Question
hello, my name is kevin and i am the maintainence director at the Royal Plum Club, in Marathon Key FL..  I have found assorted brown spots in my resort lawn.  I have also noticed that there are many stolons (vine like off shoots) throughout the property.  After asking another landscaper, he replied that if i had noticed any wasps or other bugs it could be bug related. My questions are... 1. Are these off shoots normal throughout the lawn?  And, 2. Was this person correct in his diagnosis of bugs?

Thank You,   Kevin Carte

Answer
St.augustine grass grow via above ground runners called stolons. This is how the grass spreads and fills in. If these are the ones you are seeing, they are quite normal. Mow the lawn regularily at the recommended height and dethatch the lawn regularily.

brown spots can be caused by a number of causes, either insects or disease. Insects such as chinch bugs or grubs can cause it. Chinch bugs is a big problem for st. augustine grass.

Brown patch and take-all patch are two common diseses of st. augustine grass, too. Brown patch is a fungal disease found in cool weather (spring and fall) with circular brown or yellow patches. It often appears as a doughnut with green grass in the middle.

Take all patch is often found when soil moisture is very high and tempeatures are moderate. This is a fungus which is very destructive.

Make sure you detatch regularily to control thatch where a lot of the problems start. Also fertilize regularily through the warm periods of the season and keep the grass mowed. Finally, subsurface drainage should be corrected if it is a problem (often a problem with disease in st. augustine grass)