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Sep 4, 2015 12:04 PM CST
Thread OP
Name: Jennifer Temple
Welland, Niagara Region, Ontar (Zone 6b)
Abrasive personality,corrosive even
Birds Butterflies Native Plants and Wildflowers Organic Gardener Lover of wildlife (Raccoon badge) Bee Lover
Region: Canadian
Does anyone know what is killing my grass? I've dug around affected areas but see no grubs and the lawn is not loose from the ground . There is a lot of the very fine webbing (?) everywhere.
Thumb of 2015-09-04/jenniferatemple/ca5c5d
Thumb of 2015-09-04/jenniferatemple/35245a
Thumb of 2015-09-04/jenniferatemple/df4ceb
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Sep 4, 2015 12:19 PM CST
Name: Tiffany purpleinopp
Opp, AL @--`--,----- 🌹 (Zone 8b)
Region: United States of America Houseplants Overwinters Tender Plants Indoors Garden Sages Plant Identifier Garden Ideas: Level 2
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Looks like spider webs. As predators, their relationship to the dead spots in the lawn would only be to exploit the opportunity to easily build a web over them, and/or to hunt/trap small critters attracted to (or hatching from) the bare spots.

The last pic looks like chunks of dead grass were left in the lawn after mowing? That can make dead spots. If that's what happened, you can rake the cut grass around a bit so it's not so thick in any 1 spot to avoid that in the future. Try not to mow when grass is damp, so it doesn't clump up so badly.
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Sep 4, 2015 12:47 PM CST
Name: Lin Vosbury
Sebastian, Florida (Zone 10a)

Region: Ukraine Region: United States of America Bird Bath, Fountain and Waterfall Region: Florida Charter ATP Member I was one of the first 300 contributors to the plant database!
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Sod Web Worms would be my guess.

edited because I forgot to add the link to a photo: http://www.bing.com/images/sea...
~ I'm an old gal who still loves playing in the dirt!
~ Playing in the dirt is my therapy ... and I'm in therapy a lot!


Last edited by plantladylin Sep 4, 2015 12:49 PM Icon for preview
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Sep 4, 2015 1:16 PM CST
Name: Sue
Ontario, Canada (Zone 4b)
Annuals Native Plants and Wildflowers Keeps Horses Dog Lover Daylilies Region: Canadian
Butterflies Birds Enjoys or suffers cold winters Garden Sages Plant Identifier
Is the webbing primarily there early in the morning on humid days? It resembles a fungus disease called "dollar spot". If you Google dollar spot and look at the images showing the leaf lesions then see if you can find some blades in your spots that look like them, that would be even more suggestive. Those leaves would have tan areas surrounded by normal green, often with brown edges to the lesions but it's not on every leaf. I'd post a link or two but haven't figured out how to do that on my iPad.
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Sep 4, 2015 1:29 PM CST
Name: Lin Vosbury
Sebastian, Florida (Zone 10a)

Region: Ukraine Region: United States of America Bird Bath, Fountain and Waterfall Region: Florida Charter ATP Member I was one of the first 300 contributors to the plant database!
Million Pollinator Garden Challenge Birds Butterflies Bee Lover Hummingbirder Container Gardener
I'd never heard of Dollar Spot but that could very well be a possible cause of Jennifer's lawn issues, description says webs are present with the dollar spot too:
http://www.american-lawns.com/...
~ I'm an old gal who still loves playing in the dirt!
~ Playing in the dirt is my therapy ... and I'm in therapy a lot!


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Sep 4, 2015 1:39 PM CST
Name: Sue
Ontario, Canada (Zone 4b)
Annuals Native Plants and Wildflowers Keeps Horses Dog Lover Daylilies Region: Canadian
Butterflies Birds Enjoys or suffers cold winters Garden Sages Plant Identifier
OK, fired up the laptop so I can post a link. Here is a picture of what to look for, see if you can find any leaf blades that look like this:

http://www.turfdiseases.org/tu...
http://hort.uwex.edu/files/201...
http://entoweb.okstate.edu/ddd...
This one's a bit fuzzy but may be helpful:
http://files.campus.edublogs.o...

This page has a picture of the fluffy stuff (mycelium) and the leaf lesions:
http://msu-turfwiki.wikispaces...

This one shows just the mycelium:
http://www.cals.ncsu.edu/plant...

If you can't find the characteristic leaf lesions then there are other possibilities but my suggestion would be to try that first.
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Sep 4, 2015 3:54 PM CST
Thread OP
Name: Jennifer Temple
Welland, Niagara Region, Ontar (Zone 6b)
Abrasive personality,corrosive even
Birds Butterflies Native Plants and Wildflowers Organic Gardener Lover of wildlife (Raccoon badge) Bee Lover
Region: Canadian
Thank You! Everybody!
Well, it would most likely be dollar spot and every cure seems to recommend chemicals. That being the case, plus the need for water and fertilizer for nice looking turf, I am giving up on growing grass! I think I'll pick a nice clover for ground cover next year. For this year, I'll just let pests have their way with it. Clover is green, soft underfoot, provides it's own nitrogen and bees love the blossoms. I live in an area with a number of major waterways so I will not add any kind of chemicals for the sake of grass. When I have a little money to spend I'll do paving stone walks and raised gardens in the back. Grass is just to fussy and crabby for me to spend an other year trying to keep it looking nice. Sighing!
Flowers never give me any trouble!
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Sep 4, 2015 4:06 PM CST
Name: Kim
Iowa (Zone 5a)
I kill ornamentals... on purpose.
Enjoys or suffers cold winters Spiders! Critters Allowed Birds Houseplants I helped beta test the first seed swap
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I like your attitude about lawn. I am not sure I'll plant clover, I have fits with the white in my prairie patches. It is fine in the yard areas. You did give me an idea about paving stones. There are areas that nothing can grow because of where we walk and they turn to mud in the rain. I'll have to look into it and hope to find something that doesn't look like the same old thing.
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Sep 4, 2015 4:22 PM CST
Name: Sue
Ontario, Canada (Zone 4b)
Annuals Native Plants and Wildflowers Keeps Horses Dog Lover Daylilies Region: Canadian
Butterflies Birds Enjoys or suffers cold winters Garden Sages Plant Identifier
If it is dollar spot then once environmental conditions are no longer suitable for the disease it should go away on its own, but just applying nitrogen fertilizer should reduce it because it's a disease favoured by low levels of nitrogen. I'm familiar with an outbreak on a lawn near me and it improved dramatically after fertilization. In Ontario I don't think there are any "chemical" fungicides available to homeowners for dollar spot due to the provincial cosmetic pesticide ban.
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Sep 4, 2015 4:30 PM CST
Thread OP
Name: Jennifer Temple
Welland, Niagara Region, Ontar (Zone 6b)
Abrasive personality,corrosive even
Birds Butterflies Native Plants and Wildflowers Organic Gardener Lover of wildlife (Raccoon badge) Bee Lover
Region: Canadian
Chillybean said:I like your attitude about lawn. I am not sure I'll plant clover, I have fits with the white in my prairie patches. It is fine in the yard areas. You did give me an idea about paving stones. There are areas that nothing can grow because of where we walk and they turn to mud in the rain. I'll have to look into it and hope to find something that doesn't look like the same old thing.


Years ago, when I had a small creek with a very steep bank at the back of my very small yard. I leveled the lower bank for a terrace and collected a lot of natural flat stone (Rocks) to do my stone paving and the same for steps I'd cut out to the top of the bank. With a set of white birch and decorative grass at both ends for privacy and a wooden pic-nic table, it was a wonderful little retreat! All it cost me was hard labor.
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Sep 5, 2015 5:54 AM CST
Name: Tiffany purpleinopp
Opp, AL @--`--,----- 🌹 (Zone 8b)
Region: United States of America Houseplants Overwinters Tender Plants Indoors Garden Sages Plant Identifier Garden Ideas: Level 2
Organic Gardener Composter Miniature Gardening Million Pollinator Garden Challenge Tender Perennials Butterflies
I share your attitude! You might find something of value in this discussion:
http://garden.org/thread/go/38...

I would love to have some of that disease killing our grass! Getting rid of the grasses that grow here is very difficult (torpedograss, bahiagrass, St. Augustine's, Bemuda, wiregrass, panic grass, they're all in our "lawn") and I just want flower beds...
The golden rule: Do to others only that which you would have done to you.
👀😁😂 - SMILE! -☺😎☻☮👌✌∞☯
The only way to succeed is to try!
🐣🐦🐔🍯🐾🌺🌻🌸🌼🌹
The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The 2nd best time is now. (-Unknown)
👒🎄👣🏡🍃🍂🌾🌿🍁❦❧🍁🍂🌽❀☀ ☕👓🐝
Try to be more valuable than a bad example.
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