Thanks for replying. I noticed the problem towards the end of
February/beginning of March. I guess the location would help:
Jacksonville, FL (St. Augustine grass). I didn't push the issue too
much with my treatment company because other yards were just coming
back from being dormant, but now 90% of the yards on the street at
back to normal, the other 10% being those who don't take care of it.
And no, no animals in the yard.

Pictures of the yard are he
http://aconnell.com/lawn/

Pic #1:
Shows the worst part... biggest patch and it's proximity to the
street. You'll notice that the grass next to the street is thick and
lush.

Pic #2: Long shot from the street all the way up to the boxwoods in
front of the house.

Pic #3: Closeup after raking a bunch of the dead grass out.

Pic #4: Shot of yard. The wost part, in the first image, is seen at
the top-left part of the yard (near the telephone box).

Pic #5: This shows what I was trying to say in the first posting. The
area about 1-2' from the street and driveway are fine, as are the
first 10-15' from the house. The area in the middle is patchy.

Any ideas? (BTW: Yard was cut yesterday... that's one reason why the
street looks a little close... I slipped and might have burned it a
bit).

-AC

"Peter H" wrote in message le.rogers.com...
"Andrew Connell" wrote in message
om...
We moved into our new house 1.5 years ago and have had a few different
companies service our lawn... the only thing I've done is maintance
(mow, trim, edge, garden, etc). I recently decided, after talking to
a neighbor, to fertilize and treat my yard myself. I'm having a
problem with a major part of my front lawn, and I'm concerned it's a
insect problem:

An area, starting about 10% into the lawn to 70% (going from the
street to the house) is dying in a patchy way. The grass isn't brown,
it's flat out dead in spots (very easy to grab a clump of it). I
thought it was a bad spray (because I'd had problems with the last
company) so I raked up the dead stuff, fertilized last week, and
stepped up the frequency of watering.

A few people have asked me if I had chinch bugs and I kept saying no,
but with that many people asking, I'm starting to think I might. How
can you tell if you have them? Some areas are no bigger than a 1'x1'
area... is pretty big (5'x5'). From what I saw in some chinch bug
pictures (on scotts.com), it shows like they take over a yard in a
wave... not patchy which is what mine is. Also, scotts.com said they
start from pavement... the closest they've gotten is 5' from the
street.

I can take a picture and post on my website if that would help. I'm
just really concerned about losing my yard.

Thanks in advance,
-AC

A photo would help as would your approx location. From what you have said it
doesn't sound like chinchbug to me.

When did you first notice the problem? Have you had any animals digging in
the yard?

Peter H