April showers bring May showers?  Yes, in the case this year, a wet and snowy April led to one of the wettest Mays on record for most of the Northern Illinois area.  The rain was great for any seeding jobs performed in Spring, at least the ones that were able to get performed due to the soft and wet ground conditions all Spring.  The rain in May was great for germinating grass seed, making grass grow and keeping weeds under control for the most part.  However, the worst scenario for too much rain is yet to come.  Excess Spring rain will most likely lead to a mosquito population explosion once the temperatures rise into the 70's and 80's.  High water levels allow for eggs left from previous high water levels to hatch along with providing plenty of nesting opportunities for mosquitoes this year. Mosquitoes have been hindered so far this season due to the lower than average temperatures.  Mosquitoes generally don't like sub 70 degree weather...

The summer lawn season of 2018 has literally left many tracks across the lawns in Northern Lake County.    As we had numerous rain days and service delays in June, July started off with a bang.  We then witnessed and are still investigating a heat tracking event that occurred July 13.   Beautiful Lake Villa lawn watered in summer   The difference between watering regularly adn not watering- notice the heat stress on right Warmer temperatures hit around the holiday week and have continued along with minimal rain for the rest of the month.  This has left a lot of lawns turning brown form heat and moisture (lack of) stress.  Once again this year the heat tracking phenomenon has hit the area hard.  On Friday July 13 many instances of heat tracking occurred across the area.  As I have posted heat tracking in previous year’s blogs, this year the damage was even worse.  Since the event took place on Friday July 13, most of the...

Spring 2018 has had it ups and downs this season for the lawn care service industry.  However it has mostly produced many "ups" or positive results across the Antioch- Gurnee area.   A very slow to warm up spring kept lawns brown and with no growth through early April followed by a nearly two week cold and snow on the ground period of early to mid-April.  Although the cooler temps and snow cover  were a little abnormal, the moisture left behind allowed for good green up and new leaf tissue growth in the warmer weeks that followed.    Late April 2018 Snow cover on April 15, 2018 May brought many additional challenges as it was warm but very wet.  This caused some delays again including many spring seeding services.  Seeding in spring is a great opportunity to thicken up some shady areas however the moisture and temperature swings can create a lot of difficulties in scheduling and perfo...

Mosquitoes Are Here, are they biting yet? The annual ritual of swatting those nagging swarms of mosquitoes is about to begin for most people across Antioch, Gurnee, Waukegan and Lake Forest Illinois.  This usually takes place after the spring rains begin and temperatures rise above 70 degrees for a week or more.  Rain and rising temperatures ignite the hatching process of mosquito eggs that were left behind last summer.  These eggs develop into larvae and eventually flying mosquitoes within weeks of ideal temperatures and moisture of late spring.  The maturing females begin searching out protein to give them the nutrients necessary to begin their own egg production.  This protein is most easily found in the blood of mammals and luckily, us humans.  The good news is its only the mature females seeking out our blood and leaving us those nasty itchy bites.  Most humans are somewhat allergic to the bite resulting in an irritating and swelli...

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