Dead Spots in grass

[johnnyjay]

Today I received a call from a customer about dead spots in yard. I went to customers house and inspected the spots. Two spots about 10 inches were bright light brown and two other spots were greyish in color and also about 10 inches in size. All were pretty much in a circle. Customer thinks it might be could be coming from mower stopped in these areas running while I was drinking water or talking with him and maybe mower is leaking gas or oil. My mower is new Exmark 36&quot; Metro with mulching system and running with gator blades. I don't think it is coming from the mower. I have no leakage evidence on my trailer and not using oil.<p>Could it possibly be coming from weedeater or edger leaking? Both are Stihl. I lay them on the ground to start. I pump the primer bulb 5 times Pull the chord with choke up til moter fires....two or three pulls....then pull chord with choke down one time and motor starts. It is conceivable I could have started these tools in subjected areas. I refuel these tools at my trailer on the cage door which lays down as a shelf.<p>I am going to test these on dry areas and also in my grass to see what results I get. I will let you all know.<p>If any of you have experienced this problem please reply. Thanks.

 

[MOW ED]

I have had this happen with my Walker if I stop for any period of time on the lawn with the mower running. The spots turn brown. They will come back in a few weeks but look bad. Try not to stop your mower on the lawn, if you have to do something find some pavement. Good Luck.

 

[SKDCO]

For the brown spots; do the customers have pets? If so when they do their duty outside,is it mainly in the same spot? That could be the cause. For the greyish spots; fuel or 2-cycle will cause that type of discoloration.Try to never start equipment on the grass or in beds,,,, That is something bad waiting to happen. <p> $0.02

 

[Barkleymut]

Probably a fungus problem. Get someone who knows about them to go by lawn and look at it to determine for sure. A Lesco rep. will do so if you are a good customer.

 

[Richard Martin]

There are generally 5 reasons grass will appear to die in a specific area. <p>1: Fungus problems <br>2: Insects such as chinch bugs <br>3: Fuel or oil spill <br>4: Heat from a vehicle usually caused by a catalitic converter <br>5: Spilled fertilizer. <p>It would take a pretty big leak from a weed-eater to cause a dead spot the size that you are talking about. You &lt;i&gt;would&lt;/i&gt; notice it.

 

[kenneybros]

gas only burns out the area it hits so the whole tank in your trimmer would have had to have spilled. Could the engine heat have burned it out when u stopped??? I have no idea but just a thought....

 

[gorrell]

After reading this post I noticed the brown spots in some of my lawns and now know for certain they came from exhaust heat when I left the mower idling while I was trimming. The brown spots match the size of the muffler on the rear of my chopper. I'll leave the machine on the asphalt or gravel from now on. Lynn

 

[johnnyjay]

My weedeater and edger are not leaking gas. I talked to my dealer and he said some mowers do have the exhaust close to the ground but even those machines would not make a circle spot. My WB mower's exhaust is 12 inches or more above the ground over the tire. No way for it to burn grass.<p>I am guessing this problem is going to be &quot;brown patch&quot;. Descriptions of this fungus is exactly what appears in the yard. Also, pictures of brown patch looks just like these spots. Homeowner wants to wait until next week when I cut again before deciding to dig a plug of the spot and having it tested for fungus disease. I will follow up again later.