Lawn care

[loving yorkies]

Hello everyone out there
Wanted to find out what kind of products sprays. etc. do you use to treat your lawn with pets that use yard. Treat for fleas...pest and so forth.

Worried with all the chemicals out there that might affect these guys. Use chemlawn..or do yourself.

Also worried because that up here in Ohio that we didn't get a good freeze to kill the bugs.

thanks a lot all of you guys.

[SnowWa]

I have used "Scotts TurfBuilder" all my life. I have never worried about my larger dogs. But, I'd keep a smaller dog in the house for a day or two - especially the day I applied it. I apply this fertilizer and then water it in good. Have never had a problem.

****** I think little dogs like our Yorkies are closer to the ground - making them more apt to be affected by anything we put on our lawns. We have such little dogs - we have to treat them different in a hundred different ways - don't we?

Carol Jean

[JeanieK]

Most packages have warning on for pets. I use 2 4 D to spray for weeds. I wait for that to dry before allowing the dogs on it. The granualted fertilizer needs to be rained on or watered for it to disolve. I limit the amount of time that they are on it until after a good rain.

[yorkiegal719]

We live in the country so I'm lucky and don't have to keep my lawn up with chemicals. Just be very careful of lawn care businesses. We used to live in a sub and had lawn care spray our lawns and we kept our dog off for a day but even at that, he would get "under the weather" after fertilizing and it took us a few times to realize the effects it had on him. This was years ago when the IN thing to do was get a lawn serivce to take care of your yard...

[RowdysMom]

I would only use organic fertilizers. I have concerns about lawn products, even though I have used only organic lawn products for years. I don't want to expose my babies to anything harmful. Lawn fertilizers, weed and feed products and weed killers are VERY toxic and can build up in pets' systems over time.

In my back yard where the dogs roam, I only use an organic product called compost tea - which is a liquid you spray on and completely safe - yet, I don't let the dogs on it till it has dried. I sometimes use a granular organic fertilizer on the front yard where they don't regularly go.

The best thing for a great lawn is to use a mulching lawn mower - rather than one where you bag the clippings or the clippings just blow out on top of the lawn. The mulching mower chops up the pieces of grass and blows it down into the turf. These clippings are actually the BEST natural fertilizer that you can use - they are FULL of nitrogen - the stuff that makes your lawn green. I also "mow" my leaves - since it is the same principle - the nitrogen from the chopped up grass or leaves is GREAT for the yard and completely safe for your babies.

Now, it will take a couple of years for you to see the results of the mulching mower - but you will see it and organic gardners will tell you that if you mulch your grass/leaves and use something like compost tea or some product to vitalize the micro organism life of the yard soil - that is all that you will ever need! You can also aerate the lawn (punch holes in the turf, about 6 inches down and about 1/4 in wide - they have machines that punch the holes or you can do it with a pitch fork) and then put on compost tea, regular compost or something like that to stimulate the micro organsims in the soil. Aeration is GREAT for the lawn.

I also use an organic yard treatment for fleas and it works like a charm and is not one bit harmful to my babies. It is a microorganism called beneficial nematodes. You get it from organic gardeners and it just looks like a box of dirt. You put water into the dirt and then strain it into a sprayer. The strained water contains the micro organisms and then you spray it on the yard. The microorganisms live in the yard soil and they eat any flea eggs so that fleas cannot live in your yard. Now, that does not mean that if you have dogs that live next door and they have fleas, that you won't have fleas that crawl over and get on your dogs. So.... I use a product at the perimeter of the yard called diatamateous earth - a white powdery substance that is actually ground up sea shells and when the fleas crawl over it to get to your yard, it cuts their legs, the fluid in their bodies runs out and they die. Of course, you have to reapply it after it rains. It just feels like powder to us - it is not at all sharp feeling, but it is deadly to fleas. You can also use it on your plants if bugs are eating your plants - it will get rid of bugs liketey split!

Beneficial nematodes also eat fire ant eggs so you will not have any fire ants in your yards, which is very important for our southern Yorkies. The nematodes will also eat grub eggs and you won't have grubs eating your grass roots and for those of you who live in the south, keeping the grubs out of your yard will keep the armadillos out of your yard.

There has been a lot of research done concerning yard care and organic products and the organic products (and a mulching lawn mower) work much better than the chemical fertilizers and chemical weed killers. It does take longer to see the results though, but once you get an organic lawn program going, your lawn will look much better and your Yorkie will be completely safe!

[carolina yorkie]

OK, I gotta hear more about these nematodes. We have so many fire ants they could carry me off!! NOTHING helps, they just move to another spot. Basically, I want them to move out of my yard and settle in the neighbors. How much of this stuff do I need? I have about 1/3 acre, I live in a subdivision. Thanks in advance for any help.

[Gizmo's Mom]

Originally Posted by JeanieK

Most packages have warning on for pets. I use 2 4 D to spray for weeds. I wait for that to dry before allowing the dogs on it. The granualted fertilizer needs to be rained on or watered for it to disolve. I limit the amount of time that they are on it until after a good rain.

Wanting to go to town today for something to spray around the fence, haven't heard of this one. Are their any others that could maybe be found at WalMart that I wouldn't have to worry about. If there's anything new in the yard Gizmo's either gonna roll in it or try to eat it. Have put it off for this reason.

[TXGirl]

Originally Posted by RowdysMom

I would only use organic fertilizers. I have concerns about lawn products, even though I have used only organic lawn products for years. I don't want to expose my babies to anything harmful. Lawn fertilizers, weed and feed products and weed killers are VERY toxic and can build up in pets' systems over time.

In my back yard where the dogs roam, I only use an organic product called compost tea - which is a liquid you spray on and completely safe - yet, I don't let the dogs on it till it has dried. I sometimes use a granular organic fertilizer on the front yard where they don't regularly go.

The best thing for a great lawn is to use a mulching lawn mower - rather than one where you bag the clippings or the clippings just blow out on top of the lawn. The mulching mower chops up the pieces of grass and blows it down into the turf. These clippings are actually the BEST natural fertilizer that you can use - they are FULL of nitrogen - the stuff that makes your lawn green. I also "mow" my leaves - since it is the same principle - the nitrogen from the chopped up grass or leaves is GREAT for the yard and completely safe for your babies.

Now, it will take a couple of years for you to see the results of the mulching mower - but you will see it and organic gardners will tell you that if you mulch your grass/leaves and use something like compost tea or some product to vitalize the micro organism life of the yard soil - that is all that you will ever need! You can also aerate the lawn (punch holes in the turf, about 6 inches down and about 1/4 in wide - they have machines that punch the holes or you can do it with a pitch fork) and then put on compost tea, regular compost or something like that to stimulate the micro organsims in the soil. Aeration is GREAT for the lawn.

I also use an organic yard treatment for fleas and it works like a charm and is not one bit harmful to my babies. It is a microorganism called beneficial nematodes. You get it from organic gardeners and it just looks like a box of dirt. You put water into the dirt and then strain it into a sprayer. The strained water contains the micro organisms and then you spray it on the yard. The microorganisms live in the yard soil and they eat any flea eggs so that fleas cannot live in your yard. Now, that does not mean that if you have dogs that live next door and they have fleas, that you won't have fleas that crawl over and get on your dogs. So.... I use a product at the perimeter of the yard called diatamateous earth - a white powdery substance that is actually ground up sea shells and when the fleas crawl over it to get to your yard, it cuts their legs, the fluid in their bodies runs out and they die. Of course, you have to reapply it after it rains. It just feels like powder to us - it is not at all sharp feeling, but it is deadly to fleas. You can also use it on your plants if bugs are eating your plants - it will get rid of bugs liketey split!

Beneficial nematodes also eat fire ant eggs so you will not have any fire ants in your yards, which is very important for our southern Yorkies. The nematodes will also eat grub eggs and you won't have grubs eating your grass roots and for those of you who live in the south, keeping the grubs out of your yard will keep the armadillos out of your yard.

There has been a lot of research done concerning yard care and organic products and the organic products (and a mulching lawn mower) work much better than the chemical fertilizers and chemical weed killers. It does take longer to see the results though, but once you get an organic lawn program going, your lawn will look much better and your Yorkie will be completely safe!

Very well said! I agree 100% with RowdysMom.

[RowdysMom]

Re: Walmart products. Of course every Walmart could have some different products - but in the ones that I frequent, I have never seen any organic products, only the chemical products which I wouldn't use, but that is just my opinion. In our area, the Home Depots have started carrying some organic products. Many garden centers carry diatematious earth - maybe even Walmart!!!

Re: beneficial nematodes - we can get them here in our local organic gardening stores, not sure about the Carolinas - but I found an online site where you can read about the nematodes and they ship - it says free shipping - I do know they have to be kept cool, for example if you are not going to apply them when you buy them, they have to be kept in the refridgerator till you put them on the yard - so I would ask about this before getting them shipped - because if they get too hot (before they are put on the yard) they will die.

This site also has nematodes in amounts for yards (square feet) or farms (acres). It looks like a completely reputable site - but I would ask about how they are kept cool during shipping.

http://store.arbico-organics.com/org...nematodes.html

Also, for non-nematode fire ant control - an orange oil drench will do the trick - yep, the same orange oil that is used in cleaning products. You can buy the garden strength of orange oil, mix it with water and pour it on the mound and it will kill the fire ants. Boiling water into the mound will also kill most of the ants, but maybe not the queen, if she is really deep - any surviving ants will usually move though - although it could be to a different spot in your yard!

But I promise you that if you use beneficial nematodes, you will not have any fire ants in your yard. I've been using them for 5 years and have not had one mound. Before nematodes, mounds all the time.

[Gracy]

I use Advantix on all my dogs.
That seems to keep all the pests off of them.
Gracy