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Winter Lawn Aeration: Should I Aerate in Winter?

witner lawn aeration

Winter Lawn Aeration: To Aerate or Not To Aerate

So you’ve spent all spring, summer, and fall creating the most immaculate yard in the neighborhood — but what happens in the winter? Year round lawn care is crucial! While we don’t have frequent snowfall in the Carolinas, we aren’t immune to frost and freezing temperatures, meaning we don’t have the ideal climate for winter lawn aeration. The process of aerating can be intense, so it needs to be done in the optimal growing season so your lawn has plenty of time to recover.  So, what is aeration you may ask? Aeration is the process of poking or piercing holes into your soil for the purpose of increasing airflow and letting your lawn breathe. Our lawns get stressed out just like we do, so it’s important to pamper them occasionally. Think of aerating as a facial treatment from your dermatologist — it’s opening the pores and improving the flow of nutrients to your soil.  There’s a lot of awesome benefits to lawn aeration: improved water and fertilizer uptake, stronger grassroots, reduced soil compaction, reduced runoff, and more.  For an in-depth look at aeration and how to do it, check out our blog Back to Basics: Understanding the Importance of Aeration.

Winter Aeration – Yes or No?

Short answer – no, you shouldn’t aerate during the winter.  Aeration depends entirely on where you are and what kind of grass you have, but it’s still unlikely that you live in a climate where you could justify winter lawn aeration. Your grass doesn’t actually die in the winter, but it does go dormant and enters a state in which it’s a lot more fragile than it is in the spring. Aerating during this time can put too much stress on the lawn, and because it’s not in a growth period, it will be hard for the grass to recover.  However, just because you shouldn’t aerate, it doesn’t mean there aren’t other lawn care methods you can practice! The winter can be harsh on our lawns – they deal with damage from ice, snow, plowing, winter desiccation, low temperature kill, and more. To protect your lawn during this time, take a look at these tips: 

  • Make sure you overseed your lawn in the fall – this is prime time for seeding because of the growth of turf roots
  • Keep it clean, extra debris can smother it 
  • Don’t mow the grass too short, you’ll expose the crown of the blades to harsh weather conditions
  • Stay off the lawn as much as possible, heavy traffic can cause soil compaction in an already-fragile state

So, When Should You Aerate?

To determine the best time for aerating, you must first identify which type of grass you have. Because the United States is so vast, there are many different climates within the country with differing plant-life, so where you live is a key factor in deciding when to aerate.  To make things more simple, let’s split up the U.S. by region – if you were to divide the country into thirds from top to bottom, here are the three climates:

1. Cool-season turfgrasses

This region contains the northern states from coast to coast – you can draw an imaginary border between Pennsylvania and Northern California to give you an idea. Because cool-season grasses thrive in temperatures of about 60-70 degrees, their optimal growing seasons are early spring and fall. However, they’ve also adapted to survive the hot summers and very cold winters that occur in these areas.  Examples of these species include:

  • Annual ryegrass
  • Kentucky bluegrass
  • Tall fescue
  • Perennial ryegrass
  • Creeping bentgrass

2. Transition zone

This zone refers to the middle-third of the U.S. where the climate could be suitable for both cool-season and warm-season turfgrasses – and it stretches from North Carolina to Southern California. Because these areas don’t get too cold or too hot, either type of grass could potentially thrive in the transition zone. 

3. Warm-season turfgrasses

The final region refers to the southern states that never get too cold – from about South Carolina through lower Arizona. Warm-season grasses grow well in temperatures of 80-95 degrees, which is why these states provide an optimal climate for them to thrive in. They can’t survive in regions where they have cold winters, so you’ll see them in the transition zone, but almost never north of Virginia.  Examples of these species include:

  • Bermuda grass
  • St. Augustine grass
  • Zoysia grass
  • Centipede grass

Now that you’ve determined what kind of grass you have, you can figure out the best time to aerate your lawn. Keep in mind that the best time to aerate for any type of grass is during it’s growing period so that it has the best chance of recovering. Winter is the growing season for very few species of grass, so be sure to correctly identify what your lawn is made of. 

For cool-season turfgrasses:

If you have cool-season turfgrass, the best time to aerate your lawn is early spring or fall, when the temperature is around 60 degrees Fahrenheit. 

For warm-season turfgrasses:

If you have warm-season turfgrass, wait until later spring or summer to aerate, when the temperatures start to get above 80 degrees Fahrenheit. 

Year-round Lawn Care

Lawn care isn’t confined to the growing seasons – it’s important to take care of your yard all year long. If you’d like a lush, healthy lawn but aren’t ready to tackle it by yourself, consider the benefits of hiring a professional service to help. At Killingsworth Environmental, we’re committed to providing you with safe, environmentally friendly and affordable care that works for every lawn. Schedule your lawn service today!

Winter Lawn Aeration: Should I Aerate in Winter?

Bedbug inspection

How to Know if Your Hotel Has Bedbugs

Upon entering a hotel room, do you typically reach for the tiny toiletries, take a leap onto the bed, or perhaps start by inspecting for bed bugs? Knowing what to look for is essential. Anticimex Carolinas Service Manager Christian Tweed has shared valuable insights on identifying bed bugs in your hotel room and preventing them from hitching a ride back home with you. And if bed bugs do become an unexpected part of your vacation, remember that Clark’s Pest Control is here to assist!



Q&A with a Pest Professional


How do bed bugs get inside hotels?


Bed bugs are primarily hitchhiking insects as opposed to foraging ones, meaning that they get carried around on people’s clothes and belongings. Someone with an active infestation in their home can easily bring bed bugs to their hotel, but they can also be picked up during travel (airplanes, taxis, and rideshare services) and brought to a hotel room.


What do people misunderstand about bed bugs in hotels?


From a probability standpoint, all hotels will deal with bed bugs at some point in time. If you think about a bed bug’s method of travel, there’s literally nothing a hotel can do to stop them from being carried in. What I have realized is that luxury hotels are more likely to have an aggressive response to dealing with a bed bug case once it’s identified as they tend to have a higher quality of service and a reputation to protect. While this isn’t always the case, it has been my experience more often than not.

Got bedbugs? Call Clark’s at 866-781-4991 today!

What do you recommend travelers do when they get to their room to check for bed bugs?


Most hotel headboards hang directly on the wall. I start my inspection here before even looking at the bed itself. I have found bed bugs, their exoskeletons, and the telltale black stains they leave behind around the edges of or in the crevices of headboards. If the headboard looks clean, move on to looking over the pillowcases and comforter for any signs or stains. You can dig into the bedding as deep as you want here, but I encourage people to look over the top layer of things at the very least.


What are some lesser-known signs of bed bugs in your hotel room?


The specifics of the black stains they leave behind, which as gross as it sounds, are just digested blood as that’s all that bed bugs feed on. If the stains are on a hard surface, they will be small dots as if left behind by an ink pen and will smear into a brownish gray when moisture is applied. If they’re on fabric, they will usually bleed along the fibers making a small diamond, square or X shape.


If there are bed bugs in your hotel room, can they travel home with you?


They absolutely can, however this is easy to prevent. While staying in a hotel, keep as much of your clothing and luggage off the beds as possible. Storing suitcases in the bathroom might sound odd, but it’s an effective method of prevention.

Don’t tackle bedbugs yourself, call Clark’s at 866-781-4991!

What should you do with your suitcase if you suspect your hotel has bed bugs?


When arriving home from a trip, leave your luggage in the garage or on a porch and bring your clothes in one load of laundry at a time. If the clothes are dirty, wash them like you normally would, if they’re clean then run them through the dryer for at least forty-five minutes. Once your suitcase is empty, vacuum over it meticulously (don’t forget to empty the vacuum when you’re done), or if you’re in the right climate, expose it to heat for a few days by placing it in your vehicle (parked in the sun) or for a few weeks in your attic.


The Clark’s Solution


If you brought bed bugs back to you home, Clark’s is here to help. Our Bedbug Control service is designed to eliminate bedbugs and create a safe, comfortable environment.


A Clark’s Pest Professional will do an inspection and recommend a plan of attack to get rid of bed bugs now and prevent them from hatching in the future. Call Clark’s at 866-781-4991 today for more information.



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