Your questions, answered.

Start by thickening the grass: mow at 3 inches or higher, water deep and not often, and fill thin spots in late summer. Then match the timing to the weed. A crabgrass preventer goes down early in the spring, before crabgrass sprouts, and dandelions, clover and other broadleaf weeds are treated once they're up and growing, with fall a strong time to go after them. Our full-season lawn program does both, with slow-release feeding through the season.

A preventer works on crabgrass that hasn't sprouted yet, which is why it goes down early in the spring; once crabgrass is up, a preventer won't take it out. Next spring, watch the forsythia: the preventer should be down by the time its flowers start to fade. If you're on our lawn program and crabgrass breaks through, we treat those spots. Starting mid-season with crabgrass already in? We may spot-treat patches, and next spring's preventer is the real fix.

No. A preventer works on seeds as they sprout; it doesn't kill weeds that are already growing, and dandelions and clover are perennials that come back year after year. They're treated once they're up and growing, which is why our program pairs spring crabgrass prevention with broadleaf weed control through the season.

White clover is common in lawns with acidic, low-fertility or compacted soil, and it handles close mowing. Raising your mowing height and improving the soil help, Cornell says. Our lawn program treats clover with the other broadleaf weeds, and core aeration and our Calcium and Lime Soil Treatment are extras for compacted or acidic soil.

Mow at 3 inches or higher; Jim's lawn care guide suggests about 4 inches in summer. Never cut more than a third of the blade at once, and keep the blades sharp. Lawns mowed too short let more weed seed sprout.

Any time they're up and actively growing. Fall is a strong time: Cornell's upstate guide points to September, and Jim calls fall the best time for weed control. Our program treats broadleaf weeds as they show up through the season.

Cornell's rule of thumb: when weeds cover more than 40 percent of a lawn in poor condition, consider a full renovation. Short of that, the fix is thicker grass: our lawn program for feeding and weed control, plus core aeration and overseeding in late summer to fill the gaps. Your estimate can lay out both.

It raises the pH of acidic soil toward the range grass grows best in, about 6.0 to 7.0. In that range, nutrients are more available to the grass and helpful soil microbes are more active, so your lawn makes better use of its feeding. Calcium lime adds calcium along the way.

Your lawn can drop hints: thin, pale grass that doesn't respond to feeding the way it should, moss, spreading white clover and shepherd's purse. Central New York soil also drifts acidic over time, and regular feeding speeds that along. Seeing the signs? Ask about our Calcium and Lime Soil Treatment when you request your estimate.

Fall. Lime can go down any time of year, but winter's rain, snow, freezing and thawing help work it into the soil, so it's working in time for next season's growth. Our Calcium and Lime Soil Treatment goes down in the fall, allowing the treatment to work into the soil before spring growth begins.

Ground limestone works slowly: anywhere from 6 to 18 months to change soil pH, depending on conditions. CALplus, the product we use, is enhanced to make its calcium available fast and adjust soil pH sooner, and going down in the fall gives it the winter to work into the soil before spring.

Both are ground limestone, and both raise soil pH. Calcium lime is mostly calcium carbonate; dolomitic lime carries magnesium as well. Ours, CALplus, is a high-calcium, low-magnesium limestone.

No. Fertilizer feeds the grass; lime changes the soil it grows in, raising the pH so nutrients are more available. They work together: most lawn fertilizers slowly make soil more acidic, and lime brings the pH back up.

Rain and regular feeding slowly pull soil pH back down, so a lawn on acidic soil can drift back over the years. Ask about our Calcium and Lime Soil Treatment with your lawn estimate, and fall is the time to put it down.

Your price is based mainly on the size of your lawn. Start with your address, add the Calcium and Lime Soil Treatment at the end, and your free estimate lays it out.

Do the standing-water walk-through after rain. We don't treat standing water, so emptying it matters: mosquitoes need as little as a teaspoon of water to breed. Keep grass and shrubs near the house trimmed, and treat the shady spots where mosquitoes rest during the day. Our mosquito program treats those spots through the season, from mid to late April into September.

The swamp is thousands of acres of permanent wetland, just the kind of place the cattail mosquito breeds, and those mosquitoes can fly up to five miles. EEE and West Nile have both turned up in mosquitoes trapped around the swamp. If you live near it, or near Oneida Lake or any wetland, treating the resting spots in your own yard is where to start.

It builds in late spring, peaks in July and runs until the first frost, around October 19 in a typical year. Our program runs up to 8 treatments a season, starting mid to late April and averaging about every three weeks through September.

They rest in cool, dark, damp, sheltered spots: shrubs, tree lines, wood edges, tall grass and under the deck. That's where we treat.

Culex mosquitoes, the kind that can carry West Nile, are most active from dusk to dawn. The cattail mosquito bites mostly in the early evening, and in shady spots during the day.

Start with where they wait. Clear leaf litter and tall grass, mow often, and lay a strip of wood chips or gravel between the lawn and the woods. Then treat the wood lines, shrubs and shady edges, and the lawn's surface if fleas or ticks are in the grass too. Our mosquito and tick program, Lawn Pest Defense and the one-time flea and tick knockdown are designed to help reduce ticks in exactly those spots.

Ticks can be a year-round concern in Central New York. Deer ticks are most active in spring and fall, and the tiny nymphs especially in late spring and summer. Ticks can survive winter sheltered in leaf litter, particularly along shaded, wooded edges, and become active during warm spells when it's above freezing. Our seasonal treatments run from mid to late April through September, but tick checks and precautions stay important outside those months.

Yes. Adult deer ticks are most often seen from October to December, so keep up tick checks after raking and yard work, and keep leaves cleared from the places you spend time.

Remove it right away with fine-tipped tweezers, pulling firmly and steadily upward, and watch the bite for 30 days. Call your health care provider if a rash or flu-like symptoms appear. The Upstate Tick Testing Laboratory tests ticks residents send in, but the lab says its results aren't a diagnosis: a tick that tests positive doesn't confirm you were exposed, so health decisions stay with your provider.

Your price is based mainly on the size of your property. Start with your address, and your free estimate lays it out.

Find where they're coming in, clean up the food that draws them, and trim plants back from the walls. Then treat where they travel: Cornell says perimeter treatments for ants are effective when done correctly, and every level of our exterior pest control treats the foundation of your home, 3 feet up and 3 feet out.

Size and sawdust. Carpenter ants are big, 1/4 to 3/4 inch, and often all black or black and red. Pavement ants, the small dark brown ants on sidewalks and kitchen counters, are about 1/8 inch. Carpenter ants push out piles of sawdust-like shavings where they nest in damp wood; pavement ants leave little mounds of soil by the sidewalk or the foundation.

Usually not. Web-building spiders set up near lights and windows because that's where the flying insects are. Most spiders in New York are harmless, and the brown recluse doesn't occur here. The Better and Best levels of our exterior pest control treat around the windows and doors, where spiders set up.

In spring. Paper wasp queens start in early spring, and bald-faced hornet queens typically in late April or May. Nests grow all summer, which is why nesting prevention at the eaves, soffits and doorways, in our Better and Best levels, matters.

They're looking for a warm, sheltered place to spend the winter, so they gather on sunny south- and west-facing walls and work into gaps. That's what our optional fall invader treatment is for, as the weather cools: stink bugs and boxelder bugs, cluster flies and Asian lady beetles, or all four.

Start before they gather: seal gaps around windows, doors and utility lines on the sunny south and west sides, fix torn screens, and vacuum the ones that get inside instead of crushing them. Then treat the outside of the house in the fall. Our fall invader treatment covers the foundation, entry points, eaves, windows and doors, where these bugs gather and get in.

Warm, sunny years tend to bring more. Boxelder bug numbers run higher after a warm spring and a hot, dry summer, and stink bugs that settle on a house give off a scent that draws more to the same spot. Boxelder bugs seem to favor some homes over others, so if yours was covered last fall, it's worth getting ahead of them.

No one has measured it here, but extension services in New Hampshire and Pennsylvania say stink bugs and boxelder bugs start massing on buildings in early September, and lady beetles around the beginning of October, on sunny afternoons after a cold night. Activity slows after the first freeze, which comes around October 19 at Syracuse's airport in a typical year.

No. Fall invaders spend the winter indoors, but they don't breed there or damage the house. The trouble is the smell when they're crushed, spots on fabrics and walls, and lady beetles that can bite.

They've been there since fall. On warm winter days, stink bugs, boxelder bugs, lady beetles and cluster flies wake up and head for windows and lights, and in spring they try to get back outside. Vacuum them up, then get ahead of them before they gather next fall.

They can. Their mouths are small, but they can bite, and large numbers indoors can cause allergy problems in sensitive people. They can also stain upholstery and curtains. The giveaway is a W or M shape on the white area behind the head.

They look like a house fly with a gray body and yellow hairs, and their young grow up inside earthworms. In fall the adults move into buildings for the winter, especially attics, and turn up sluggish at windows on warm days. They don't feed or breed indoors. Our fall option for cluster flies and Asian lady beetles treats the outside of the house, where they get in.

Stop them before they hatch. Grub prevention goes down in early summer, before grubs feed on the roots, and it comes with every level of our lawn program. If grubs are already doing damage, tell us what you're seeing in your estimate: a heavy infestation can need a curative treatment, and thin, damaged areas can be aerated and overseeded in early fall.

Turf that feels spongy, then large, irregular brown sections that peel back like a carpet because the roots are gone. It usually shows from late August through October, often with skunks, raccoons or crows digging. Damage you see in spring mostly comes from grubs feeding the fall before.

Early summer, before the eggs hatch. Cornell's window for preventive grub control runs from May to July. Japanese beetles come out in late June and early July, and their eggs hatch about two weeks after they're laid. Our grub prevention goes down in early summer.

For this year's grubs, mostly yes. Cornell says September is too late for most products, and by October it's really too late to treat that year's population. Fall is for repair: water, feed and reseed the damaged areas. Then put prevention down next early summer, before the next generation hatches. Not sure what you've got? Tell us what you're seeing in your estimate.

They're usually after grubs. Skunks, raccoons, crows and moles dig into lawns to eat them, and their digging is often more troublesome than the grubs' own damage. Cornell's turfgrass program calls managing grubs the best strategy for grub-feeding animals, and that's what grub prevention does. We don't do animal control.

They could indicate a sod webworm infestation. The moths zigzag over the grass at dusk or flutter up when you mow; their caterpillars chew the grass off near the base, leaving small brown patches, green droppings and birds pecking. Lawn Pest Defense treats sod webworms on the lawn's surface.

They treat different places. Mosquito and tick control treats the trees, shrubs, wood lines and shady spots where mosquitoes rest and ticks wait. Lawn Pest Defense treats the lawn itself, for surface insects like chinch bugs, ants, fleas and ticks. On a mosquito estimate, Better adds Lawn Pest Defense to your mosquito and tick control.

In a Central New York summer, usually heat and dry weather: the grass goes dormant and greens up when rain and cool nights return. If it stays brown after rain, look for chinch bugs; if the turf lifts like a carpet, grubs; if the soil is hard, compaction. The pattern tells you which, and your free estimate can price the fix: the lawn program, aeration and overseeding, or both.

Find the cause first, then thicken it: core aeration and overseeding from mid-August through September, steady feeding through the season, and grub prevention so the roots stay put. Mow at 3 inches or higher and water deeply. Our lawn program and our aeration and overseeding handle the feeding, the grub prevention and the seeding.

Pull on the brown turf. Drought-stressed grass stays rooted and greens up after rain. Turf that grubs have fed on lifts like a loose carpet, with C-shaped white grubs in the soil under it. Skunks, raccoons or crows digging point to grubs too.

Usually, if it's summer dormancy: the plants are likely not dead and green up with cooler weather and rain. Grass that chinch bugs, grubs or salt have killed outright needs reseeding, best from mid-August through September.

Mid-August through September is the best window: cooler temperatures, steady moisture and less weed competition. Jim's rule of thumb: September is the ideal time to seed here. Spring seeding can work, but crabgrass preventer can keep new grass seed from establishing, so you'd typically have to choose between the two. Tell us if you plan to seed.

Your price is based mainly on the size of your lawn. Start with your address, and your free estimate prices the lawn program, aeration and overseeding, or both.

Yes. A thick layer of leaves covering the grass can smother it and hold back new growth in spring, and leaves left on the lawn can promote snow mold. Clear them once most have fallen from your trees, before the snow settles in. Our fall leaf cleanup does it for the lawns we care for.

Around Syracuse, they can be pressed flat under the snow for much of the winter, with snow on the ground about 80 days in a typical year. A thick layer can smother the grass, and at snowmelt you may find matted, bleached patches. Rake matted grass in spring to help new growth, and overseed thin areas in late summer.

Leaves left on the lawn can promote snow mold, UNH Extension notes. Gray snow mold shows up as the snow recedes, as bleached, matted patches that can reach several feet across, and it's worst after long, deep, packed-down snow cover.

Once most of the leaves have fallen from your trees, and before the snow settles in. Color usually peaks around October 21, some trees don't peak until the last week of October or later, and a typical November brings about 9.8 inches of snow, so the window can be short.

Yes. Cornell's advice is to remove leaves from newly seeded areas before snow covers the ground. If we aerated and overseeded your lawn in late summer or fall, a fall leaf cleanup clears the leaves off the new grass.

Many towns and villages do, each with its own rules and schedule, so check your town's or village's page. Either way, the leaves have to come off the lawn first.