strips of raised thick dead grass

Question

The snow melted and left a maze of strips of raised, thick dead grass. I am ready to dig up all the grass on the parkway and put down rocks. This is a forever problem. I have grubex put down at least 2x a season. I give up. I am assuming it is grubs or could it be something else? I really appreciate the opportunity to write to you.

Answer 1

There are many reasons this could be happening, which I will list here. Let me know if any of these sound feasible:

1) Winter lawn damage (most likely scenario), which is discussed in the article here:
https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/lawn-care/lgen/winter-lawn-damage.htm
2) Overdoses of fertilizer
3) Overdose by lawn weedkiller or moss controls.
4) Pests – you could digging down and thoroughly inspecting what’s in or under that sod. I am wondering if you are dealing with an insect pest other than grubs.

Answer 2

I believe you are describing vole damage. We once lived in an area that had trouble with this little rodent in the winter.

Spring melt would leave a maze of tunnels in the yard.

You can attempt to trap them, we had neighbors that tried, but were not successful with this.

Some used poisons, but since I had small children and pets, we did not go that route either. My solution was just to tamp

down the tunnels and sprinkle new grass seed in.

Here is an article about this little rodent.

https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/plant-problems/pests/animals/vole-control.htm