Brown Spots In Lawn

[MossRoad]

My father in law has a beautiful lawn. It is his pride and joy. He has developed some brown spots in his lawn, about 2-3 inches in diameter, where the grass just dries up and dies. He was suspecting bugs. I am suspecting overwatering. He wanted to dump on the insect control, but I talked him into digging up one of the spots and seeing what is in there. We dug out a cylinder of sod about 4 inches across and 8 inches deep. After carefully disecting the sod and soil we only found 2 one inch long earth worms and a red and yellow stripped worm like bug that was only about a quarter of an inch long. Thats it. No other life forms. I noticed that the roots of the sod were only about an inch deep and I could pick up a handful of dirt and squeeze the water out of it.

He likes to water every day. Sometimes twice a day. He knows that he only needs 1 to 1.5 inches of water a week. I am trying to convince him to water every other day to give the water a chance to soak in and make the grass develop deeper roots.

Any thougths to this from anyone? /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[Egon]

Could these spots be the start of Fairy Rings?
Egon

 

[Frosty]

Do you have any pets or "stray" pets? We have a lot of brown spots exactly as you describe in our back lawn.

We have dogs and a week or so after urinating a dead brown spot appears. I believe the grass is burned from the concentrated ammonia. /w3tcompact/icons/blush.gif

 

[wroughtn_harv]

<font color=blue>We have dogs and a week or so after urinating a dead brown spot appears.</font color=blue>

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, I hadn't considered dogs. I was thinking more along the line of errant sons in law........./w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[pajoube]

Harv, congratulations on your VETERAN status, well deserved.
PJ

 

[pajoube]

MR, the over watering is a very good possibility. I'm very surprised he does not have fairy rings that usually occure when you get to much water over a period of time.
PJ

 

[Hoosier_Daddy]

We had the same problem. Started feeding the neighbor's dog miracle grow...

Seriously, one old guy told me once to mix some dishwashing soap in a hose sprayer. Said it was caused by a bug. Also asked me at the time if I noticed a small white moth type of bug that only flew a few feet when mowing or walking across the lawn. He said the larva eats the grass roots.....

But, I'd go with the dog theory or son-in-law theory... Tom

 

[MossRoad]

No dogs or son in laws going on the grass /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

I've seen fairy rings before. They are darker green than the surrounding lawn and several feet across(at least our were). These spots are only three inches in diameter.

I was really surprised by the lack of life in the turf and soil, and the amount of water that I can squeeze out of the dirt. That is why I suspect overwatering and overuse of pesticides or fertilizer.

 

[njrqs]

MR

Try a search somewhere on "Dollar Spot" or something similar. I have heard of it associated with lawn care.

Maybe this could be it??

 

[cowboydoc]

I had the same thing last year on my lawn. It was a fungus. I had to spray a fungal spray to get rid of it.