Something Bugging You?
Agway Offers Tips for Summer Insect Control
Those of you who enjoyed the mild winter beware - you could be paying the price this summer. The lack of a cold, hard freeze over the winter means that insects will be worse this summer, taking their toll on you, your family, your pets, and your lawn and garden. An unusually hot summer only increases the chance of insect damage.
Insects are typically at their worst during the summer and fall months. Their damage can weaken plants, causing them to die in the hot summer sun. And they can ruin outdoor fun for you and your family.
Fortunately, there are steps you can take now to control outdoor pests that infest your lawn and garden, such as grubs, chinch bugs, sod webworms, and billbugs, in addition to outdoor pests that can make their way inside, such as mosquitoes, fleas, ticks, and ants.
Agway offers a variety of great products to help control insects outdoors and, as a result, indoors as well. We recommend a 3-Step Program for pest control:
- Treat the animal – treating your pets for ticks and flea using either collars, shampoos, or dips. This will help minimize the transfer of pests from outdoors to indoors, and will keep your pet safe.
- Treat inside the house – flea and tick foggers will kill flea eggs and larvae up to seven months. Indoor insect sprays to kill insects such as fleas, ticks, ants and roaches, on the spot.
- Treat outside the house – From ant, flea and tick killers to lawn pests, Agway offers a variety of effective products for outdoor use.
Insect Control
In addition to treating your property for insects, cat and dog owners should take some additional precautions. These simple tips will help ensure you and your family can enjoy a healthy, pest free summer:.
- Check for fleas and ticks weekly when you brush your pet. Pay special attention to the length of the legs, the base of the tail, around the ears, lower abdomen and between the toes.
- Bathe dogs weekly and bathe cats two-to-three times throughout the summer with a flea shampoo to discourage fleas.
- Vigilance is important. Treating your pet, its bedding or other areas it sleeps and your yard in combination is the best way to discourage infestations.
- Controlling insects outdoors will greatly reduce the migration of insects indoors.
- Prevent mosquitoes with Agway's large selection of pest control products.
- Make sure you keep indoors clean, however, paying special attention to kitchens and bathrooms.
- Wipe down counter tops and sweep floors regularly, keeping cupboards and storage areas clean.
- Store pet foods, and people foods, in sealed containers.
- You may also want to seal entry points with caulking, and move firewood and piles of debris away from your home.
Common Lawn Destroying Insects
- Grubs: Various larvae of beetles feed on the grass roots. Generally white, C-shaped, with brown heads and three pairs of legs near the head end. Lawn Symptoms: Large dead patches can easily be pulled up in sheets and grubs can be seen in the soil. To treat your yard of grubs try Agway Grub Control in 5M and 15M sizes.
- Chinch Bugs: Small black bugs with white wings and red legs. Lawn Symptoms: Brown dead patches in sunny areas of lawn. To test for chinch bugs, take an empty coffee can, cut out both ends and plant it in the soil about two inches deep. Fill the can with water. If present, chinch bugs will float to the surface in about five minutes. Agway Ant Killer Granulars are a great way to eliminate chinch bugs from your yard.
- Sod Webworms: Larva of moths, either brown or gray, ¾ inch long eat the grass blades. They do most of their feeding at night. Lawn Symptoms: Brown spots with an irregular shape. If unchecked, spots my run together to form large brown patches. To prevent sod webworms from your yard use Agway Stage 3 Fertilzer, available in 5M and 15M.
- Billbugs: Dark gray to black with prominent snout. Lawn Symptoms: Most often found in bluegrass. Larvae tunnel inside the grass stems to reach the roots, killing the grass in defined patches. To eliminate billbugs from attacking your yard, try Agway Grub Control.
Be sure to check back to www.agway.com for more information, projects and tips. Visit your local Agway where you'll find everything you need, year-round, for your home, lawn, garden, farm, pet and wild birding needs. Each Agway location is independently owned and operated and as such products and pricing vary by store.