was a brown, thin, and weedy lawn. You might think I’m judging them, but in all honesty, I find it funny considering Village Green is my family business. They are also nice people, who are probably not as passionate as a health lawn as me (and they’ve obviously haven’t realized Village Green offers affordable lawn care plans.)
When the armyworms invaded a few weeks ago, their lawn was destroyed. The army worms stripped all the leaves on their bermuda grass (all the way to the stem.) It was some of the worst damage I saw during the army worm infestation.
The good news is your grass isn’t dead, just cut back, and it will grow back eventually. It may look bad for some time and the armyworms are very creepy, but there’s really no long term damage being done.
Fast forward to this week and the armyworms are gone (we’ve not seen any for a couple of weeks.) And my neighbors brown, thin, and weedy lawn? It’s actually bright green and healthy (check out the photo with this article.)
While I’m definitely not recommending armyworms as a way to have a healthy lawn, in the case of my neighbor’s lawn it worked! Their scalping cleared all the weeds and bad grass and allowed (with our recent rains) the grass to reestablish.
You may be wondering where all those armywarms went? Next time you are at a high school football game look up at the lights. The record breaking number of moths we’re seeing in our area are those grown up armyworms.
f you have a question regarding your lawn or landscape give us a call at 972-495-6990 or email [email protected]. I love to answer your questions and they often become the subjects of my Quick Tips which help all our customers.
