Professional Lawn Pest & Disease Control in Burke, Virginia

Preventive grub control works best when applied in June or July, before eggs hatch and while the lawn can be watered in immediately after application. Curative treatments for grubs already feeding should go down in late summer to early fall; applying insecticide in spring after mid-May is largely ineffective because grubs have stopped feeding and are preparing to pupate.

Preventatives go down early June to mid-July, before eggs hatch; curatives target young grubs in late summer. Applied outside those windows, most grub products are wasted money — timing is the entire game. Our crews work Burke regularly, so scheduling is usually available within the week outside the spring rush — and every visit ends with before-and-after photos of the finished work.

Brown patch typically appears as roughly circular patches of tan or brown grass, often with a darker "smoke ring" border in the early morning, and shows up during warm, humid nights above 65°F. Drought stress tends to be more uniform across sun-exposed areas and improves with consistent watering, whereas brown patch can worsen with excess moisture and poor air circulation.

Chinch bug damage starts as small yellow patches, usually in hot, dry, full-sun areas like driveway strips or south-facing slopes, and grows into larger irregular brown patches that do not green back up with watering. A simple soap-and-water flush test — or a professional inspection — confirms chinch bugs before treatment.

A single targeted treatment for a confirmed issue typically starts around $89, while a seasonal protection plan covering preventive grub control plus curative chinch bug and brown patch treatments generally runs $199-$299 for the season, depending on lot size and how many applications are needed.

Yes — grubs respond well to preventive treatment applied in the June-July window, and brown patch risk can be reduced with cultural steps like mowing tall fescue at 2 to 3.5 inches and watering early in the morning so blades dry during the day. A seasonal plan combines both preventive timing and monitoring so problems are caught before they spread.

Tall fescue is the dominant cool-season grass across Northern Virginia because it handles our clay soil and partial shade well, but it's more susceptible to Rhizoctonia solani (brown patch) during our humid mid-Atlantic summers than some warm-season alternatives. Proper mowing height, morning watering, and a timed fungicide application during peak humidity weeks keep it in check.