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Spring Lawn Care Tips for Every Yard

pesticides

Spring Lawn Care Tips to Prepare for the Upcoming Season

Ah, spring. The days get longer, the weather gets warmer, and our lawns awaken from their winter hibernation. After months of very little growth, plant life seems to explode overnight!  Unfortunately, green grass and blooming flowers aren’t the only things that will come with the changing of seasons. Weeds, droughts, pests, and diseases can harm your yard before it even gets the chance to grow, so take precautionary steps to ensure the health of your lawn this spring! Now, let’s dive into our top tips for spring lawn care. 

Tips for Spring Lawn Care

Although no two yards are the same, these spring lawn care tips will be helpful for everyone:

Tip #1: Evaluate your equipment

The first thing you should do when preparing for spring lawn maintenance is evaluate your equipment. Chances are you haven’t used these tools all winter and don’t know what kind of condition they’re in, so take inventory and check to make sure everything is working properly.  Here are some basic tools you’ll need:

  • Mower
  • Rakes and leaf blowers
  • Trimmer
  • Seed/fertilizer spreader
  • Hose/sprinkler

Tip #2: Don’t start too early 

Seeing the signs of your lawn coming back to life can be exciting, but don’t get too eager. Wait until your yard has mostly greened up before you begin to mow, aerate, and plant. It might seem like getting an early start would be helpful, but too much traffic on the lawn could end up killing the grass before it reaches maturity.  For more information, read our blog, When To Cut Your Grass For the First Time This Spring.

Tip #3: Rake up any leftover leaves

If there’s any lingering leaves from the fall and winter, rake them up before you do anything else. Leaves and dead grass will contribute to the thatch, a layer made of decomposed material build up that blocks nutrients from reaching your roots. Use a leaf rake, not a garden rake, and only do it when the soil is dry to avoid pulling up any new grass buds. 

Tip #4: Use pre-emergent

Weed pre-emergent is a product that kills weeds before they sprout, directly attacking the seeds. Using weed pre-emergent requires little manual labor, making it an easy step you can do yourself! On top of being relatively simple to apply, it also permanently eliminates the weed by attacking it at the root, instead of just trimming it at the surface. If you don’t already have weeds, don’t just assume you’re safe. Stay ahead of the problem and take advantage of pre-emergent. 

Tip #5: Overseed the grass

For any sparse spaces in the lawn, overseed! The addition of seed in your yard will not only improve the physical appearance, but it will also improve its health. Overseeding reduces erosion, helps your grass grow fuller and thicker, and also protects against unwanted pests. 

Tip #6: Fertilize

No matter what kind of grass you have, it will benefit from fertilizing. Fertilizer can help your lawn recover from soil heavy activity, improve its overall health, stimulate growth, add nutrients, reduce the presence of weeds, and more. Begin this process a few weeks after your grass turns green (if you begin too early, you’ll be feeding weeds, too).

Tip #7: Water your lawn

No matter where you live, grass needs water to grow. If you live in a particularly dry climate, you need to water more frequently than someone whose yard gets regular rainfall. The average lawn needs about one inch of water per week during the growing season, so plan accordingly based on your environment. Check out our blog, DIY: Setting the Perfect Sprinkler Rotation, for tips on how to install an irrigation system that’s right for you. 

Tip #8: Mow the grass regularly

A well-manicured lawn is both aesthetically pleasing and good for growth. Cutting grass is beneficial for a number of reasons: pests are driven away, nutrients are more easily absorbed in short blades, and fallen grass can act as a fertilizer in the soil.  Things to remember when mowing:

  • Don’t mow very short grass, it will result in sparse yards with poor root health
  • Mowing during the cooler parts of the day will be easier on your lawn mower
  • Only mow when the ground is dry
  • Switch up your mowing patterns to avoid compacted soil 
  • Use a sharp blade

Tip #9: Maintain pest control 

One of the biggest threats to your lawn is pests. Common critters like chinch bugs, billbugs, cutworms, and more will feast on your grass, so keep the yard safe by staying on top of your pest control techniques.  For helpful pest control resources, we recommend reading these blogs:

Take Your Spring Lawn Care to the Next Level

Maintaining a lush, healthy lawn requires some patience and effort. If you’re not feeling up to the task, Killingsworth Environmental would love to help. We’re committed to protecting lawns from weeds, pests, and diseases while using organic methods to help remain environmentally conscious.  Kicking off your lawn care this spring is vital to successful growth throughout the rest of the year. Let our expert lawn care professionals help you! 

Spring Lawn Care Tips for Every Yard

Bedbug inspection

How to Know if Your Hotel Has Bedbugs

Upon entering a hotel room, do you typically reach for the tiny toiletries, take a leap onto the bed, or perhaps start by inspecting for bed bugs? Knowing what to look for is essential. Anticimex Carolinas Service Manager Christian Tweed has shared valuable insights on identifying bed bugs in your hotel room and preventing them from hitching a ride back home with you. And if bed bugs do become an unexpected part of your vacation, remember that Clark’s Pest Control is here to assist!



Q&A with a Pest Professional


How do bed bugs get inside hotels?


Bed bugs are primarily hitchhiking insects as opposed to foraging ones, meaning that they get carried around on people’s clothes and belongings. Someone with an active infestation in their home can easily bring bed bugs to their hotel, but they can also be picked up during travel (airplanes, taxis, and rideshare services) and brought to a hotel room.


What do people misunderstand about bed bugs in hotels?


From a probability standpoint, all hotels will deal with bed bugs at some point in time. If you think about a bed bug’s method of travel, there’s literally nothing a hotel can do to stop them from being carried in. What I have realized is that luxury hotels are more likely to have an aggressive response to dealing with a bed bug case once it’s identified as they tend to have a higher quality of service and a reputation to protect. While this isn’t always the case, it has been my experience more often than not.

Got bedbugs? Call Clark’s at 866-781-4991 today!

What do you recommend travelers do when they get to their room to check for bed bugs?


Most hotel headboards hang directly on the wall. I start my inspection here before even looking at the bed itself. I have found bed bugs, their exoskeletons, and the telltale black stains they leave behind around the edges of or in the crevices of headboards. If the headboard looks clean, move on to looking over the pillowcases and comforter for any signs or stains. You can dig into the bedding as deep as you want here, but I encourage people to look over the top layer of things at the very least.


What are some lesser-known signs of bed bugs in your hotel room?


The specifics of the black stains they leave behind, which as gross as it sounds, are just digested blood as that’s all that bed bugs feed on. If the stains are on a hard surface, they will be small dots as if left behind by an ink pen and will smear into a brownish gray when moisture is applied. If they’re on fabric, they will usually bleed along the fibers making a small diamond, square or X shape.


If there are bed bugs in your hotel room, can they travel home with you?


They absolutely can, however this is easy to prevent. While staying in a hotel, keep as much of your clothing and luggage off the beds as possible. Storing suitcases in the bathroom might sound odd, but it’s an effective method of prevention.

Don’t tackle bedbugs yourself, call Clark’s at 866-781-4991!

What should you do with your suitcase if you suspect your hotel has bed bugs?


When arriving home from a trip, leave your luggage in the garage or on a porch and bring your clothes in one load of laundry at a time. If the clothes are dirty, wash them like you normally would, if they’re clean then run them through the dryer for at least forty-five minutes. Once your suitcase is empty, vacuum over it meticulously (don’t forget to empty the vacuum when you’re done), or if you’re in the right climate, expose it to heat for a few days by placing it in your vehicle (parked in the sun) or for a few weeks in your attic.


The Clark’s Solution


If you brought bed bugs back to you home, Clark’s is here to help. Our Bedbug Control service is designed to eliminate bedbugs and create a safe, comfortable environment.


A Clark’s Pest Professional will do an inspection and recommend a plan of attack to get rid of bed bugs now and prevent them from hatching in the future. Call Clark’s at 866-781-4991 today for more information.



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