This October, your yard is in danger. Never mind the ghosts and ghouls, your trees and lawn face a more intimidating (to them, anyway) menagerie of threats. Some lurk underground, some hide in plain sight on the bark, and some only make themselves known after dark when the wind picks up. You might not even be able to see some of them without help from a professional.
The good news is that, unlike the monster under the bed, these threats leave clues. Fall is one of the best times of year to spot them. The leaves are thinning, the lawn is slowing down, and a long summer's damage is easier to read. Catch these problems now and you have time to act before winter arrives. Ignore them and they tend to get worse in the cold, dark months when you're not looking. Let's take a look at these frightening threats, before they take a look at you.
The soil is a magnificent place, full of nutrients and complex root systems that support healthy ecosystems. It is, however, also a cold and dark environment where strange creatures can grow and slither unseen. Chief among them is the grub: a plump, milky-white, C-shaped larva with a brown head and a big appetite for roots.
Grubs feed on the roots of turfgrass, chewing away the very thing that holds your lawn to the ground. A handful of grubs in a square foot of soil is rarely a problem, but once their numbers climb, the damage can spread across a lawn in a matter of weeks. And they're a two-part problem. White grubs are the larvae of several beetles, including Japanese beetles, June beetles, and European chafers. The grubs feeding in your lawn this fall will burrow deeper to wait out the winter. In spring they return to the surface to feed again, and by early summer they come out as adult beetles. Japanese beetles in particular then move up into the canopy, where they skeletonize the leaves of lindens, birches, maples, fruit trees, and roses. One infestation, two seasons of damage.
To make matters even worse, larger night-dwelling creatures looking for a grubby meal can ruin a perfectly manicured lawn overnight, namely skunks and raccoons. If you wake up to small holes punched across the yard, or patches of sod rolled back like a rug, something has been digging for dinner. Birds pecking at the same spots day after day are another giveaway.
Watch for these signs of grubs:
Want to check for yourself? Cut a square of sod about a foot wide at the edge of a damaged patch, peel it back, and count the grubs you find in the top few inches of soil. If you're seeing more than a few, it's time to call in help.
Timing matters. Grubs feed close to the surface in late summer and early fall, which is when treatment works best. As the soil cools, they head deeper underground, out of reach until spring. A lawn care professional can confirm what's under the surface and recommend the right treatment. That might be a curative application now or a preventive plan for next season, and it's a treatment we can provide.
Just as spring is the season of growth and life, fall is the season of death and decay (and dormancy!). As leaves drop and rot away, mushrooms and fungi seem to pop up everywhere. Most of the ones dotting your lawn are harmless, a sign of healthy soil breaking down organic matter. The ones growing on or around your trees, however, are a different story.
Fungi are neither plant nor animal, and many of them live by digesting wood. What you see on the outside is only the fruiting body. It might be a mushroom, a cluster of caps, or a hard, shelf-like bracket called a conk. The real organism lives inside the tree, quietly breaking down the wood that keeps it standing. By the time it shows itself, the decay may have been working for years.
Decay rarely starts out of nowhere. Fungi usually find their way in through wounds: a branch torn off in a storm, a trunk nicked by a lawn mower or string trimmer, roots damaged by construction or digging, or a poor pruning cut that never healed over. Stressed trees, including those dealing with drought, compacted soil, or mulch piled up against the trunk, are also less able to fight back.
This Halloween, be on the lookout for the signs of death:
Decay at the base and in the roots is especially dangerous because it weakens the tree's anchor. A tree can look full and leafy all summer while its roots rot beneath it, then come down whole in the next storm. And a large tree that fails doesn't just fall. It can take out fences, cars, power lines, and roofs along the way.
If you see these creatures creeping across your trees, contacting a Joshua Tree Experts arborist is the call for you. An arborist can assess how far the decay has spread, whether the tree can be safely kept, and what your options are. Sometimes the answer is pruning out affected limbs or improving the tree's growing conditions. Other times, removal is the safest choice. Either way, that small patch of ugly mushrooms may reveal a tree that is more dead inside than alive.
As you're out and about on Halloween night, pay attention to the sounds in the dark, particularly if it's a windy night. Trees naturally sway and rustle. But if a tree is squeaking, groaning, or creaking, especially in lighter gusts, you might be in for a frightening jump-scare.
Those noises usually have a cause. Two branches rubbing against each other can wear through the bark and open wounds where decay sets in. A cracked limb or split trunk may creak as it flexes along the break. Trunks that fork into two equal stems, especially with a tight V-shaped union, are prone to splitting under strain. And dead or weak limbs are often the noisiest of all.
Signs that a noisy tree needs a closer look:
Fall is the ideal time to deal with these issues. With the leaves down, an arborist can see the tree's structure clearly. Corrective pruning, limb removal, or cabling and bracing can all be done before the weather turns. That matters, because snow and ice are just around the corner. A limb coated in ice can carry many times its normal weight, and a limb that creaked in October may not survive January. You don't want Halloween's warning to return as a nightmare before Christmas, with a snapped widowmaker falling onto your property, your home, your car, or worse… your family.
You don't need a crystal ball to see what's coming. Before the trick-or-treaters arrive, take 15 minutes for a daylight walk around your property:
Snap a few photos of anything that looks off. They'll help our tree care specialist understand what's going on before they even arrive.
Halloween is the night of jump-scares, candy, and all things eerie, but that doesn't mean a ghost story will become a reality. Unless, of course… it does.
Don't take the risk with your trees and lawn. Pay close attention to this season's most frightening dangers: the creatures of the cold dark, the things that decay, and that which squeaks and creaks in the night. A little attention now could save you a much bigger scare later this spooky season.
If you're feeling uneasy because the risks we mention strike a chord, reach out to Joshua Tree Experts today for a free risk assessment before the ghosts (with buckets of candy) arrive.