Your Lawn Right Now
SUPER CHINCH BUG
CHANGES LAWN CARE IN FLORIDA
September 09'
We knew it was developing, we knew we would have to deal with it sooner or later. We just didn’t expect it to happen this fast!!
A new SUPER CHINCH BUG has taken over in both Florida and Texas. Taking lawn care companies by surprise this summer this very hard to kill super bug has lawn care companies hopping and customers hopping mad.
The problem, Chinch bugs have become resistant to our most popular and affordable pesticides. If you read this column regularly you know that pyrethroid resistant chinch bugs have been a concern of mine for the last couple of years. Pyrethroids have been the best alternative since losing the organophosphate based insecticides a number of years ago (Dursban, Diazinon). We really haven’t had a good alternative pesticide class to turn to that would reliably control chinch bugs so it was year after year of pyrethroids. NOW THEY ARE NOT WORKING.
What now? Well…we do have a new pesticide class called the neonicotines. They are actually old chemistry recycled and improved upon but the fact is they work against pyrethroids resistant chinch bugs. The problem is they are expensive and when I say expensive I mean REALLY EXPENSIVE. No company could afford to incorporate their use on a wide scale basis because they just couldn’t compete on a price basis with those that were not experiencing the resistant chinch bug populations yet. Now all that has changed.
Everyone is being forced to use the new products. They are losing customers due to chinch bug problems or spending huge amounts of money on sod replacement. We have been no exception. I honestly thought that with the good hard freezes we had last winter and the spot treatment use of the new product (ARENA) we could get through another year without any serious problems. I was wrong. So was everone else. Resistant chinch bugs are the only ones out there now. They have taken over completely and the only way to deal with them is to change our lawn program to incorporate the use the new products (ARENA and a couple of similar products) and adjust our pricing to justify their use. We have done this. As a new customer you will be sold the new program. As an older customer you will get a letter to that effect later this year. It’s too late to change the program for this season. We are eating the cost of ARENA right now but I can’t do that next year. So expect some changes.
If we do not treat your home for your interior pest needs it would be a good idea to consider us as another pair of trained eyes on the property would be a great help.
Kyle |
