Marilyn,
Yard services usually use chemicals to fertilize and control disease. Studies done by A&M showed that organic fertilizers work better than chemical fertilizers and that most organic solutions for diseases are just as effective as chemicals. If they have put fertilizer on your yard lately, that is what is feeding the fungus (if that is what it is). I let someone mow my yard, but I take care of all the feeding.

Never put nitrogen fertilizer on your yard where you have a fungus (or brown patches - unless you know it is grubs). Also, don't put the cornmeal where the fungus may be because it has a little nitrogen in it. However, if it is grubs, then the milk won't help and the cornmeal won't hurt. It will take the nematodes a few weeks to wipe out the grubs - since they eat the eggs, not the live grubs. But as the live grubs die with their natural life cycle, then no new ones will be born. You probably won't get green grass back till next summer - but you might, if it doesn't get too cold too soon.

Be sure to apply the nematodes when it is cool - I think evening is best. You have to mix the nematode dirt with water - don't use tap water, if it has chlorine in it - the chlorine will kill some of them, not all, but some. They must be watered into the soil thoroughly. Since you live so far south, they will make it through the winter and you won't have to apply them next year, and maybe not the next either, if you water in the summer. If you don't water once a week in the heat of the summer, they will dry out and die and you'll have to apply them again. You'll know they are gone when the fire ants return. I only apply them once every 2-3 years. We NEVER have fire ants or fleas in our yard. I haven't had to treat my two little Yorkies for fleas ever, unless we travel and stay out in the RV for a while.

Good luck!

Marilyn (sorry to hijack your thread Janet) - here's a great website to help you with the diagnosis and treatment

http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/growgreen...wnproblems.pdf

Thank you, Gayle!! We can use distilled water to mix with the nematodes, but our regular water that we use on the lawn is chlorinated. Not much to do about that unless we try to filter it, which would take a pretty large filter.

(Kinda off the subject, but not really: A friend gave me some sour dough starter and I didn't know better and used warm chorlinated water when I fed the starter the first time, and thank goodness, it did not kill the culture. I used distilled water the second feeding and it perked right up and was very active. Reason I'm telling you this, I'm not sure our water has a very high level of chlorine, so it may not hurt the nematodes to use it to water the yard. Hopefully!)

Hi Marilyn,
I think I misled you about the chlorinated water - use distilled when you mix the nematode dirt with water - before spraying it on. The nematode dirt has to set in the water for 30 minutes - that's when the chlorine might kill them or some of them. After 30 minutes, then you stain the dirt out of the water - the nematodes are microscopic and they go with the water. Then you spray them on the yard. When spraying it on the yard or watering the yard, regular chlorinated water is just fine and the nematodes will be just fine!

Good luck.

That is strange, hope it is a sign of good luck.

All this talk about grass and dirt. We live in the country and if it grows its grows...LOLOL.

I know around town and in some subdivisions, people spend more on their lawns than I do on just about anything else. But it does look nice.

You can hijack my threads anytime..lol

Janet, I'm so glad you started this thread and don't mind us highjackers. LOL.

We're so glad to learn of the nematodes. We have such issues with fire ants and our next door neighbor has a couple of flea bitten dogs in a dog run adjacent to ours. So if nematodes kill flea and fire ant larvae, we're getting some.

With our mild climate, we have to work harder to keep things looking nice because we don't get the cleansing freezes that you do to kill the bugs and things.

We really don't pay a lot for the services we have. We use hardworking local folks who we have known for years. Since times are getting tighter, it would be nice to let them go and do it ourselves, but they need the business to pay their bills. We may cut the lawncare and tree guy back to just the trees though, since his lawncare has failed so miserably. We'll keep the guy who mows the lawn. His fallback job is hair styling which may be hurting also with the strained economy. The tree guy's wife co-owns, with her brother, a Chrystler/Jeep dealership. Her brother lives in our neighborhood. So they are not as dependant on us as the mower is.

The other thing you can do is sprinkle diatamacious earth along the fence between your yard and the flea bitten dog's yard. When the fleas walk through the DE (to get to your yard - yes, they hop, but if they hop through it), they will die as DE is made of finely crushed sea shells and it cuts the flea's legs and they will die. It won't harm your dogs. You do have to reapply after a rain - but it rains so infrequently, that won't be a problem :D I have outdoor dogs on both sides of me and I still have no flea problems as long as I use nematodes. The fire ants will still try to live right beside the sidewalks - I guess it is too hot there for the nematodes - but the amount of fire ants is minimal. And there are NO MOUNDS!!!

The first year we put out nematodes, the fire ants went up and were living in our TREE! :eek: It didn't last long though, because they couldn't lay eggs up there!

Thank you, Gayle!! You are full of all kinds of information. What a cruel death for the flees though. LOL. We will check into the DE, and will let you know how all this turns out.

Darn nematodes! I was so hoping for aliens.

Oh you crack me up Judy girl!!!

Judy! You are a card!!! :D

Judy, the nematodes are the fix, the grubs are the problem. Darn grubs. Aliens were much more exciting, gotta admit!!

This turned into a funny thread. Dead squirrels, Tide, Cornmeal, Milk, Aliens.........:sidesplit: What do these things all have in common?

I don't know, but if you figure it out, will you please let me know!! :confuse2::crazy::thinking: