Heat stress can cause many issues for your lawn, including disease, insect infestation, weed infestation, and overall poor health. Heat stress is caused by the heat and humidity when the lawn lacks water. As the heat starts to put stress on your lawn you may notice full brown blades of grass or grass with brown tips. They may have begun to curl and this can turn into brown patches which can have a severe impact on your lawn. Often times the start of this is due to improper watering to keep your lawn healthy. Also, compacted lawns make it hard for moisture to reach the root and would greatly benefit from lawn aeration. To check your lawn, you can take a knife or screwdriver and stab it into the lawn. If it does not go in smoothly, this is a sign that your soil is dry and compacted. For lawns to truly flourish, it requires a proper watering technique. If you are apt to watering your lawn lightly each time, you are actually doing more harm than good. This technique creates shallow roots that are not equipped to handle hot, dry weather. It’s recommended that you water your lawn deeply and often. Also, refrain from mowing too low. Cutting too short can impact the lawn’s ability to produce the energy needed for growth. Never remove more than one-third of the leaf blade in a single mowing session.
In Michigan that there is a time almost every summer when people consider that we are in a drought. For many residents drought is easily defined by the lawn turning brown. For Kentucky bluegrass lawns, which are the majority of lawns in Michigan, there is usually no danger that the lawn is going to die unless water is lacking for four to eight weeks. However, there are really no hard fast numbers for predicting whether the turf will die as many other factors will come into play such as high temperatures and traffic. After a couple weeks of no water your lawn would be in a heat stress state, after four weeks is when you would need to worry about drought damage in which areas of the turf will die off completely and not recover. If this happens the only remedy is to replace these areas with new grass. Before this happens, it is imperative to water your lawn, even if it's a little bit to keep it from dying, it may not be green, but it still has a chance to survive.
Heat tracking is damage from any trafficking on turf when it is stressed from high temperatures and lack of water. Often, heat tracking is the result of mowers running over the turf when it is near the wilting point, but damage can result from any traffic, whether it’s equipment or even just enough people walking the same path. Some will misdiagnose tracking damage as being from a pesticide or fertilizer application. The resultant damage may look like a non-selective herbicide was on the tires of the equipment, but it’s simply from traffic on turf when the turf is near wilting point. Unfortunately, it is not always easy to tell when this damage is produced. On some days and lawns, tracking damage could occur relatively early in the afternoon. On other lawns, it may happen later in the afternoon. Mostly it depends on soil moisture and the ability of the plant to cool itself through evapotranspiration. As temperatures rise and soil moisture becomes depleted, the plant will stop transpiring and begin to heat up. This is the time when turf becomes susceptible to tracking damage.
Although heat tracking and wilt damage can look really bad, in almost all cases the damage is not fatal. Irrigation, rainfall and cooler temperatures will help the turf recover.
Skunks: Small round holes about the size of a quarter are found in the lawn about 1 inch or so deep. There is loose soil encircling the hole. The holes appeared overnight. This is usually the work of skunks. After a winter of scarce food and cold temperatures, skunks are hungry. The warming soil has allowed earthworms, soil insects and grubs to become active again. The skunk pushes it’s nose into the lawn over the intended protein snack. The skunk pivots around its nose, digging with its long front nails. This is often early springtime and fall behavior. There may be so many holes that it looks like it has been rooted up.
Raccoons are less polite than skunks. They like to flip over whole sections of turf looking for food. If you see the damage quickly enough, you can flip the sod back over and point the grass blades up. If you can water that flipped back sod, it should recover. Just like skunks, after a winter of scarce food and cold temperatures, racoons are hungry. The warming soil has allowed earthworms, soil insects and grubs to become active again. This is often early springtime and fall behavior.
Moles are surprising little mammals with pointed muzzles, tiny eyes, and bodies shaped like Idaho potatoes. In motion they actually swim along underground, using wide front flippers to part the soil as they go. They prefer moist, loamy soil and are most active in the early morning or evening in the spring or fall; they also come out after a warm rain.
Moles have the distinguishing characteristic of a hairless, pointed snout. Their small eyes and ear canals are concealed by fur, and they do not have external ears. They have very large and broad forefeet with webbed toes. Their hind feet or more narrow and have slender claws. They are usually about 7 inches in length and weigh about 4 ounces. Mole damage includes:
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