[95mmrenegade]

Toward the end of last year, I started noticing small worm mounts, laid down a few rounds of sevin dust and spectracide. Followed it up with a lawn guy laying down his application and I still have an abundance of worm mounts everywhere in my Bermuda 419. Any tips?

 

[Ware]

Other than the mess they make (which is much more noticeable when mowing reel low), they're not really a bad thing for the lawn. I'll try to remember to upload a photo of mine this evening.

 

[high leverage]

You don't want to kill the earth worms. They are beneficial to the soil structure and organic matter. If you had a putting green it's a different story.

 

[95mmrenegade]

You may be right but they are destroying the grass.

 

[Ware]

What is your HOC?

 

[95mmrenegade]

.500"

 

[Ware]

That's where I'm at, and I feel your pain.

You can always break them up with a broom. My experience has been that they tend to accumulate over the winter, but are more manageable once I'm mowing 2-3 days a week. If they are dry, the front roller pulverizes them as I mow.

 

[95mmrenegade]

When you all across the turf it is spongy.

 

[Ware]

Mine looks very similar right now. The surface activity seems to come and go at different times of the year.

 

[Kustrud]

Mine looks just like this, always seems ti dissipate once it warms and greens up.

 

[raldridge2315]

warm dey weather will drive the worms deep in search of cooler soil.

 

[Colonel K0rn]

Worm castings are great for your soil! You should embrace them, even though the mounds they make are unsightly, they're pretty much the litmus test for showing whether the microbial activity in your soil is at a healthy level or not. Think of your lawn as being a metropolis of healthy activity like Denver, as opposed to the barren landscape of Detroit.

People pay a LOT of money for worm castings, and use them for fertilizer in their garden. Trying to kill the earthworms would be a big mistake, as you're breaking down the biological cycle for your soil ecology, and you'd be shooting yourself in the foot. You can always just water them in with a short irrigation cycle, or take a broom and knock them back down like Ware said.

https://www.tastefulgarden.com/Worm-Castings-d114.htm

 

[Ware]

We've seen over 3" of rain this week, so this is pretty fresh activity...

 

[Redtenchu]

This is a good read on earthworm management for golf/sports turf.

I get them most in the spring and fall.

 

[MasterMech]

Even on a putting green, they didn't hurt anything. The castings could be removed with a rotary brush or even a simple dew whip, although in .500" turf, a whip isn't going to help any. The castings never seemed to bother the mowers and there was no aesthetic issue because we mowed every morning before play.

They provide fertilizer and free aeration as well. Lots of surface activity usually denotes wet soil conditions. So they come up the breathe and move easier.

 

[Ware]

From this morning...

 

[gijoe4500]

How do you clean up the little mounds? I would think that a shop broom or something, would work good to smooth them out.

 

[SGrabs33]

From this morning...

Wow, that's is a lot.

How do you clean up the little mounds? I would think that a shop broom or something, would work good to smooth them out.

Yep, shop broom would work well. They aren't very hard at all. Just spread it all back out nice and even.

 

[gijoe4500]

Correct me if I am wrong, but don't earthworms help with aeration? Aside from the nuisance of the mounds, it seems like they would be 100% awesome to have in the lawn. I know I don't have any. My OM sucks, as do the microbials in my soil. Something I need to work on.

 

[Colonel K0rn]

Correct me if I am wrong, but don't earthworms help with aeration? Aside from the nuisance of the mounds, it seems like they would be 100% awesome to have in the lawn. I know I don't have any. My OM sucks, as do the microbials in my soil. Something I need to work on.

I wish I had that many earthworms in my soil. They're a good indication of high OM, and anything you can do to promote the root cycling with the breakdown of OM in the soil via earthworms is good in my book.