Grass mites, are called different things such as lawn mites, clover mites, banks grass mites, and spider mites, for many reasons, including frequent winds, animals, and due to new plants.
If you need to know which of these reasons applies to your lawn, our lawn experts are here to help.
Read on as we thoroughly inspect each of these reasons and help you solve the issue.
Contents
What Are the Reasons that Cause Grass Mites?
The reasons that cause grass mites are the wind, animals, other plants, and lastly, humans. The banks grass mites multiply quickly once in your lawn as they would lay eggs and as a result, would cause irreparable damage to your grass.
In this case, you should take the necessary steps as soon as you notice mite-infestation symptoms. You would start seeing these symptoms from the brown spots on the grass, the grass turning yellow or dying, webs appearing on your plants out of nowhere, and a sudden increase of dust on your clothing as well when you get in contact with them with a simple approach.
– Wind
Just when the wind blows, it would take away with it the infestation that occurred on someone else’s lawn to yours, and this is the most common way the mites enter your lawn. The matter is especially common in extremely windy areas.
However, remember that this does not mean that the people living in less windy areas are safe from mite-infestation, though the amount and frequency can be less. People living along the coastline or in more ventilated areas are more vulnerable to mite infestation. Although living there is a dream for many, it is a nightmare for your plants and grass.
– Animals
Animals do not spread clover mites; rather, they get infested by the mite-contaminated environments, because their fur can attack some of these pests. As a result, they are the second most common mite carriers.
You must have taken your dog out for a stroll or let your cat out recently, without having the thought that the place may be contaminated. These pet animals are fond of rolling on the grass, and you often see bits and pieces of grass attached to their bodies, through their fur.
Even if you do not have pet animals, almost all of our yards are visited by stray pets once in a while. The least suspected are the birds, who bring the banks grass mites on their feathers, and when these feathers drop on your landscape, your lawn gets infested too. Maybe, some rabbits would hop around at night, and you don’t really know about them.
The infested animals and birds infest other animals, birds, and humans. Another important aspect to remember is that your animals, especially your beloved pet dogs, are at a high risk of falling victim to grass mites bites. They might have run over some from an infested spot, and then spent some time around your garden, and your lawn has now been infested.
– Plants
We all love plants and are fond of bringing new plants from the nursery now and then. Nowadays, with the technology being so advanced and everything being just a click away, we also tend to order plants online without knowing what the host plants are bringing with them. These host plants could have mites but in a dormant matter, and as they recover from this period, they would spread their infestation.
These infested plants either get mites from another plant or have favorable growing conditions for the mites. However, the latter is not able to survive in hot and humid weather, so however careful you might be if you live in a moderate climate area, be prepared for your plant to undergo mite damage.
Another common reason for the plants and grass to get infested is that some lawn owners and gardeners often forget to spray their lawns with the right insecticides for this case specifically which are equally important as herbicides and fungicides.
– Humans
We all love gardening and sometimes get so indulged in it that we forget we are getting ourselves into it. Since we love plants so much that we often visit nurseries frequently, and we tend to forget that plants are the most common mite carriers, we tend to carry them around too.
Most humans carry these mites on their hair follicles for their entire lives without realizing it, and they can come from pets if they have been contaminated, or it can also come from the wind and get stuck on clothing or in your hair. This infestation does not stop here, because you would unintentionally spread it around just as you enter your garden or your lawn.
Being a mite carrier, you infest your lawn, other humans, and pet animals. But if you ask yourself, do grass mites bite humans? Yes, they do bite humans and can be very painful at times.
How Can You Get Rid of the Them?
You can get rid of the grass mites by installing wind-protecting sheets, and also removing the mites manually if they are in small quantities. On another note, you can also use some pesticides around your law, and take a bath when you get in contact with pets or grass.
Lawn mites can be tricky to deal with, but there are many ways to deal with them. But the condition for effective solutions is to take action as soon as you notice mite-infestation symptoms. You need to be persistent with the solutions, as some might give you only a short time.
– Install Wind Protecting Sheets
If you reside in an area that experiences frequent winds, cover your lawns, especially from the sides and above. You can do it in the easiest and most basic ways by installing protective sheets around your lawn. But installing these sheets is more effective for small lawns.
You will need to hire professionals to do the job for you for bigger and more complex lawns. This would happen if you see that the lawn is too big.
– Remove the Mites Manually
One of the most commonly used and convenient ways of removing unwanted mites is using a water hose. It is done by spraying the entire lawn with a strong stream of water to wipe the mites away for good. Make sure that the hose you are using is fit for the job, as the standard garden hoses do not have the pressure required to remove the nasty mites. This matter would be rather the same as watering your plants like you normally do you are creating more enjoyable growing conditions for the mites this way.
This activity can be fun-filled by involving your kids, but make sure to change your clothes as soon as you are done to avoid spreading the mites further. On another note, you can always hire professional help to do the job for you if you need extra help.
The task continues. Once you have removed all the mites, you must regularly water your plants and the grass to bring them back to life and remove any leftover mites.
– Use Pesticides
The first and foremost step towards pesticide/miticide application is correctly identifying the infestation. If you have successfully diagnosed the problem of mite infestation, you can now choose the disinfectant accordingly. Always keep reference pictures to help you identify the mites and the plant damage they caused.
After you have identified that the problem is related to mites, spray the pesticide, or in our case, miticide, thoroughly on all the plants, fruit trees, stems, and flowering plants, basically the whole of your lawn, so that there is little to no chances of any mites remaining behind. It is not necessary that your lawn is infested with fully-grown mites.
There is a huge and equal chance of mite’s eggs or larva hiding beneath one of the leaves, on the stems, in the soil, and just about anywhere. As a result, you should cover the entire thing, so be sure of everything.
Spraying the pesticide is easier and more effective when you have a small and manageable area, but the bigger areas test your patience the best. You must be consistent with larger landscapes, as there will always be untouched places. Furthermore, the results are quicker for bigger landscapes than for small-sized gardens.
– Take a Bath After You Contact a Pet, or Sit on Grass
Now that you know that you can be a potential mite carrier let us tell you how to get rid of grass mites on humans. It is time to take a hot bath, but do not treat this bath as a regular hot bath; remember that you must scrub your entire body to get rid of the mites.
You might experience a very painful stinging feeling, and you can even suffer from a grass mites rash if you do not take this much-needed bath. It is also beneficial to apply the same hot bath treatment on your infested dogs if you are wondering how to treat grass mites on dogs. Most dogs enjoy being in the water, making it easier for you to scrub off the clingy mites from their bodies.
Conclusion
Understanding why your lawn is infested with spider mites is simple now that you have read our article and even learned how to tackle the issue!
Before you leave, let’s sum up the key points we mentioned so that you are fully prepared to help your lawn:
- Install protective sheets around your lawn so the mites are less likely to get in through the wind.
- Make it a habit of spraying your lawn with an appropriate pesticide/ miticide so that chances of it getting infested are minimum.
- Change your clothes immediately after visiting your nearby nursery or a neighbor’s garden to minimize the chances of mite spread.
- Bath your pet animals after they have come from outside so that all the possible clover mites get removed, and this applies to you too.
After reading our advice here, you can certainly have a proper lawn care routine to save your beautifully kept from further damage.
References
https://ipm.ucanr.edu/WATER/U/safeuse.html
https://extension.usu.edu/pests/ipm/turf-pest-guide/ar_banks-grass-mite
https://landscapeipm.tamu.edu/ipm-for-turfgrass/pests-turfgrass/mites-2/
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