I read the A&M link. It wouldn't be the first time A&M was wrong about something. Plus they're about as Agri-business as you can get. Their testing of organic methods is often suspect. Their conclusion about the ineffectiveness of Milky Spore could be simply because they didn't account for it's 2-3 year establishment time. I have no proof about the effectiveness of Milky Spore. I applied it at the proper time according to instructions about 25 years ago. I haven't had noticeable grub damage in my lawn since then. Maybe it's luck, or it's attributable to other factors or methods. A few of those years I treated the lawn for fleas, but most years not. I live in South Texas with alkaline clay soil. The only thing milky spore or lawn insecticide treatments can be expected to do is to kill the larvae in the soil. The adults are not feeding when you see them bouncing off your exterior lights or your forehead. They lay their eggs and then die. The prime time to treat them is as soon as you stop seeing them around your outdoor lights. They've laid their eggs and died. The larvae are near the surface, small, and tender. When I dig in my yard, I often see a few grubs. The thing to remember is that, regardless of what control method you use, you can never kill them all. The only time you won't see grubs is when they turn into adults and come out of the ground to fly around bouncing off of things till they lay eggs and die. rangier

Well, IMO "luck" doesn't play a part in creating fertile soil. Many of us have spent years and a lot of work to have healthy soil with lots of worms. I've never seen an earthworm in my compost tho, even when it's not very hot. I started with heavy clay soil with only a very thin layer of topsoil and by amending it with cattle/horse manure, mushroom manure, sawdust, and even 'topsoil' I then grew cover crops which can greatly improve the soil. We didn't have large rocks in our garden area but I've handpicked a ton of smaller ones. The best way I've found to increase the population of earthworms is to bury raw kitchen trimmings between plants. The worms find them, enjoy their banquet, and reproduce. I think one might have worms in a raised bed unless you have used landscape cloth under it for weed control. However in a hot climate it may be too warm for worms depending on the depth of the raised bed. If I had a yard with all those rocks I'd hire someone with a skid steer and scarifier and rockhound attachments to remove those rocks. Otherwise they'll be a continuous problem.

Hi Marilyn! I believe--as so many of us do--that worms are sign of a heathy ecosystem. They tunnel and aerate soil, they leave behind their little worm "poopies" which are a gentle fertilizer. The more you have the more you can get--as long as you maintain a compatible environment for them. %T Here is a link that might be useful: worm links from Cornell

Excellent picture! Thanks. What I see is worm castings from soggy soil. I also see active fungal disease in some of the green blades and evidence of fungal disease in the dead ones. Where do you live and what kind of grass do you have? I'm thinking it's St Augustine. The long term solution is to fix your watering regimen. The watering mantra is 'deep and infrequent.' You might still be watering frequently like they told you to do for new sod. That has to stop to stop the spread of the disease. If you live in the US you should be watering deeply about once per month right now. Deep means 1 full inch all at one time, not spread out across the week or month. See that weed in the middle of your first picture? That likely would not be there if you had not been watering frequently. For the rest of the year you can check your thermometer to see how often to water. With temps below 70 you can water deeply once per month. Between 70 and 80 water once every 3 weeks. Between 80 and 90 water once every 2 weeks. Between 90 and 100 water once per week. Above 100 water once every 5 days. The way to find 1 inch of water is to place several cat food or tuna cans around the yard. Turn on your sprinklers or hose sprinkler and time how long it takes to fill all the cans. That's your watering time from now on. That's how you will prevent future fungus and weeds. For the immediate issue I would use ordinary corn meal at a rate of 20 pounds per 1,000 square feet. Yes, corn meal like you and the animals eat. I get it in 50-pound bags at the feed store for under $10. The price changes every year depending on the corn crop. When corn decomposes it attracts a predatory fungus that preys on the disease fungus. The process takes about 3 full weeks before you'll see the spots on the grass stop. After that you should see new grass growing green all the way to the tip. If you use a chemical fungicide first, then you can skip the corn meal, because the corn meal requires a healthy soil with the predatory fungus in it. Spraying with chemicals will kill the beneficial fungi. I've used corn meal successfully every year since 2002. Some people try it and can't make it work, but it works for me every time.