2 questions about residential grass...

[Mrcopier]

I absolutely hate St Augustine, it has to many problems with mold and diseases. I replace with centipede it's pretty trouble free and grows in most places and pretty drought tolerant. The wasp that is dragging bugs, does it look like a football with wings and about 1 1/2 to 2" insize? Yellow and black?

 

[BC]

Since you have become a "city" person, draw on your years of experience in East Texas and how you grew hay. Fertilize and mow. Get you some 15-5-10 fertilizer at a garden center (even WalMart carries it here in East Texas). Wait until late April and apply 6 lbs per 1000 sq. ft of lawn. Repeat the fertilizer application every 6 to 8 weeks with your last application about mid September. Try this because it works on athletic fields.

 

[greybeard]

Yep, the holes were definitely cicada wasps.
My 'splotchy' looking lawn is now one of the best 'looking' in the neighborhood. But, lots of it is now dock, (curly and otherwise) interspersed with bermuda, perennial ryegrass, some fescue and St Augustine. Come spring, I may spray some pre emergent tho I'm hesitant to do so on account it can retard the desirables as well as the hated crabgrass and dallis grass seeds I know are down there. Couldn't spray this last 6-8 months because of all the new shoots of grass coming up. Not established enough to withstand even 2,4-d or triclopyr.

Last summer, since I couldn't do much else because of my back, I crawled that lawn from one end to the other, in triple digit heat, pulling and digging up crabgrass, black medic, spurge, and sorrel. That, just to have something to do and try to minimize the new seed production. We'll see in a few months, if my efforts were productive or for naught.

I don't need or particularly want a perfect lawn, but I don't want what was here when I first moved here either. Bare ground, a little St Augustine and 70% weeds masquerading as grass.
I'll be using 2,4d, triclopyr and quinclorac next spring, the quinclorac being a new one for me.

 

[Mark Reynolds]

Mystery solved I think. Was about to pull some weedy looking crap from an area about 3' from that hole but Just across the sidewalk from the hole, near a different rose bush. Yes, I today, discovered another bunch of disturbed soil which at first, I took to be yet another fire ant mound. A few minutes later, I watched a very large winged and stingered black and yellow creature come walking along in broad daylight and afraid of nothing, dragging a cicada with it. (black and yellow scare a fellow?) It and it's prey quickly disappeared down a partially hidden hole not far from the disturbed soil. I am evidently ground zero for cicada killin wasps.

I have a 20 year old but still sealed quart of Malathion concentrate. Fear that, winged stingered creature..

@greybeard, what you have is a cicada killer. Yes, I know that is obvious, but that happens to be the name of the insect as well. They are quite harmless (although scary) to people. Aside from digging holes in your flower beds, they do help heep the cicada population (annual cicadas anyway) under control. Otherwise it would be like getting invaded by the 17 year cicadas every year, if you live in an area where that happens.