Question
I recently inherited a house in florida which my family is going to move into. My father's lawn was destroyed by some asshole who threw some type of crustaceans that ate all of his lawn and left behing some type of very miniscule type of sea shells behind. My dad then had a contractor come in and pound down the lawn and put down a metal grid and tar paper before topping it off with white pebbles. I'm cool with that but weeds are growing all over the place and I want to know if you can help me to identify the type of crab or whatever did the original damage to the grass lawn so that I can get some and organically destroy the heavy weeds without using heavy doses of herbicides or diesel fuel which have been recommended but are unacceptable to me. I have seen the shells and they are white.

Answer
Oh Richard, have I got a deal for you.LOL
Don't need those little varmits. Since you don't have grass there, there is a very easy way to kill the weeds. When the sun is out, and it is nice and hot, pour or spray white vinegar on the weeds. Wet them good, and wet the ground around then so it will kill the root.
White vinegar is cheap. Vinegar comes in more than one acid strength. It comes in 3%,and 4% . Or it is 4% and 5%.
Get the more acid. That is not necessarily the most expensive brand. Just cheak the label.
I pour white vinegar on the grass that comes up in cracks in the driveway, sidewalk etc.
there is really no reason for you to want to enrich your soil, if you are not going to grow grass, but I use sugar on my lawn. Fertilizers kill the beneficial microbes that enrich soil, ad the sugar keeps them alive. I put 1 pound sugar to 250 to 300 sq.ft. of lawn. Weeds like poor soil, and they do not thrive in rich soil. The first time I put down the sugar, in a couple of weeks, about half the weeds were gone, a couple more weeks they were all gone...they came up the next spring (new ones that seeded in by wind etc), but I put sugar down in the spring and fall, and after 2 or 3 years, the weeds don't even come up in my yard.
Their seeds won't germinate in rich soil.
Hope this helps you.
I have no idea what kind oF critter the "Jerk" put down (don't like expletives), but the shells that are left will add calcium to the soil.
Write any time you feel I might be able to help.
Charlotte