My backyard lawn appears to be having a pest problem that is growing and spreading. There are several round, dead spots. At first there were maybe 10 that were about 5 inches in diametrer. It started in July or August. At this point there are too many to count, and they are starting to grow together into rather large splotches (one is about 2 feet large and is roundish). My dad (an avid gardener) thinks its a weevil of sorts.

Now, I have two male dogs. At first I thought it was them, but our front lawn is fine (they pee there, too, sometimes, as do neighborhood dogs). Also, I've trained them to go (at least when I'm around) in the dirt. If you think it IS the dogs, is there any recourse? Also, the spreading and growing together of the dead splotches doesn't seem to make sense.

I'm really sad! The lawn was perfect at the beginning of the summer. It's getting worse and worse. Any advice you can give will be greatly appreciated!

Stacy

Stacy, an easy way to determine if the spots are "dog" spots or not, is that dog spots are always surrounded by a darker green circle. Dog spots are actually over fertilization of the grass in that area due to the high nitrogen content in the dogs urine. Most of the time this is attributed to female dogs, although there is no real difference in the N content, a male tends to disperse his urine over a greater area, giving it less of a chance of burning, where the female is concentrated into one small spot.
If this is not it, I agree with pepper eater about the pics, they can help out a lot!

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Mike Maier
aka
The Plant Doc