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Smart Landscaping Ideas to Get Rid of Common Pests



By Guest Blogger Raymond Web
Just like your home, your yard can get infested with pests. The lawn is one area that is ideal for pests to build their nests. Once they invade the lawn, it becomes fairly easy for them to come inside and infest your home.
Pests come in all types; no matter how big or small your lawn is, they will infest it. If you don’t do anything about it, they will enter your house to damage your property and pose a threat to you and your family.
Common Lawn Pests
Wondering what pests are problematic? Check out our list of common pests.
Ants: Ants are not a direct threat to lawns, but they are a nuisance. Some ants like fire ants build anthills while some ants like carpenter ants infest wood and other items built with wood.
Hornets & Wasps: It is best to keep wasp away from your lawn and your homes. However, before taking any action to address wasp infestation, make sure you know the species. Some species are aggressive, and their stings may cause an allergic reaction in many people. It is recommended to take help from a pest control expert to tackle wasp infestation.
Armyworms: Armyworms are smooth-skinned, about 1 1/2 inches long, striped, and generally are yellow, dark brown, green, or black in color. They feed on grass and create brown patches on them.
Billbugs: These grubs are C-shaped, about 3/8 of an inch long with red-colored heads. They damage the turf in irregular patches.
Burrowing & digging mammals, mice: Moles, gophers, chipmunks, or groundhogs dig the ground and form tunnels. They are also responsible for creating mounds.
Grubs (Chafer grubs, White grubs): Masked chafer grubs eat the roots of lawn grasses, and create irregular patches of brown.
Green June Beetle Grubs: These cream-colored beetles with orange-brown headscreate tunnels in the lawn, which dries the soil and makes it spongy.
Cutworms: Cutworms can have a devastating effect on the plants, including holes in the leaves and fallen plants.
Fleas: Fleas don’t harm the lawns, but they can be a nuisance for people or pets using the lawns.
Mosquitoes: Mosquitoes do not damage the lawn, but they can transmit a number of diseases to humans through their bites.
Ticks: These small parasitic arachnids feed in the blood of their host and swell up. They are not a threat to the lawns, but they can cause harm to humans and pets.
Sod webworm: These pests eat the foliage and not roots. Hence they leave the area of the lawn brown or completely bare.
Landscaping Ideas to Keep Your Lawn Pest-Free
  1. Mow Your Lawn: Ants, cockroaches, termites, fleas, mosquitoes, and other insects look for a safe place to live and reproduce. The tall grass in your yard is perfect for doing both. So, mow your lawn frequently and keep it short.
  2. Turn Your Mulch: Insects, such as fire ants, build their nests with small organic material. If you don’t want them to build nests in your lawn, use a rake to shift the mulch around.
  3. Reduce Shade: Dense shade prevents the sun from drying the lawn areas, making the environment conducive for pests to thrive. Trim the things to provide the necessary sunlight so that the soil in your yard is less inviting to pests
  4. Trim Bushes and Trees: A yard that is not maintained is a magnet for pests as some of them use the branches as a bridge to get into your house. Make your home less accessible to them by trimming the bushes and trees.
  5. DrainStagnant Water: The stagnant water in your lawn attracts mosquitoes to lay their eggs. Check around the exterior of your house to see if there areany drainage issues resulting in puddles. If you have a pondor a swimming pool, cover it when not in use. Make sure you regularly drain and refill it.
  6. Remove Rotting Wood: Rotting wood makes for a perfect home for termites. If you want your home safe from termites, remove any dead tree stumps or fallen trees on your property as quickly as possible. If you need to store wood, place it above the ground. This practice will prevent the termites from coming inside your house.
  7. Place Pest Repelling Plants: The best way to keep the pest away naturally is to grow plants that are known to repel them. Do your research to find more about these pest-repelling plants. Some of the known pest-repelling plants are:
    • Chrysanthemums
    • Marigolds
    • Lavender
    • Petunias
    • Citronella
    • Peppermint
    • Basil
    • Catnip
    • Mint
    • Rosemary
  8. Consider the Lights: Many insects are drawn to the exterior lights on your lawn. It is best to put off the lights at night. Consider replacing white bulbs with insect-resistant light bulbs.
  9. Pluck the Weed: Weeds grow in patches around the house. If the weeds are not plucked, pests will come into your yard and then eventually into your home. So, pluck them regularly to keep pests from away from you and your family.
    Insects and animals are essential to keep the balance in the ecosystem. But if these pests are problematic, you need to get rid of them as soon as possible. Along with taking care of your lawn and garden make sure to take necessary steps to prevent indoor pest infestation. These top nine best practices can help you make your lawn pest-free.
Author Bio:
When people find their homes and offices infested with pests, it is not uncommon for them to panic. Raymond Web has taken the task to educate people on pest prevention and control strategies helping them keep their surroundings healthy, safe and pest-free. Being the digital marketing manager for Take Care Termite and Pest Control, in Tracy, CA, he has an in-depth understanding of people and their pain points due to pests, which he uses in his content to educate.

What a Landscaper can do during COVID-19

It is times like this, we need to rally our Landscape family together.  As some of you are able to stay open and some of you are forced to shut down by your state.  Everything we have seen so far, for the most part, you can classify your self as an essential-business as long as your state has written any language like maintenance, lawn care and landscaping into their Essential business list.  There seems to be some leeway in the terminology. companies still operating during the coronavirus crisis, following comprehensive safety guidelines is crucial. Below are some COVID-19 safety recommendations from the Pennsylvania Landscape & Nursery Association (PLNA):
  • Contact and get permission from clients to be serviced — preferably in a documented format such as email or other time/date stamped electronic communication.
  • Implement daily all-staff communications within the company to inform, educate, and reinforce Standard Operating Procedures, best management practices, and possible next steps.
  • Relax attendance policies to allow any employee who is uncomfortable working to stay home and use paid time off or apply for unemployment.
  • Train crew personnel to be able to respond to questions from the public in a professional manner. (While maintaining social distancing.)
  • Enforce cleaning and sanitation protocols for all common spaces including trucks and equipment. (Remember tools, handles, steering wheels, etc.)
  • Stagger crew start times to minimize congregation at office/shop locations.
  • Limit crews to ONE person per truck and have all other crew personnel drive directly to the job site.
  • Assign one truck to one crew and do not rotate.
  • Minimize use of shared equipment and tools.
  • Wear gloves as much as possible, removing only to eat or drink.
  • If you must work in close proximity to another for a short period of time (i.e. lifting a tree ball into a hole), wear a face mask.
  • Be prepared to shutdown at any moment.

While the National Association of Landscape Professionals (NALP) urges its members to follow CDC guidelines, it has also provided COVID-19 safety procedures from a few members as reference. While different, each policy had some specifics worth thinking about beyond the basics. Pacific Landscape Management in Hillsboro, OR, has a plan that mentions setting up wash stations, instructing employees to bring water jugs to use hand soap left in trucks for field work, and flexible policies to permit employees to stay at home to care for a sick family member. Sun Valley Landscaping in Omaha, NE , recognizing different employees conduct their jobs differently, broke down its guidelines by position. It included very specific COVID-19 safety rules on social distancing, disinfecting, and bathroom use. For instance, those in the field are instructed to “use designated porta potty for field staff. Wash hands thoroughly and wipe down any surfaces touched prior.” Additionally, “Any time you are disinfecting, wear a clean pair of gloves and then throw away after disinfecting.”

Time is Money - Keeping Extra Parts On Your Trailer



If there is one thing experience can teach us in running a landscape business it is the importance of time.  It doesn’t matter if you run a multi truck operation or you are just a one Truck one trailer kind of guy.  Your time is worth money. 

If you’re the one truck one trailer I would think your time is even more valuable as you do not have the same resources a large scale operation would have. In most cases landscaping is a part time job for you so the days you are out mowing you cannot be dealing with down machines or something breaking on the job.

If you are the mid to large scale operation every time your crews are spending more time hanging out at the dealership versus on the job site the money you are billing for is going right out the window.

Think about this for a second. You are on a lawn and break a belt or recoil.  If you are lucky it happens as you are putting the machine back on the truck but if it happens when you get there or in the middle of the job your whole day just changed, causing you to lose time which equals money. A trip to the dealer to pick up the repair part could be 30 minutes, because as you know when you have to be somewhere you will get stuck behind someone who hasn’t figured out yet how to push the gas pedal. So now you are at the dealership, it could take another 15 to 20 minutes to get the part provided it is in stock. Then another 30 minutes back to the job. So if you are lucky you only wasted and hour and a half getting the part never mind installing it.

So where does that Hour and a half maybe two go?  Well, you either need to hustle to make it up or it is lost forever. What do you bill an hour?  Does throwing out $60 maybe $75 dollars sound good?

Now imagine if you had kept a few repair parts on your trailer.  In the case of a belt breaking simply walking to the trailer and putting on a new one just saved you an hour.  Not only did you save time and money by not leaving the job you also maintained a level of professionalism that does not go unnoticed by your customers that could lead to future business.  So Not only did you save that $60 dollars in waste travel but you may have also preserved future income.

This just scratches the surface of the other hidden little costs that you saved on just by having a few parts in stock. Wear and tear on the truck, traffic, gas, professionalism and your own sanity for the long haul are just some things to mention.

Take a small inventory of your machines, Look at the stuff that could break, items you always replace and keep and extra one or two.  In most cases if you buy in bulk you will save a few extra cents here and there. Most big companies think like this and make great profits, No reason you can’t do the same.

As the saying goes. Time is money. Corny but seems to make sense here.

5 Signs you're Dealing with an Upstanding Power Equipment Dealer


As a small, single, female, walking into any Power Equipment store can be a little intimidating. I know I can't be the only woman who worries about being scammed, mistreated, or underestimated. In my journey for the perfect Snow Blower, I had gone to a few bad dealership before I finally found a great one! Here are 5 Tell tale signs you are dealing with and upstanding Power Equipment Dealer.

 

1.) They will greet you at the door.

Nothing is worse than feeling like you are being completely ignored when you are shopping for something expensive, or waiting to get your machine serviced. A great Power Equipment Dealership should have a person ready and waiting to greet you by the door with a happy easy going expression.

 

2.) The showroom is clean and well organized.

A huge sign of poor management for any Dealership is a dirty store. If you don't care enough to clean your own store, why would you care enough to thoroughly service my machine? Or care enough to sell me something that is new and working for that matter. So after you have been greeted, scope out the area and make sure everything is looking in order. 

 

3.) The salesman looks you in the eye.

Your salesperson should be able to look you in the eye while selling to you or while he is explaining something to you. When someone is able to look you in the eye it shows that they are honest. If his eyes are darting around, or he is unable to hold eye contact for an entire conversation.... Be careful, chances are he isn't being honest with you. 

 

4.) Your salesperson gives you his contact information.

Your salesperson should not be nervous about giving you his information. He should be proud to stand by his words. They should also be to able direct you to a functional website, and show you how you can use it to better your experience.

 

5.) Explain reasons for service.

After you have bought your machine from a reputable dealership and used it for a couple seasons, wear and tear will occur. You should be able to bring your machine back to your trusted dealership for service. Your salesperson should be able to thoroughly explain all repairs and why you need them. If you feel as though they are tacking on extra work to a machine that had one problem, be careful, ask them detailed questions. If they are being honest, they should have no issue answering your questions.

 

So, in conclusion, stay sharp, trust your instincts, and stay strong in your decisions. You will know when you are being treated fairly, and when you are working with an excellent Power Equipment Dealership. The dealership I worked with was local to me, however, they had an online store that anyone can go on! 

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