Insect control on lawn

[Bill Jobe]

We used Trugreen for a few years and my wife became unhappy that they would occasionally kill a flower and that they did not seem to understand how to control weeds and insects.

So this year I do the lawn with commercial products.
I chose Scotts granulated fertilizer and used it twice with great results already.
But, some credit may belong to the extremely wet winter and spring, so the grass isn't thirsting.
And this excess water is adding more problems, particularly in the numbers of insects, particularly knats.
I'm looking for opinions of the best insecticide that is not part of a blend of other things, such as fertilizer other lawn products.

[Jerome Stanek]

I use Sevin and Spectracide with good results.

[Bill Dufour]

Climate? here just stop watering and everything dies.
93 degrees 31% humidity today so far the max temperature has only been 99. hotter days will soon be coming. I have too many outdoor projects this summer. I hope to have more days under 105 then last year.
Bil lD.

[Lee Schierer]

Be very careful with broad spectrum insecticides, they can kill things you may not want to kill such as earthworms, honey bees, Butterflies and even songbirds. And the sad news is that unless your neighbors join in you will still have lots of insects.

[roger wiegand]

Milky spore is an effective and long lasting treatment for grubs that doesn't trash the rest of the local critters. It takes a year or so to be fully effective and is expensive initially, but then works for many years. I haven't done the cost analysis, but I suspect it ends up cheaper in the long run. It's a fungus that is specific for the grubs and stays resident in the soil. You apply it just like any other granular product, I bought it at the orange borg.

[John K Jordan]

Be very careful with broad spectrum insecticides, they can kill things you may not want to kill such as earthworms, honey bees, Butterflies and even songbirds. And the sad news is that unless your neighbors join in you will still have lots of insects.

In particular, please do not put insecticides, especially in powder form like Sevin, on flowering plants. Dusting clover, green beans, and other flowers is a way to kill the honeybee colonies and other pollenaters in your area. The bees can carry it back to the hives like pollen where it can kill the hive. Once the bees are all gone, there goes 1/3 of our food supply.

When treating for insects, first be sure of what kind of insects you want to kill. Treating indiscriminately can have a huge environmental impact. (Even ants play an important role.) Same with herbicides. My lawns get nothing and my pastures get a targeted broadleaf pesticide only when needed, never insecticide.

And as Lee points out, unless all those in the area treat for the insects, treating one property may make no difference. An example is fly predators, used by livestock owners to control certain types of flies. (Fly predators are tiny wasp that target the fly larvae - I release about 10000 of them at a time.) They make a huge difference in fly population without harming anything else, but they are ineffective for livestock owners who live within 1/4 mile of neighbors with livestock who do not treat.

JKJ

[Bill Dufour]

Move to a region that gets under 6" of rain and you will find very few lawn bugs of any kind. There are companies that will come out and spray your gravel green every few years as needed.
Bill D

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/photography/photo-of-the-day/2009/10/gravel-lawns-blair-pod/

[Jim Koepke]

this excess water is adding more problems, particularly in the numbers of insects, particularly knats.

Try Dr. Google with > sand to control fungus gnats <. This is a common type of gnat that likes to invade a nice warm lawn. You won't likely need to use a full 2" like some suggest for potted plants. In my greenhouse there is usually a lot less sand than that which seems to control them fairly well.

jtk