What causes this?

[BobT]

Anyone have any idea why I'm getting these brown dead spots in my yard? They just started showing up in the last day or two.

[Stringerless!]

Sod webworms ? Are little white moths flyng out of lawn when you mow ? Could be the culprit.

[BobT]

Sorry. Had trouble downloading image. Too big.

[BobT]

Haven't noticed any moths but wasn't looking for them either.

Not seeing any as I walk around the lawn.

[Stringerless!]

Now that I see the pic that looks like dog kill.

[delcecchi]

Have you applied any chemicals or fertilizer to the lawn recently?

One time I found out not to walk through weeds freshly sprayed with roundup and then across the lawn.

It does look like a couple of footprints in the picture, although no scale.

spilling a little fertilizer will do that too.

Dog in neighborhood?

That's all I can think of.

[BobT]

No fertilizer or other chemicals. We do have a dog but I've never seen this before. There's about a dozen of them scattered around my one acre lawn. They are all round like you see and about a foot in diameter.

Aliens perhaps?

[smalliehunter]

female dog? that looks like my yard...

[Macgyver55]

Lawn mower leaking gas?

[fishersofmen]

Its more than likely a fungus BobT possibly Dollar Spot which can be common when the humidity picks up and especially with all the rain and moisture. A real wet lawn at night is a bad thing and we have had plenty of those this year. I would imagine some of the Blight's, Leaf Spot and other fungus's will start going crazy with all the moisture and the upcoming heat.

When it looks like someone came onto your lawn and spray painted circles or other strange designs out of nowhere more times than not it is a fungus. Thatch build-up and watering at night are a no-no. We will have customers call with fungus problems and the first thing we ask is are you watering at night, often times the answer is yes and we will reset their irrigation system to early morning. When we get rain at night it is obviously out of our control. If you haven't aerated or done a power rake recently consider doing so. Sometimes there is nothing you can do to prevent it. Fungicides work to treat it but can be expensive. Fertilizing can help the lawn grow out of it too (especially Dollar Spot) but with some fungus's added nitrogen can be counter productive. If I were you I would aerate the snot out of it and put down some fert.

[BobT]

Thatch shouldn't be a problem as I bag my clippings. Your explanation sounds most plausible.

[Dotch]

This is gonna sound kinda dumb and it took a few times until it dawned on me. When I'd get off the machine and leave it running while putting the downspouts back on, picking up some junk, moving hoses around, etc., the exhaust would scorch nice circular patches in the lawn. Still does!

[BeezeHound]

I had some similar looking spots like that in my yard last summer, ended up being a small hydraulic leak on my mower where a little bit where run out every time I raised or lowered the mower deck. Once I got that fixed, no more spots.

[vister]

Looks exactly like the 100 or so dog spots I just scratched up and added new lawn seed to. We never had it before, but this year they were everywhere. Our female 4 year old golden retreiver was the culprit, however, they only showed up after all the snow melted. Hasn't been an issue since. But, trying to grow them all back...

[leech~~]

Lawn mower leaking gas?

Plus +1 my first thought.

[BobT]

This is gonna sound kinda dumb and it took a few times until it dawned on me. When I'd get off the machine and leave it running while putting the downspouts back on, picking up some junk, moving hoses around, etc., the exhaust would scorch nice circular patches in the lawn. Still does!

Thanks for the idea. My exhaust discharges out the side rather than down so it shouldn't be the problem.

[BobT]

I had some similar looking spots like that in my yard last summer, ended up being a small hydraulic leak on my mower where a little bit where run out every time I raised or lowered the mower deck. Once I got that fixed, no more spots.

My mower doesn't have any hydraulics aside from the transmission and I don't see any visible sign of leaking. Thanks for the suggestion.

[BobT]

Lawn mower leaking gas?

Plus +1 my first thought.

Another good possibility but these spots are appearing in places I rarely stop while mowing and are not showing up in places where I typically stop to move things that are on the lawn. I have checked it anyway just in case and have not found any evidence to suggest a leak.

Thanks.

[BobT]

Looks exactly like the 100 or so dog spots I just scratched up and added new lawn seed to. We never had it before, but this year they were everywhere. Our female 4 year old golden retreiver was the culprit, however, they only showed up after all the snow melted. Hasn't been an issue since. But, trying to grow them all back...

We've had female dogs for the 20+ years we've lived here and I've never seen this before. These spots didn't show up this spring after the snow melt but showed up within the last couple weeks. For the most part they are also away from the house whereas she usually urinates closer to the house. She does not drop loads in the yard at all but goes out into the tree grove, which we really appreciate.

Thanks.

[otterman91105]

My exhaust use to do the same thing on my lawn till i got a heat shield for my exhaust. Every time that i would stop it would leave spots just like that.

[Big-Al]

OK I will give a shot here. Do you have a lot of June Bugs? The large white grubs can feed on the roots of the grass and create these patches. Try pulling back the dead sod and see if you see any on the edges.

[fishersofmen]

Lol at all the replies. These fungus's will drive people nuts like this. Usually folks will tell me they have dry spots and water the lawn making it even worse.

I have seen several lawns this week now with some type of fungus.