Pest Control

Integrated Pest Management consists of five steps:

• Pest Identification: The pests in the landscape are accurately identified because different pests are not controlled by the same method.
• Pest Monitoring: The activity and location of the pests is monitored to track their impact on the landscape’s ecosystem. Regular inspection is done to check for other damaging pests.
• Decision Making: This is the difficult part where the timing of intervention is decided. Thresholds are set for this.
• Intervention: The correct management tool is used to control the pests.
• Evaluation: The final step is to evaluate the performance of the tool used to see what can be improved.

Unlike other states, Florida has a pest problem throughout the year. This is due to multiple factors such as climate, rainfall and other region-specific factors. Spring is generally the season with the most pest and insect-related problems as the weather starts to get warmer. With proper lawn maintenance, routine fertilizer treatments can be done as often as the proper, customized pest control plan entails, beginning in the spring. Regular checks for pests and insects should be done every 7-10 days in spring, summer and fall, and every 14 days in winter.

Some of the most common lawn pests in Florida are:

Chinch Bugs: This is the most common insect found to feed on St. Augustine grass but can be found in other southern turfgrasses as well. Chinch Bugs feed on grass and plants, injecting a toxin that prevents nutritional flow and causes yellow patches.
Mole Crickets: There are three species of this type – tawny, southern and short-winged. They tunnel into the soil and feed on grassroots blades.
Sod Webworms: They are larvae or caterpillars that grow into moths. They voraciously feed on grass blades, reducing the density of the turf grass.