those little winged creatures fluttering up from the ground as i shuffle through my lawn aren’t cute miniature butterflies. no, they are literally hundreds of moths laying eggs to produce sod web worms which chew a patch of newly greened grass down to the roots in a matter of hours. for many years i hired a professional lawn spraying service. not the same one all these years for i have tried several different ones- all the usual suspects – you know the ones with the fancy trucks and advertisements and then some independent services. they charge a flat rate and come every 6-8 weeks to treat my lawn with fertilizer and the appropriate (so they say) chemicals --whether it needs it or not. it has been a battle from the start—in my gut i never felt confident that any of my hires really knew what they were talking about or that my lawn was truly benefiting from their so-called expert treatments. last october I fired the independent service i and at least 6 of my neighbors was using at the time. anyone who deals with st. augustine grass knows it is beautiful when it is and really a challenge to keep it that way.
