Managing Lawn Pests

Managing lawn pests is much like managing most other pests you can come across. At first it may seem a little dirty or gross, and perhaps even a little icky and creepy crawly. The thing is that if you really want to get your lawn to be as perfect as possible you have to be willing to get a little dirty. Luckily it doesn't really need to be that way. Here are a few methods that you can use to get started on managing lawn pests.

• Know your region. One of the key elements of managing lawn pests is to actually get to know your region. By spending a little time and effort conducting research about the flora and fauna that lives near you, you can go a long way to learning about possible threats to your lawn. After all, if you don't know what pests live in your area how are you going be able to manage them?
• Know your pests. For some reason when people hear about pests the first thing that pops into most people's minds are animals and rodents. However, while these are indeed some common pests that your lawn can face there are others that you should keep an eye out. For example, you need to worry about insects (such as ants and cinch bungs), worms (sod webworms and cut worms), as well as fungi and bacteria.
• Know your grass. One thing that you need to remember is that pests don't always affect every type of grass. For example billbugs and sod webworms only affect certain types of grasses like Kentucky bluegrass. If you don't know what type of grass you currently have, then all you need to do is take a sample of the grass to your local county extension office and have them identify it for you.
• Use the right tools. When managing lawn pests do not limit yourself to only a few of the tools in your tool chest. This means utilizing things like cats or dogs to help deal with some of the larger fuzzy pests that you may find yourself faced with. Another example is how you can use fungicide and pesticides to deal with some of the smaller pests. However make sure that you don't over use any one type of tool (such as pesticides) or you can find yourself with an even larger problem.
• Don't wait. Keep an eye out for any sign of pests, and take appropriate action at the first signs. If you wait too long to deal with things like bugs or fungi, you can easily see a small problem become a huge mess in very short order.

Keep in mind that managing lawn pests can take some serious time and effort on your part. While you may have to put a bit of effort on your part, this doesn't mean that you have to work on it every second of every day. What it does mean is that you may find yourself having to repeat your work several times before you get the results that you want. However if you do not wish to go through that effort, and are willing to pay, you can always get a professional to do the work for you.