QuestionOur lawn has just been diagnosed with chinch bugs. Do you have to take out all of the dead grass and replace it with new sod? A company has come in and told us an overwhelming price to destroy the bugs, prevent them from returning and replacing all of the dead sod.
Answer Who first noticed the problem; you or the Company? If the latter, did they volunteer the information or did they come in at your request? If the Company volunteered the information and their services, then you should seek some more. If the problem is as bad as I am understanding, you can easily find out for yourself. Gently dissolve 2oz. of lemon flavored dishwashing liquid in 2 gallons of water and pour it gently, very gently, over a 2'x 2' area of the lawn on the green side of a dead patch. Within a minute or two, you should see little black insects with a white or silvery band across the back. The young are red (believe me) with a similar band across the back. If you can count more than 24 in the area, then you do need to control them. This control program needs to continue over a number of weeks because the chemicals in use currently do not have a long residual effect. When you are quite sure that all stages are under control, (less than 10 in the 2 sq.ft. area), then you can think about resodding.
It is very easy to mix up the symptoms of chinch bug activity and irrigation failure; and you do not want to spray for chinch bugs if it was the sprinkler system that failed.
