Lawn guy killed the grass?

[JonM]

So the guys who do the weed treatment came by and within days spots like this were all over the lawn. I called them on it and they sent a guy out yesterday to inspect. No word yet, but have a look - can you think of anything other than misapplication of herbicide that could cause this?

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[jodell]

That's pretty rough..i can think of a few things that might have caused that, but all would be on him. Misplaced herbacide...gas spill...

 

[Gonefishing]

Yeah, looks to me like it's on him. I hope they recognize their blame and treat you right.

 

[passedpawn]

No weeds though

Looks like the path his spreader took as he left your patio. I'd guess he's guilty unless your mower dropped gas in the same path.

 

[deere322]

Sure, you just don't remember drunkingly peeing all over your yard one night.

 

[lschiavo]

Any UFO sightings? Could be low quality crop circles.

 

[Bowtiebrewery]

Do you know if he does a liquid or granular application of fert? My bet is that if he uses a liquid spreader he either had a leak on his valve, or he turned in one area and over applied with a large drop. Best remedy, if its a burn out, is to water those areas as much as you can.

 

[JonM]

Thanks all. I know they use granular because it's all over the patio, sidewalk, and the long walkway from the sidewalk to the alley when they apply it. (Seriously - when I would take care of weeds/fertilizer, as soon as I was done with the broadcast spreader, I'd get the leaf blower and blow all the stuff off the concrete.) I don't know whether they use a liquid as well.

Safe to say the guy's on thin ice with me.

 

[eadavis80]

Sounds like you're due for a free core aeration this fall to me...

 

[Bowtiebrewery]

Does he provide you with an invoice after application telling you what he put down and in what concentration? That would help me identify it.

Not trying to back your lawn guy, but it looks like it could also be that you have a mole or gopher. Take a rod and push it down throgh the center and see if you hit a void. Or take a spade out and dig a square out... I've seen tracks like that before and for my brother when that happened, it was a gopher.

 

[JonM]

Interesting. I didn't see any holes or molehills, but I'll give that a try tonight.

 

[JonM]

No gopher holes and the longest streak of dead stuff (the whole length of two sides of the patio) is exactly 43 inches from the outer edge of our irregularly shaped patio all the way around. Either that's the most precise gopher ever, or ...

The guy's commercials say they're super attentive, etc. Email says they'll have someone out some time in the next seven days.

 

[madscientist451]

Thin ice? I'd say he's fired, or just not brought back for any more work.

 

[JonM]

Depending on what they offer in response, yes. One milligram of bull##it and they're out and getting blasted online.

It's like the dry cleaners - once I had a cleaner who put a spot on a shirt. I pointed it out and asked them to run it again. Came back with a hole where the spot used to be. They claimed it wasn't their fault. Done.

New dry cleaner messed up a shirt. Apologized and said exactly what he did. Asked what a new one costs and, no questions asked, said "I'll write you a check for that amount or I'll give you store credit for that amount." He's still my dry cleaner.

 

[Bowtiebrewery]

No gopher holes and the longest streak of dead stuff (the whole length of two sides of the patio) is exactly 43 inches from the outer edge of our irregularly shaped patio all the way around. Either that's the most precise gopher ever, or ...

The guy's commercials say they're super attentive, etc. Email says they'll have someone out some time in the next seven days.

Perhaps that gopher is a long lost descendant of the Caddy Shack Gopher

 

[VApatriot]

Looks like the same kind of fungus I get in my lawn because the god awful clay here doesn't perk at all. Had a company do the fertilizer for us one year, he never cleaned the wheels of his motorized fertilizer spreading machine, had major fungus tracks all through my yard. Fired him right after, haven't had much of a problem since. I get a couple spots now and then but a little fungicide clears it up pretty quick.

 

[Br3w4u]

Looks like the same kind of fungus I get in my lawn because the god awful clay here doesn't perk at all. Had a company do the fertilizer for us one year, he never cleaned the wheels of his motorized fertilizer spreading machine, had major fungus tracks all through my yard. Fired him right after, haven't had much of a problem since. I get a couple spots now and then but a little fungicide clears it up pretty quick.

Agreed. That looks like the path of a wheel barrow or fertilizer spreader. Also if he used a sprayer that was previously used for glyphosate or round up there could have been some left in the lines.

 

[triethylborane]

Depending on what they offer in response, yes. One milligram of bull##it and they're out and getting blasted online.

Odd approach. You are already prepping for them to lie to you.

 

[Homercidal]

I'm going to have to fire my dogs. They've been ruining my lawn for years!

 

[Zuljin]

Was there ever anything else there?

That could be left over foundation or a different fill dirt used to fill in after it was removed. It could be sand that was used to build it on. Maybe the boarder of an old garden or walkway.

Are there underground utilities there?

We see stuff like this at work, where we have a lot of duct banks and pipes underground. In the driest hottest parts of summer, and in mid autumn, we can follow the more shallow underground utilities by the dead grass above them.

If it's any of those things, and you've been at this place a few seasons, you'd have probably seen this before. Worth a check, though.

 

[z-bob]

Looks to me like spilled fertilizer.

I hate lawn service companies. The ones that treat the yard next-door (Section 8 house that's owned by the county) are always spraying herbicides thru the chain link fence and killing my garden. Been going on for years; I ***** at the county and they sometime pretend to care but they don't. Wish I knew what kind of writ to have the sheriff serve on himself.

 

[passedpawn]

Looks to me like spilled fertilizer.

I hate lawn service companies. The ones that treat the yard next-door (Section 8 house that's owned by the county) are always spraying herbicides thru the chain link fence and killing my garden. Been going on for years; I ***** at the county and they sometime pretend to care but they don't. Wish I knew what kind of writ to have the sheriff serve on himself.

add a barrier to the fence?

 

[Murphys_Law]

Any UFO sightings? Could be low quality crop circles.

...or they got into his brew before they started their work!

 

[Lefou]

Any UFO sightings? Could be low quality crop circles.

Drunk Norwegians or ...

 

[jalc6927]

Was it trugreen

They all suck