Grubs can seriously damage your lawn if you let them get out of hand. White grub damage will appear to you as thinning or browning of your turf. Damage from grubs most commonly appears in the late summer or fall - if you notice damage in the spring, there is a good chance this is just carry over from the previous fall.

White grubs (which are larvae of certain beetles) live under the ground and feed on the roots of your grass, making it much more difficult for your lawn to get its required nutrients. If it gets really out of hand, your grass can even end up with such little rooting that it’s almost like a carpet that can be rolled up.

The most common solution to grubs is Scotts GrubEx. Applying this should take care of most grub problems in one pass.

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St. Augustine grass has been propagated for nearly 200 years, so there isnt much of a variety. Because of its propagation, there have never been grass breeding programs developed for it either. The most common strain has a white stigma, and is native to the Gulf, Caribbean, and West Africa regions. There is another common strain, one that may have been crossed with another specias, that has a purple stigma, and has been reported in Australia, New Zealand, and The Pacific Isles. It has been a hallmark of Florida and California since the early 1900’s.

Severl Florida strains were available before 1960 - The purple stigma’d Floratine was released in 1959. It was released for its finer texture and darker color than other strains found in Florida at the time. It remains green into the fall and also is more resistant to shorter mowing than othe St. Augustine strains.

Two other strains, Bitter Blue and Floratam were also released by Florida. Bitter Blue was used for its less coarse texture than other Florida grass, and Floratam was released as a Chinch bug resistant selection in 1972. Like other Florida St Augustine types, it is a coarse textured variety, and has a purple stigma and is also sterile. The stolons are purplish red and have internodes that are roughly 3 inches. The leaf blades are wider than other Augustine grasses, and the morphological characteristics are similar to the Roselawn grass used in pastures.

Foratam is also not cold tolerant, and shuld only be used in the warmer regions of the U.S. It also is not as shade tolerant as other strains.

The Seville type was released in 1980 as a SAD and chinch bug resistant strain. It is finer textured than Floratam, but it lacks the cold tolerance of other stains as well.

The Raleigh grass type was released in 1980 as a cold tolerant, SAD resistant strain. It develops a denser turf like grass than Floratam, but it is not all that resistant to chinch bugs.

The Texas Common strain is a commercially produced strain in Texas made in the 1920s. It is similar to the white stigma type native to the Gulf/Caribbean region. Since it has been propagated for so long, very few variations in this type have been produced, however, natural varients have been produced.

Dwarf and variegated types of St. Augustine grass have also been selected from seed produced by Texas Common. However, these strains are more ornamental and novelty grasses than turfgrasses. One of the dwarf types (patented in the U.S. as Garretts 141) has been evaluated for its seed production potential. However, Garrets 141 and its progeny lacks the cold tolerance necessary to extend its area of adaptation beyond Southern Florida and South Texas in the United States.

Sources: http://plantanswers.tamu.edu/turf/publications/staug.html

Scotts lawncare products are some great products to use when you want to liven up your lawn. However, you still need to make sure you use their products with care. While doing it yourself is always an option, keep in mind not everyone will acheive the same results.

Some of the results that didn’t work out:

Contracted in 2006 for ten lawn services to improve the grass at a cost of $1107.20. No soil test, some kind of applications were done and the yards began looking worse than ever. Two fall aerations/seedings were done and absolutely nothing, except in two areas I didn’t want grass.

Being a novice to grass and owning a lawn, I contacted Scott’s lawn service. They came out promptly and gave me a fair estimate, with the promise of giving me a lawn without weeds. After 4 treatments, I noticed nothing. So on the 5th service I was home and asked the guy spraying the lawn why I still had so many weeds. To which he replied, you need to resod your lawn if want them gone. He went on to tell me that there was nothing they could have done to salvage my lawn to start with. So when I called to complain, I was told that there was nothing that could be done to rectify the situation and that I was just going to have to live with it.

I contracted with Scott’s Lawn Service last year. First, since the brochure implied that by taking the most expensive service I would receive aeration and seeding, I took that route. Later in the year, I found out that I had to pay $132.00 to receive that part of the service. Instead of weed control, I ended up with crab grass (I never had crabgrass before), some the size of a serving platter. They aerated and seeded in the middle of our August heat and in a drought.

I complained and at some point later in the year, they came and threw grass seed around. I complained to their headquarters twice, the local distributor at least four times. I canceled the service, but early this year, came home to find a notice that my treatments had begun for this year. It took still another call to get rid of them.

I have the worst lawn in 7 years. There are weeds, bare spots, and the only place their seeding took effect was in my flower beds and between my border stones. It will take me years to get the lawn back I had before and I am very angry as well as out several hundred dollars wasted on them and the several hundred dollars and personal time it will take to reclaim my lawn.

Quotes used from Scotts Lawncare Products