Philadelphia, PA (PRWEB) June 09, 2014

For the first time in several years, Ash Rust, a fungal disease, has erupted in Philadelphia. Plagued by other serious health problems including the fatal Emerald Ash Borer, Ash trees infected with Ash Rust suffer further stress and often decline. Giroud Tree and Lawn helps homeowners understand Ash Rust symptoms, the impact on trees and the best actions to maintain tree health.

"Ash Rust infects White, Green and sometimes Black Ash," explains Lou Giroud, President of Giroud Tree and Lawn and ISA Certified Arborist. "Symptoms start as small yellow to yellow-orange spots on leaves beginning in Mid-May. Wart like-swellings may also erupt and leaves often become distorted. By July, heavily infected Ash Trees may have significant leaf loss."

Preventative treatment is the best control but is not recommended since the disease only occurs sporadically. Giroud Tree and Lawn recommends the following tree service actions:

1. Schedule Ash Tree Inspection Now: Have an ISA Certified Arborist evaluate overall health of the tree and determine the best actions to protect tree health.

2. Reduce Tree Stress: In the fall, deep root fertilization, soil amendments, vitamins and nutrients can help to boost the trees immune system.

3. Emerald Ash Borer Treatment: A fatal pest, treatment is the only way to protect Ash Trees from Emerald Ash Borer. If the Ash Tree is valuable to the landscape, Emerald Ash Borer treatment is critical.

4. Regular Monitoring: Because Ash Trees face formidable health issues, it is important to have professional inspections regularly to catch emerging issues early.

Like most Rust diseases, Ash Rust requires a second host. In this case, the fungal spores spend the winter on marsh and cord grass along the coast. An unusual confluence of conditions is required for the spores to travel as far as the Philadelphia area.

Recognizing that Ash trees are already plagued with a variety of serious health issues like Emerald Ash Borer, a professional tree inspection is the most important first step a homeowner can take to protect the health of Ash trees.

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Ash Rust Erupts in Philadelphia Putting More Stress on Ash Trees Already Plagued by Serious Health Problems; Giroud ...

(BPT) Small lawns have many of the same needs and issues as larger lawns, but they dont always require the same bulky tools to get the job done. A smart arsenal for small lawn care includes some sturdy hand tools and a few small, but powerful, gadgets. If youre looking to outfit your arsenal, consider these tools.

Lawn care at the flip of a switch Small lawns need fertilizer and treatment for weeds just like large lawns. But a large awkward push spreader can be overkill for a small lawn and take up valuable storage space in the garage. The new lightweight, hand-carried, battery-powered Ready2Go Spreader is specifically designed to make quick work of small lawns, slopes and tight spaces. It comes pre-loaded with popular lawn care products from Preen, GreenView and Vigoro. Each unit is pre-calibrated for its product so no further adjustments are ever needed. To use the spreader, just pick it up, flip the switch and walk to cover up to 2,500 square feet to fertilize or treat the lawn. To spiff up yards overrun with weeds including tough dandelions, try the Ready2Go Spreader with Preen Lawn Weed Control. For eco-friendly spring lawn feeding, the Ready2Go Spreader with GreenView Lawn Food offers quick green up plus controlled nutrient release over eight weeks. Each unit is refillable, reusable, and its pre-installed AA batteries are replaceable. After use, store the compact, portable tool on a shelf, with no space lost in the garage or shed.

Water the lawn, not the living room For a lawn, water ranks with sunlight in terms of importance. For a small lawn, often nestled up close to the house and open summer windows, putting water only where its wanted is desirable. The Dramm Colorstorm 9-Pattern Turret Sprinkler has adjustable directional sprays in nine different patterns to water small lawns evenly. Durable and efficient, it gives the lawn the good, deep soaking it needs, while leaving the living room curtains dry and blowing in the summer breeze.

Keep the lawn in fighting trim Mowing a lawn regularly is more than aesthetic: keeping grass at the right length, between two-to-four inches, helps grass develop strong roots. The Black and Decker 19-inch cordless electric mulching mower is designed for small lawns. It not only makes it easy to keep the lawn mowed to the correct height, it chops up clippings so they decompose easily, discouraging thatch buildup.

Give a small lawn an edge By their nature, small lawns are often viewed up close and personal. Edged lawns not only look nice, they help keep garden weeds out of the lawn and vice versa. But edging by hand is hard work. The GreenWorks 12 Amp Corded Edger is sturdy, lightweight, easy to maneuver and ideally suited to creating crisp tidy edges in turf along borders of walkways, driveways, paths and garden or landscape beds. With only a connecting cord of its own, attach the edger to the grounded outdoor-rated extension cord of choice, up to 50-feet. For those who prefer a manual edging solution, choose an edging tool with a sturdy handle and a strong hand-forged cutting edge such as the English-made Clarington Edging Knife.

These are tools that get the job done and done quickly, keeping small lawns trim, tidy and naturally strengthened to fend off weeds. Theyre also compact and easy to store and keep until next needed, a boon where storage spaces are also smaller with no room to spare.

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For small lawns, choose smart tools that get the job done quickly

Denver, Colorado (PRWEB) May 29, 2014

Emerald ash borer is considered the most destructive urban forest pest even seen in North America. Since the discovery, the pest is responsible for killing more than 50 million ash trees in over 20 states and two Canadian provinces. Ash trees in the Denver Metro area are posed with a real threat, with an estimated 1.45 million trees at risk according to the Colorado Department of Agriculture. Emerald ash borer is raising many tree care questions with Denver homeowners along the Colorado Front Range: the main concern being treatment.

As Colorado's lawn care and tree service experts, we are committed to keeping our clients updated on threats to our Colorado landscapes. It's important we create awareness about emerald ash borer sooner than later, so homeowners can make an informed decision. By our calculations, we've reached approximately 59% of our clients and plan to hit 90% by the end of July, Swingle President, John Gibson states.

Before homeowners jump to conclusions, it is important to determine if ash trees are present in their yards. Ash trees have compound leaves with 5 to 11 leaflets, branches & buds are in pairs directly across from each other, and a tree with mature bark has diamond shape ridges. If you have a hard time identifying the tree, it is best to contact a professional arborist first. There have been various successful methods of treatment in the mid-west where the majority of the damage has occurred. Swingle Lawn, Tree & Landscape Care has worked with national companies to bring homeowners proven solutions. Products being used have been successful methods of treatment with those who have experience the devastation already.

Deciding on the best approach to treat ash tree(s) depends on several factors such as tree size, condition, and the proximity to the known affected area of the emerald ash borer. After a professional arborist has evaluated the tree, treatment options include either an injection in the soil or the truck or a basal bark spray (spraying the trunk).

Trunk Injection (Arborjet TREE-age) - Injections can start in late May through June. It is effective for at least two years; yet research has shown it can last longer. Truck injections are recommended for trees within 15 miles of the known detection site. A trunk injection may also be used if a soil injection is recommended, but the soil is not accessible.

Soil injection (Criterion) - Soil injections can be made mid to late spring and fall. A soil injection will protect tree(s) for one year. Swingle recommends soil injections for trees 15 miles outside of the detection site in Boulder, Colorado. Professional soil injections can place the insecticide below turf or mulch to directly reach the root zone of the tree.

Trunk spray or basal bark treatment (Safari) - Trunk spray is applied in June. The spray is effective for one growing season. The basal truck spray offers the advantage of being easy and quick to apply.

It is important to note ash trees have a better probability of surviving emerald ash borer if the tree has maintained a healthy status, being properly pruned, previously not infested by other pests, and adequately watered. Many ash trees in Colorado have been attacked by native insects for years and have not received enough moisture due to our semi-arid climate. Ash trees infested with emerald ash borer may be saved if the infestation hasnt reached critical mass, but the survival rate decreases significantly. Homeowners will have to decide the value the ash tree has to their landscape, whether it be financial or sentimental. Unhealthy trees exhibiting numerous signs of emerald ash borer or other pest infestation will have a harder time surviving and may die causing a threat to your property and requiring removal. To prevent infestation, prune dead branches that would weaken the tree and have the tree examined immediately if you believe the tree has been infested.

By the time you see signs of the insect, it may be too late for the tree; emerald ash borer is stealth, says Plant Pathologist Steve Geist.

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Swingle Lawn, Tree & Landscape Care Notifies Customers About Emerald Ash Borer Risk and Treatment Options

If the lawn outside your window is giving you the blues, join the club, says Consumer Reports.

After a brutal winter walloped much of the country, the magazine's Facebook and Twitter feeds have been buzzing with lawn care woes from exasperated homeowners (#moles and #barespots, anyone?).

Fortunately, many of the most common problems have fairly straightforward fixes. Consumer Reports offers the following solutions to common problems:

Solution: Look for lawn alternatives

Even so-called shade-tolerant varieties of turfgrass won't do well in dark corners of the yard. And pruning trees too aggressively to create sunlight can end up harming the tree. You're better off cutting your losses and replacing the sun-starved patch of grass with a shade-tolerant ground cover, such as bishop's hat or sweet woodruff.

Or you might convert that part of the lawn with gravel or a perennial bed.

Solution: A multipronged defense

You're smart to tackle this pesky weed. Besides being an eyesore, crabgrass typically dies off at the first frost, promoting soil erosion.

Applying corn gluten meal, a natural alternative to chemical herbicide, in early spring can help contain the problem. Follow with a spring fertilizer.

As the mowing season begins, don't cut the grass too short, since this can open the door again for crabgrass. Set the deck on your mower or tractor to around 3 1/2 inches.

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Consumer Reports: Your best lawn ever

Nampa, Idaho (PRWEB) May 28, 2014

Barrier Lawn & Pest, Inc. believes their simple customer service, which they call the Barrier Promise has helped them gain a good reputation both online and offline in the pest control industry in the Boise area. The proof can be found by reading BBB reviews, Google reviews and Demandforce customer reviews. They receive excellent customer service reviews, which can be read on their site.

Barrier Lawn & Pest, Inc. is a family owned lawn care and pest control company. They have been operating in Boise, Idaho since 2006. Their headquarters are located in Nampa, Idaho. They are capable of serving most of Southwest Idaho including Garden City, Boise, Eagle, Emmett, Kuna, Meridian, Middleton, Nampa, Caldwell and Star.

Each day, Barrier Lawn & Pest, Inc. strives to meet the needs of the customer. They believe in doing simple and basic things, such as answering the telephone, because that is really what pays off. This company is committed to their customers 100%. They believe in providing top of the line treatment and service. They aim to be the type of company everyone wants to do business with. They believe in delivering results and treating people with the respect they need and deserve.

They promise to return every message, answer every call that comes in during business hours, call to schedule every service, and they are always on time. When treating homes and offices, the solutions they use for ant control and spider control are safe for the family and pets.

The company is licensed and insured, and believe in doing things safely by the book. Back in 2011, the Idaho Department of Agriculture performed a site inspection of their location. They passed this inspection with flying colors.

About Barrier Lawn & Pest, Inc.

Barrier Lawn & Pest, Inc. is a family owned lawn and pest control business. They first started back in 2006 and are continuing to grow. They believe in treating their customers with the respect and dignity they deserve.

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Barrier Lawn & Pest, Inc. Announces Their Barrier Promise

A presentation made to Park Ridge Park District officials suggests eliminating pesticides and using natural lawn care treatment on the new Youth Campus property.

Go Green Park Ridge delivered the presentation during the park boards Thursday, May 15 meeting.

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Pass Up Park Pesticides?

Before leaving for Indianapolis to visit her husband, who was in the hospital being treated for multiple myeloma, an incurable bone marrow cancer, Bonnie Atkinson (not her real name), a resident of the Painted Hills subdivision outside Martinsville, stood outside her house chatting with a neighbor. Suddenly a professional lawn care service truck appeared, and the driver sprayed herbicides on several lawns in the neighborhood, as had happened before. Although it's difficult, if not impossible, to determine whether her husband's cancer and the many other cases of cancer in Atkinson's neighborhood are linked to her neighbors' habit of treating their lawns with herbicides, she knew for sure that herbicides used on lawns are deadly to more than weeds, the target organisms, as Rachel Carson pointed out in her 1962 book, Silent Spring. Atkinson also knew that because of pesticide drift, herbicides move to areas other than were they're sprayed.

About 90 million pounds of herbicides are applied to U.S. lawns every year, according the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Of the 17 most frequently used herbicides, three are known carcinogens, three are possible carcinogens, and one is a probable carcinogen, according to Beyond Pesticides, a nonprofit working to end dependence of toxic pesticides. Various herbicides are linked with cancers, endocrine disruption, reproductive problems, neurotoxicity, kidney/liver damage, birth defects and sensitization/irritation.

Children are especially sensitive to pesticide exposure because they absorb more pesticides relative to their body weight than adults and have developing organ systems that are more vulnerable and less able to detoxify toxic chemicals than adults' systems.

Lawn chemicals harm pets, too: according to Environmental Research, using a pesticide to achieve a lush lawn is likely to cause malignant lymphoma in dogs.

Take the herbicide 2,4-D (2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid), for example. It is the only one of the top 13 herbicides listed by Beyond Pesticides that causes all the ill effects herbicides are known to cause (http://www.beyondpesticides.org/lawn/factsheets/30health.pdf). It's one of the top 13 most heavily used herbicides in the home and garden, according to Beyond Pesticides. Lawn care companies apply it in the late spring and early summer for http://psep.cce.cornell.edu/issues/lawnissues.aspx">broad leaf weed control and in the fall for weed treatment.

The Natural Resources Defense Council reports that 2,4-D, which is applied outdoors but is commonly tracked into houses on shoes or pet paws, can remain in carpets for as long as a year. 2,4-D has been widely detected in drinking water.

2,4-D was a chief ingredient in the defoliant Agent Orange, which the U.S. used to destroy ecosystems in North Vietnam during the Vietnam war. It left a legacy of cancer and birth defects among the Vietnamese exposed to it, and it left a similar legacy in exposed American troops and their offspring.

2,4-D is contaminated with a class of synthetic chemicals called dioxins, the most potent chemical carcinogens known. Dioxins cause cancer, birth defects, reproductive effects, liver damage and a skin disease called chloracne. Dioxins are neurotoxins and endocrine (hormone) disruptors and are on the Environmental Working Group's "Dirty Dozen" list of the worst hormone disruptors.

2,4-D is especially associated with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, cancer of the lymph system, according to Beyond Pesticides, an organization that advocates abandoning the use of pesticides. 2,4-D is absorbed through the skin. Anyone who applies the herbicide or is in contact with lawns or surface water where 2,4-D was applied is at risk of exposure to it.

Just how many Indiana homeowners employ lawn care services to spray herbicides on their property is impossible to know. The Hoosier Environmental Council has no information on the subject. According to the Office of the Indiana State Chemist, no agency has information on how many Indiana households use lawn care services because homeowners aren't required to report the use of a professional lawn care operator. However, the office reported that Indiana has 1,242 licensed turf-management businesses.

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Chemical commerce fuels cancer cluster worry

Orlando Lawn Treatment Services | 407-447-7378
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Orlando Lawn Treatment Services | 407-447-7378 - Video

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Rene Bourque's hat trick capped a wild Montreal win last night, and hats rained down on the Bell Centre ice. Around the same time, in Bourque's hometown of Lac La Biche, Alberta, some far-flung Habs fans gave Bourque's parents' lawn the same treatment.

The photo, by Christine Owchar, was shared on Twitter last night by @opinionated_mom (she tweeted it to the Canadiens and to the Prime Minister, which is adorable). Bourque is big news in Lac La Biche, where residents gather at the local ice rink for playoff viewing parties.

Bourque's father, Gary, was an Oilers fan before his son made the NHL. Now it's all Canadiens.

"It's always nice to see them win," Gary Bourque said. "But if he's part of the goal production or the assist, it's a bonus for him and I'm sure it's a bonus for me, eh?"

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Canadiens Fans Throw Hats Onto Rene Bourque's Parents' Lawn

San Diego, CA (PRWEB) May 26, 2014

Grass have brown patches that never turn green? Lawn suffering from irregularly shaped dead patches? These horrifying results could be due to ravenous grubs looking for a full meal in that beautiful, lush green lawn, as well as the hungry moles and other mammals who eat them. The only suggested all encompassing sure fix is with severe pest and mole control from Gopher Patrol. According to Tech Supervisor Brandon Rodriguez, Our company uses all inclusive treatment programs to promote full and healthy lawns.

The most common ones seen are white and creamy colored. They are a beetle larvae that has a C for cookie shape. Here are just a few helpful hints in trying to keep an eye on those pests:

If there are dead patches...They may be due to grubs feeding that occurred the previous fall. To check, lift a piece of your turf. If grubs are the culprit, the dead patch will roll up like a carpet, or youll be able to pull up the grass and see that it has no roots.

If there are irregularly shaped dead patchesThey will appear in your well-irrigated lawn in late summer or early fall. Check the turf using the technique just mentioned.

If the turf has become spongySometimes sponginess can be detected before extensive brown patches appear. With well-watered lawns, sponginess may be the first clue that grubs are present.

Birds, skunks, armadillos, raccoons or moles will destroy lawns they eat grubs and are trying to uncover them.

Grubs CAN and WILL take over and destroy a lawn in one summer. In its first instar, or earliest stages of larvae development, the Scarab Beetle grub feeds on the turf roots just below the soil surface. This damage generally occurs in Spring, however, the actual damage does not become apparent until the hot dry days of Summer set in. With an extended period of hot dry weather the top layer of soil dries out completely! The grass roots being sheared off just below the soil are unable to absorb any water or moisture from the soil and consequently the lawn dies in the patches where the grubs have been active. If left untreated, the population will grow and there will be more problems with other outdoor pests such as gophers coming to visit and helping to destroy the lawn.

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Jiggly, Wiggly, Worms To Swarm Lawns Grub Summer Treatments Now Offered as Infantry in Fighting Pest and Mole Control ...