What is Fast Growing?  Difficult to Control and Unpredictable?

No, not your teenager…crabgrass!

Crabgrass is a tenacious weed, however it can be controlled with the proper treatment.

Crabgrass is an aggressive fast growing weed that attacks St. Augustine and other turf grass with a vengence. Crabgrass grows laterally covering turf leaf blades starving it of sunlight needed to thrive. Crabgrass is extremely difficult to control because it grows 8 times faster than St. Augustine easily overwhelming a lawn in very little time.

Crabgrass seeds can remain dormant in the soil for years. With the proper conditions, moisture and humidity, dormant seeds will germinate and crabgrass spreads. A single crabgrass plant can produce up to 150,000 seeds that grow at a rapid pace.

Crabgrass thrives in sunlight & moisture, which is why it is such a recurring problem in Florida. The climate and conditions in Florida are the perfect setting for this pesky weed.

Homeowner, Lori of Oviedo writes:

“I’ve been with the same lawn company for years and been very happy with the service. However, when a large section of my lawn was taken over by crabgrass, I called them out to my home.  My technician told me that they do not treat for crabgrass & that I could try to treat it myself or I could pay for them to round it up and re-sod.  Needless to say, I’m extremely disappointed”.

Unfortunately, Lori’s story is common.

Most lawn companies do not treat for crabgrass for a couple of reasons:

1) Crabgrass is difficult to control. It takes multiple follow-up applications to control crabgrass once it’s germinated and actively growing.

2) Crabgrass is timely and expensive to treat. Treating crabgrass typically takes longer than a lawn without crabgrass. There are specific products in the industry that professionals use to control crabgrass. Most companies do not use these because of the cost factor.

A healthy lawn is the best prevention for crabgrass. This includes having the correct treatments at the correct times of year with proper watering and mowing.

Tips for maintaining a healthy lawn and preventing crabgrass:

Irrigation: Water your lawn less frequently but more deeply into the soil. Crabgrass thrives in shallowly watered lawns.

Mowing: Mow your lawn high ideally leaving 3.5” to 4” of turf.

Bare spots: Don’t leave bare areas of lawn. Re-sod bare areas quickly. Bare areas are an ideal place for crabgrass to spread into and thrive.

Proper Fertilization: Properly fertilize your lawn with a 2:1 ratio nitrogen and potassium in the spring and fall. Pre emergents are the best defense in preventing crabgrass seeds from germinating in the first place. These are best applied in late winter and early spring.

Heron is one of the very few companies in Central Florida who treat crabgrass. While crabgrass is an aggressive weed, it can be controlled with the proper care. If you have any questions, please call the Lawn Hotline at 1-800-81-HERON.

It’s summer time and they’re out to play! Yeah you guessed it, bugs, bugs & more bugs! Bugs & pests in Central Florida are here to stay. They’re looking for three things food, water & shelter…sound familiar? Yup, the exact same things we humans need to survive. This is why your home is a perfect target for bugs & pests to call home.

While a pest control professional is the best guarantee to rid your home of these creepy crawlers, there are some easy steps homeowners can take to help:

1. Your countertops are a delectable 7 course meal to bugs & pests. Avoid leaving food on your countertops. Seal as much of your food as possible in air tight storage containers…especially fruit! Because bugs can get into the most tightly sealed packaging, consider storing many of your dried goods like pasta, cereal, sugar, flour etc in containers.

2. Wash those dishes! Leaving dishes in the sink to soak or wash later is an open invitation to bugs & pests!

3. Drips! The little ones may do a great job pouring their own syrup or honey. You cheer them on and put the bottle away in the pantry. However, drips down the rim & side of the jar are bug magnets. Be sure to wipe bottles clean after use including honey, syrup, oil peanut butter, etc.

4. Be neat where you eat! It’s inevitable…even the most well mannered eaters drop crumbs. Limit the areas that you eat to the kitchen/dining room. Eating in bedrooms, living rooms etc. exposes the whole house to crumbs, which bugs love!

5. Check for leaks & moisture under sinks & drains frequently. This is a common water source for bugs & pests.

6. Bugs & pests are always looking for a way in to your home from outside. Check windows & screens for holes. Caulk & seal any perimeter areas on the exterior of your home that need it. Place screens on anything connecting the outside to the inside including dryer vents.

7. Properly seal windows & doors. If you see daylight coming through sides, top or bottom of the door, the door may be closed… but is wide open for bugs & pests.

8. Fido’s food bowl…an open buffet! Avoid leaving pet food in the bowl around the clock. Bugs aren’t picky eaters…pet food, people food, it’s all the same. Limit pet feeding times & wash out the pet bowl after each use.

9. Rinse before recycling! Rinse out plastic, glass & metal containers that are being recycled.

10. Is your trash clean? Probably not, but be sure to rinse out garbage cans once a month. A scrub brush & a garden hose do the trick well! Also, always keep lids on your trash cans.

11. Do you have a bird bath or a bug bath? Standing dirty water is a bug haven. Clean out your bird baths often. Even children’s toys in the lawn can fill up with water attracting bugs.

12. Trim bushes, trees, shrubs & flower beds that touch your home. Bugs love foliage & foliage is a bridge to your home. Trimming regularly reduces the risk of infestations.

If you have any questions or would like to have a pest control professional eliminate your home of bugs & pests guaranteed Call 1-800-81-HERON for a free inspection. If you have any questions or would like Heron to write on a specific topic please email your question or topic to: cvandergriff@heronlawnandpest.com. Hope these tips help!

As “Your Green Choice”, Heron Lawn & Pest Control is dedicated to being environmentally responsible. With an intense focus on our commitment to green practices, Heron is excited to announce that as of June 5, all service technicians are BMP Certified (Best Management Practices).

BMP Certification is a program developed by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection designed to create awareness on the importance of reducing pollution and conserving water. BMP training teaches green industries professionals how to implement practices that will protect waterways from non-point source pollution. Green industries including pest control, landscapers and lawn care professionals are leading the way in this initiative. By 2014, BMP Certification will be mandatory for green industries. Heron is one of the first 5 pest control companies in Florida to achieve BMP Certification. In addition to all service technicians being BMP certified, owner Steve Okros is a certified BMP instructor.

“I’m excited about the opportunity to spend quality time training Heron Employees on the core values of the green industries best management practices.”   -Steve Okros, Associate Certified Entomologist and Certified BMP Instructor

Question: I just moved into my new home here in Orlando, and I have a lot of small bugs with pinchers coming into my home.  I am not used to this.  Do they bite?  How do you stop them?

Steve Says:

The scary little bugs are called earwigs.  With all the rains we have recently had, many insects, especially earwigs are being driven into your home from areas adjacent to your home being over saturated with water.  They like to hide under anything they can find like door mats, shoes, mulch, newspapers etc.  Although their bite has never been proved serious, it is entirely uncomfortable.

You need an exterior application of insecticides and baits to keep the population down and stop them from coming inside your home.  The ones that are inside need to be treated.  The only good thing I can say about these bugs are they are seasonal.  Once the heavy rains slow down, so will the pressure to push them inside your home.  Either way, you need to have your home treated by a pest control specialist.

QUESTION: I have recently bought a new home in Orlando and the back porch screen enclosure has a spider in every corner.  I believe they are black widows becuase they have the distinctive orange hour glass shape on the belly, but they are not black but brownish.  They also have eggs that have spikes on them.   I am concerned for my children if they are black widows.  Any suggestions?

ANSWER: These are Brown Widow spiders.  The spikes on the eggs is the indicator they are Brown Widows.  They are one of five types of widow spiders in America.  The other widow spider eggs will have a somewhat smooth, coarsely woven white to tan surface and is teardrop to spherical in shape.  The egg sac of the brown widow is beige to off-white in color and spherical in shape, but its outer surface has numerous distinctive pointed or spine-like projections like the ones you are seeing.  The venom of the brown widow has been reported as being the most lethal of the five species but on average they contain the least amount of venom per spider. Reactions to humans tend to be localized to the bite site, with systemic reactions restricted primarily to the young. 

In order to control spiders, you must treat them directly with a contact insecticide.  I would leave this to a professional.  If you do not kill the spider because of an incorrect treatment, it could send them foraging in the wrong direction…..inside your home.  An initial application will kill all your spiders and then a good preventative quarterly application will keep them away.  Until the bug man gets there, keep the kids away!!!!

Question: I have small bugs flying out of a window in my house. Are these termites?

Steve Says:

They could be!  One way to tell is by counting how many body segments the insect has.  If it has three body segments, it is probably an ant. If it has two body segments, it is likely termites eating at your home!  Either way, I recommend you have a professional come perform an inspection!

Question: I currently have a local Orlando pest control company taking care of my lawn care, shrub care and inside pest control. What is the difference between the rest of the pest control companies I see around Orlando?

Steve Says:

Most of the local pest control companies are the same in Orlando. When you get to the top five Orlando pest control companies you will start to see major differences from all the rest. First, go to the Better Business Bureau website and look at the top five Orlando pest control companies. Look at their grading score which will let you know how many complaints have gone unresolved. At Heron, we hold an “A” rating. Compared to some other pest control companies in Orlando, that says a great deal about us.

Angie’s List is another area for you to research. Angie’s List tracks thousands and thousands of contractors, coast to coast. Less than 4% of them have consumer reviews good enough to win them the Angie’s List “Excellence in Service” award. We won it for the Orlando market last year. No other pest control company in Orlando did.

Most pest control companies will not have a Service Consultant to their home within an hour or two for estimates like we do here at Heron. Heron is one of the only Orlando pest control companies that offers free termite monitoring with our pest control service. No other pest control company that I am aware of offers {crabgrass control in St. Augustine turf} like Heron does.

Most Orlando pest control companies do not have uniformed employees enduring background checks, bi-annual license checks to maintain a “safe driver” status and random workplace drug-screens. Most companies do not have fleet GPS systems in each vehicle to ensure the correct amount of time is spent on each property, delivering superior service.

Finding the differences in all the Orlando pest control companies can only be done by research. I encourage you to do just that. At Heron Lawn and Pest control, we can confidently say we are the best pest control company in Orlando.

Question: My neighbors refer to my St. Augustine lawn as “The Garden of Weeden” What can I do to get the weeds out of my lawn and keep them out?

Steve Says:

First you need to start with good lawn care cultural practices.  Water only when your grass needs it. Wait for the leaf blades to fold in half length wise and you see a blue gray haze to it. This is called the first sign of wilt. Then water 1 inch per watering.  Use any cylindrical cup or can to measure this.  This will moisten the whole length of your root system.  Excessive moisture will cause aquatic weeds to germinate, like dollar weeds and sedge.  Too little water will cause drought and dry weeds to germinate like Florida Pusley and Spurge.

Then you will need a good fertilization and pest prevention program to keep the grass thick and the bugs out so no dead areas appear.  When lawn care is not optimal, thin or dead areas appear and weeds will follow soon.  Once weeds are there, a Heron lawn care specialist can treat them with a post emergent weed control. This practice will kill existing weeds. A pre emergent applied correctly by a Heron lawn care specialist in the Fall and Winter will prevent your summer annual weeds from germinating from the start.

Last, keep your grass cut.  It sounds simple, but many people wait too long to cut their grass.  Once a week should take care of keeping the grass healthy. Letting it grow too long then cutting causes unwanted stress on the grass and slows growth allowing weeds to grow.

St. Augustine is an excellent grass to have in Central Florida for a thick, green lawn with minimal weeds, but taking care of it is not for the novice. For the best lawn care available in the Orlando area, request a free quote today.

Question: I have had several pest control companies in Orlando treat my grass over the years. My current company says they cannot be responsible for chinch bugs damage since they are resistant to pesticides. Are they kidding me?

Steve Says: It comes down to the pest control company and what products they are using to kill and prevent chinch bugs. The constant use of Synthetic Pyrethroids in low dose forms over the past 10 years by most Orlando pest control companies has made chinch bugs immune to this type of pesticide in Florida.

The newer neonicatinoids insecticides are working extremely well in killing and preventing chinch bugs. The problem for most Orlando pest control companies is that these products are extremely expensive. At Heron Lawn and Pest Control we only use these
products in our program for chinch bugs and lawn damaging insects. This allows us to keep providing a sod replacement guarantee to our customers. Request a quote from us and see what we can do for you.

Question: I have tiny brown ants crawling all over my kitchen counter! I found a small hole where they may have gotten in, but covering it did nothing. How do I get rid of them?

Steve Says:

These small ants are most likely Pharaoh ants and can be a big nuisance. It will be very important that you do not spray any insecticides or use any harsh cleaning agents on or around the areas they are infesting. Pharoah ants follow each other by pheromones. If these trails are blocked by anything it will make the ants that cannot get back to the main colony start another colony of their own. The problem will get worse.

The answer for ridding of these pests is to either find the nest(s) and kill them with an insecticide, or use a planned baiting procedure to rid of them over time. These bugs are best battled by a professional.