How to Treat Bare Spots in St. Augustine Grass Yards
- 1). Cut the edge of the bare spot with the sharp end of the shovel to remove dead grass. Scale insects called "ground pearls" feed on the roots of grasses. They attach themselves to roots and secrete a waxy, shell-like substance around their bodies that resembles a pearl. The pearl size increases over time, causing grass to die.
- 2). Scrape the affected area with a three-pronged hand weeding tool to loosen and aerate the soil. Spray the area with organic insect spray. Organic insect spray ingredients include garlic, rosemary oil, cinnamon oil, clove oil and potassium bicarbonate. The natural ingredients interfere with insect metabolism, causing death.
- 3). Replace diseased St. Augustine grass in the bare spot with healthy stolens from another area of lawn. Each stolen is a strong stem piece with roots attached. Place a healthy stolen 3 inches apart throughout the bare spot. Water thoroughly.
- 4). Begin an organic lawn care program to enhance the soil's biological capacity to resist harmful insects and disease. Healthy lawn soil contains a variety of insects that feed on harmful insects such as scale ground pearls. Organic lawn care includes the use of fertilizer derived from all natural sources such as cottonseed meal, feather meal, bat guano, blood meal, mined rock powders, seaweed and animal manure. Lawns respond best to fertilizer in September and November, when grass is expanding its root systems.
