Father and Son Pest and Lawn Solutions

09/04/2026

https://positivebloom.com/florida-yard-changes-that-bring-fireflies-back-after-years-of-absence/?utm_source=florida&fbclid=IwZnRzaAUG8SpwZG9mBWZkaWQWUNzih9ZYIcZB_gSJppp6aeeS0ZZ7qmV4dG4DYWVtAjExAHNydGMGYXBwX2lkCjY2Mjg1NjgzNzkAAR6qE0QECTdao7Vt8EU3MDmit-Hsia2RCw81FHf6YoD11Qhr-W7rqt888HoHBw_aem_-xCqDjrYPcNRv8K060YPDg

Fireflies do not disappear from Florida yards without reason and they do not come back without the right changes. Find out what brings them.

09/03/2026

HAVING PROBLEMS WITH YOUR SAGO PALMS? IT’S MOST LIKELY A NUTRIENT DEFICIENCY.

Someone recently sent me this picture of their palm tree asking me what the problem was. Most problems in palms that show up as yellowing, brown spots and/or deformed fronds is from a lack of one or more specific nutrients. The absence of different nutrients will produce different symptoms in palms. These particular symptoms are being caused by a lack of manganese.
The soil we have here along the Emerald Coast is mostly sand and has very little nutrients so it’s easy for plants and especially palms, to suffer from nutritional deficiencies.
Adding the lacking nutrients to the plant won’t correct the symptoms that are already present but will enable the palm to produce healthy new growth that will eventually replace the old, deformed growth. It’s a good idea to leave the deformed growth on the palm and not trim it off because the whole plant still benefits from having those fronds.

Are you having problems keeping your lawn healthy? Contact me for a FREE LAWN CONSULTATION! PM, call or text me at 850-240-7935

09/01/2026

WHY GRASS DOES NOT GROW ON A CERTAIN SIDE OF THE HOUSE.

Many people have at least one side of their home where the grass does not grow well or even at all. Most of the time, fences that run along property lines create a narrow corridor as they run beside the house. This limits the amount of direct sunlight that reaches grass growing between the fence and the house, causing the grass to
decline. Even without a fence, the first few feet of the ground from the foundation of the home on the north side is usually constantly shaded making the north side of a home a difficult area to grow grass.
In these areas that are constantly shaded, it is better to install rock, shrubs or a shade tolerant ground cover rather than trying to grow grass.

Are you having trouble keeping your lawn healthy? I offer FREE LAWN CONSULTATIONS! PM, call or text me at ‪850-240-7935‬

08/30/2026

Hurricane-pruning sounds like smart storm prep for Florida palms. It's actually one of the most damaging things you can do to them before a storm.

08/28/2026

HOW FREQUENT MOWING HELPS IMPROVE LAWN DENSITY AND SUPPRESS W**D GROWTH

Frequently mowing your lawn does more than keep it looking tidy, it actually promotes the lawn's health in a couple different ways. First, it promotes lawn density. Imagine a shrub that's only pruned infrequently, it will produce a few long branches instead of multiple short ones and become tall and leggy instead of short and dense. The same thing happens with grass. Infrequent mowing produces a lawn with longer, fewer blades. Frequent mowing produces a denser lawn with more blades. Note: This does NOT mean cutting the grass shorter and shorter. It means cutting the grass at its optimum height on a regular basis.
The second benefit of frequent mowing is that it puts pressure on w**ds. Many varieties of w**ds do not thrive at the same height grass thrives at and causes them stress by continually cutting them off, making them more susceptible to herbicide applications.

Are you having problems keeping your lawn healthy? Contact me for a FREE LAWN CONSULTATION! PM, call or text me at 850-240-7935

08/27/2026

In early 1900s, one of the most important trees in the eastern U.S., the American chestnut, was wiped out almost completely. It was everywhere across Appalachia. People built homes and barns from it, ate its nuts, and relied on it like no other tree. But by the time this photo of the Shelton family was taken around 1920, they were standing next to a dead giant, one of the last of its kind.

The killer? A foreign fungus called Cryphonectria parasitica that showed up in New York in 1904. The chestnut had no natural defense against it, and the fungus spread fast, 50 miles a year, until it had infected nearly every tree. By the 1950s, about 4 billion American chestnuts were gone.

Even before that, another disease had already been hurting chestnuts in southern areas. The tree was being attacked from all sides. Today, oaks and hickories fill the gap, but none had the same impact. The chestnut’s death wasn’t just an environmental loss, it changed the entire culture and ecosystem of Appalachia.

© Reddit

08/27/2026

WHAT DOES A FIRE ANT NEST LOOK LIKE UNDERGROUND?

When my youngest son was in high school, he enjoyed creating sculptures by melting aluminum, pouring the liquid aluminum onto a fire ant mound and then excavating the hardened metal.
These are examples of the sculptures he created. The nest that encompassed a tree he left in place and just cut the edges of the root when he excavated the nest.

Are you having problems keeping your lawn healthy? I offer FREE LAWN CONSULTATIONS! PM, call or text me at 850-240-7935

08/26/2026

HOW TO CARE FOR ASIATIC JASMINE.

Asiatic jasmine is a popular ground cover that forms a dense, solid mat of vines on the ground. If properly cared for, it can add interest and variety to a landscape by its dense, low growing habit and its ability to be shaped that’s only limited by your imagination.
Once established, asiatic jasmine spreads laterally. It’s important to
regularly trim off any runners that begin to migrate into areas you do not want the jasmine growing. This is easily done with a w**d eater. Trimming the edges of the jasmine regularly will create a nice, clean well defined edge and keep the jasmine from becoming entangled in surrounding landscape plants. The height of the jasmine can also be maintained with a w**d eater. However it may be necessary to use hedge trimmers every few years to radically prune the jasmine height as it will continue to gradually gain depth even with regular trimming.
Once jasmine is established, it becomes a fairly good w**d barrier but some w**ds and grass blades sometimes still pe*****te trough. For grassy w**ds growing in jasmine, use a grassy herbicide such as Grass Getter. Since jasmine is a broadleaf plant, you can spray grassy herbicides over the top of jasmine without hurting it. For broadleaf w**ds growing in jasmine, carefully spot treat the w**ds with roundup. The roundup may temporarily injure a small area of the jasmine, but the jasmine will recover and the w**ds will die.

Are you having problems keeping your lawn healthy? Contact me for a FREE LAWN CONSULTATION! PM, call or text me at 850-240-7935

08/26/2026

08/24/2026

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/19LrFT3dA2/?mibextid=wwXIfr

Those bright purple berries you keep seeing along Florida fence lines feed birds, back your pollinators, and hide a real mosquito-deterrent story in their leaves - the science is more nuanced than the headlines admit...