How to treat armyworms

Advice from Matthew Pinkey, Hendra Hardware

Everyone loves a beautifully manicured, lush green lawn, but what if your yard is progressively turning brown despite receiving adequate water? If so, you may have a thriving population of ravenous armyworms.

Armyworms get their name because they move like an army, conquering one lawn after another. They have been known to annihilate entire lawns overnight, so it's a good idea to act quickly if you notice your lawn turning brown.

To check whether you have Armyworms, lay a towel or a blanket on a patch of lawn at night and look underneath it the next day (armyworms are nocturnal feeders, and the towel will fool them into thinking it is still night).

If armyworms have set up camp in your yard, you don't have to resort to synthetic chemical solutions. Instead, try an environmentally friendly product like eco-neem.

Eco-neem, an organic insecticide formulated from extracts of the neem tree, works by suppressing the appetite of the grubs so they starve to death. It also inhibits their growth so they cannot moult successfully, thereby stopping the breeding cycle. Eco-neem will also help control other grubs and insects.

One of the reasons an organic product like eco-neem is preferable to a synthetic chemical poison is because it is safe to use around pets, birds and lizards, so you don't have to worry if your chooks or opportunistic magpies swoop in to feed on the dying grubs. Perhaps even more importantly, it won't harm bees and other insects that are beneficial and integral to the eco-system.

Armyworms only chew the leaf of the grass, leaving the root system intact, so once you get the problem under control, your lawn will eventually grow back. If you can't wait that long to enjoy your yard again, you might want to think about returfing.

For more information or advice, speak to the team at Hendra Hardware.

Hendra Hardware

23 Zillman Road, Hendra

Ph: 3268 7161

www.hendrahardware.com.au

Facebook/hendrahardware