Plant Disease

Fungi are the most common type of plant disease

Fungi: these are the most common type of plant disease.  Fungi cause many different symptoms such as leaf spots, wilts, curled leaves, dieback, enlargements or galls, stunted plants and dead plants.  Fungal spores are spread by wind, water, soil movement, machinery, insects and anything else they come in contact with, including people.

Fungus Conditions Include:

• Powdery Mildew
• Black Spot
• Downy Mildew
• Blights
• Mold
• Mushrooms

Kastle Kare is Ventura County, Santa Barbara County and Los Angeles County experts at diagnosing and PROPERLY treating fungus and other plant diseases on your trees, shrubs, ornamentals, ground covers and lawn.

A correct diagnosis is important to ensure the fungi disappears and the plants are not harmed by the incorrect treatments.

All About Kastle Kare’s  plant disease services, including fungus

Snails and Slugs Chew Your Plants

Snails and slugs feed on living plants and on decaying plant matter.  They usually chew irregular holds with smooth edges in leaves and flowers.

Snails and slugs can wreak havoc on your beautiful plants in your landscape and gardens.

Snail and Slug Management

To protect your landscape and gardens from snails and slugs the problem must be managed properly.   Kastle Kare’s pest control services does the dirty work for you.  Our goal is to get your landscape and garden back to its optimum beauty and health.  We also provide maintenance treatment programs to keep it that way.

Kastle Kare’s pest control services is Ventura County’s has your solution to snail and slug pest control

There is a new pest attacking plants in Southern California. This pest is called a thrips. It has become a very serious problem to a common ornamental shrub in Ventura County. It is commonly used among highways and freeways. The thrips damages the plants leaves and causes spectacular and unsightly damage.

Myoporum Trees/Shrubs are the target

These trees are commonly used as privacy hedges. They are lined on hundreds of miles along California’s highways. They are a robust ever green tree that bears white (or near white) blossoms in winter to mid spring.It is a fast growing shrub or small tree which appears dome shaped at first.

The symptoms you see is a very tight leaf curl.

The pictures to the right show the leaf curl that occurs. This leaf curl, when left unchecked can quickly spread throughout the entire tree. This greatly diminishes the attractiveness of the tree/shrub. It detracts from the tree’s privacy hedge affect as well.

About the Thrips (the pests)

Thrips are sucking insects. They are similar this way to aphids, mealy bugs, whiteflies and scales. The biggest threat to ornamental plants are sucking insects, like the thrips. Thrips are very tiny, and hard to be seen by the naked eye. They can be seen squirming when you uncurl the leaves that they inhabit. Their entire life cycle is only 10 days. They lay eggs, that hatch into nymphs and quickly grow into maturity. They suck the life out of the plants.

There is an expectation that this new genus of thrips, called Klambothrips, will cause widespread damage along the 100’s of miles using the common Myoporum plant.

Kastle Kare Treatments

Kastle Kare treats these trees/shrubs and revives them back to life. Call our office to schedule an appointment to see if your plants are affected by this troubling pest.

Call today for an appointment

(805) 484-8181

Your lawn and ground cover should look beautiful

Our lawns are usually the most visible and beautiful part of our landscaping.  So, when lawn problems start, it makes a big impact on the appeal of our property.  There are many causes of problems in our lawn and ground cover.

• Weeds: There are many weeds that can invade and slowly, but surely, take over your beautiful lawn.  For example, dandelion, white clover, chickweed, or grass like weeds such as crabgrass, foxtails, stinkgrass, among many others.
• Dead Patches: Dead patches have many origins too, including insects such as the cutworm, bluegrass billbug, chinch bugs, and greenbugs.  Additionally, dead patches in your lawn can be caused by chemical or fertilizer burn, urine damage, and fungi.
• Powder on Grass or Rust: Your lawn loses its beauty when it has a powdery mildew or rust, which is a very common disease among residential lawns.
• Thin Turf: Thin turf can be caused by many issues, such as: drought, heat and cold, leaf spots, shade, soil problems, thatch, and traffic.
• Off-colored: When your lawn becomes dark or yellows, it looks unattractive.  The causes of this can come from a fungus, such as fairy rings, a dull lawn mower, inadequate nitrogen in the soil, or an iron deficiency.
• Holes: Holes in your landscape are usually caused by gophers, voles or moles in Southern California.  The most common of course is the gopher.  Gopher holes can devastate a beautiful landscape and lawn.  Read more about gophers here.
• Mushrooms: Mushrooms in your lawn are a sign of problems that must be dealt with effectively.  They are also unsightly.
• Moss and Algae: These conditions are usually caused by poor soil conditions that don’t allow your turf to grow well.

Kastle Kare provides the solutions to your landscape problems.

• Gopher Control
• Deep Root Fertilization
• Plant Disease Control
• Weed Control

Your Trees and Plants Add Value to Your Property

That’s right money does grow in trees.  In recent findings, it is estimated that healthy trees, shrubs, woody ornamentals and other landscape plants add an average of 15% to the value of a piece of property.

Healthy Plants and Trees Add Beauty

The obvious reason plants and trees add value is because of the beauty they create in your landscape.  We recognize it instantly when we see beautiful landscaping.  We also recognize in when the landscape is suffering from problems, especially in trees.

Tree Diseases and Pests Cause Great Damage

Landscape plants are vulnerable to a variety of diseases which are caused by

• fungi
• viruses
• bacteria
• nematodes

Most disease causing agents are microscopic.  Most homeowners won’t see the microorganisms which cause:

• blights
• Leaf Spots
• leaf curling
• Dying leaves
• and other problems

Although these tree and plant pests are small, the damage they cause is visible and diminishes the beauty of the property.

Kastle Kare’s Plant RX division is Ventura County’s Expert in Tree and Plant Disease Treatment

Gophers and Moles can destroy your landscape

Gophers can destroy your landscape when they are not controlled.  Your lawn can become riddled with very unsightly gopher holes and dirt mounds.  Plants can become smothered by the dirt mounds, thus killing them as well.  More damage can come from the gopher chewing through utility lines and irrigation lines.  Additionally, the soil dug up and brought to the surface of your landscape can cause greater erosion of the soil from rain water and sprinklers, causing a host of related problems.

Gophers are pests that must be dealt with

Because of these problems, gophers must be dealt with effectively to rid your property of their potential damage.  One difficulty in dealing with gophers is they frequently come back and must be dealt with again.  The reason for this is usually when your property has removed the gophers, your neighboring property still has them.  It is just a matter of time before gophers come back again to your property.

Recognizing Gophers

The way to recognize a gopher is to check out the gopher’s hole.  The gopher creates a gopher mound that typically is in a fan shape moving outward from the center of the hole.

Gophers eat plants, lots of them.  They are the usual culprit in your plant damage and disappearing plants.  Gophers can make tunnels up to 200 yards  in a year and move more than 2 tons of soil.

Kastle Kare, home of Gopherman, is the solution to your gopher problems — read more

Weeds in your lawn or turf can complete invade a healthy lawn. Weeds can gradually take over when left unchecked. The takeover will choke your lawn’s health. Weeds must be dealt with properly and effectively.

Some weeds are difficult to destroy

Many homeowners use the wrong methods to kill weeds in turf. The result is the weeds persist and continue to grow. Or, worse, damage is done to an otherwise healthy lawn. The wrong chemicals or treatments can cause more damage then help.

Kastle Kare’s team has the expertise and the equipment to eradicate weeds from your landscape

Whether you have a residential landscape, or a large park that needs treatment, Kastle Kare are the experts you need. We are prepared to treat all ranges of landscapes in Ventura County, Santa Barbara County and Los Angeles County.

weeds, lawn, plants, pest control, ventura county

We have invested heavily into our equipment to ensure your landscape is as healthy as possible and retains its beauty. Read more about why we are the best choice for your landscape beauty and health.

Kastle Kare’s Weed Control Services are the best in Ventura County

Raccoons, squirrels, snakes and opossums in and around your home or property can be quite a problem. They can be dangerous to deal with and cause a lot of problems. They must be removed from the property to keep you safe from harm and damage.

Raccoons can find nice hiding places in your attic. They can cause quite a bit of damage there too. They are often found rummaging through your garbage and causing quite a mess.

The Kastle Kare Pest Control team knows how to remove these pest from your property and relocate them so they will not return. Our company has a wide variety of traps and capturing methods that won’t harm the animals and keeps you and your family safer. Yes, we do snake removal and control, including rattlesnakes.

Rats, Mice and Bats

No one likes rats, or mice to invade their property. They often carry with them diseases and can cause damage to your property. Did you know that mice contaminate ten times more food than it eats? Our customers have complained of hearing noises in the attacks and inside walls. Rats and Mice often chew up wiring, siding and other personal property. It is important to exterminate or remove these pest from your property.

Kastle Kare’s Pest Control Team will rid your property of these pests and make it difficult for them to return again. We are experts at trapping, exterminating and relocating these animals.

Gophers, Moles and Voles

Gophers are very damaging to your landscape and property. They are also difficult to get rid of around your landscaping.
Read all about Gophers, Moles and Voles at this page.

Humane capture, relocation or extermination

Kastle Kare employs a variety of techniques to get rid of all of these pests. We have a large assortment of live animal traps to aid in capturing them. From larger animals like Raccoons, and Possums, to smaller animals like rats and mice, we can capture them and remove them from your property. Often, the only valid choice is to exterminate the pests to remove them from your property.

More about Kastle Kare’s Pest Control Services for live animals

While bees and wasps are beneficial insects, they are also a safety concern around people. Sometimes people disturb their hives and nests and they can attack. For this reason, bees and wasp pest control is important and must be controlled by a skilled professional.

Wasps and Bee Stings

Both wasps and bees sting to defend themselves and their colony. The bee sting and wasp sting are injections of a protein venom that causes pain and other reactions. Some people are allergic to bee and wasp stings and the allergic reactions can be quite severe. Proper protection must be worn to keep bees and wasp from stinging.

Bees and Wasps must be moved away from people

It is important to move bee and wasp colonies away from people to avoid inadvertent attacks. Bees and wasps attack when they feel threatened. It is best to keep them separate from people.

Kastle Kare’s Pest Control Services for Bees and Wasps

Keeping your home free from Ants

A single ant can lead the way for an entire colony into your home and invade your food. Ants and cockroaches are a serious problem for food. They must be exterminated and it is suggested to maintain a pest control program to keep them from returning.

Killing the ants present often does not cure them from coming back. Ants live in colonies outside of your home, usually somewhere around the perimeter. Sometimes ants come back because the ant has not been identified and the treatment used does not affect that particular species of ant.

If you are constantly spraying around your home and the ants continue to come back, you may have to contact a company like ours to help completely exterminate your pests. When we investigate your problem, we determine the problem with two main questions.

1. Which ant species is the problem?

2. Where are the ants living? Are they living outdoors and coming inside to forage for food for the colony? Or, are they living inside the structure, in the walls, voids, or underneath the property?

Once we determine these two items, we can begin to properly treat your property to make sure the ants don’t return. Of course, often, your problem may need repeated treatments or a longer term pest control maintenance program.

Cockroaches invading your food

The American Cockroach is a large species of winged cockroach. They generally live in most areas but can survive in dry areas if they have access to water. Cockroaches typically live outside and come inside when they are seeking food and warmth. The get into homes and structures through cracks and gaps.

Cockroach Health Risks

Cockroaches are primarily an aestethic nuisance. However, members of this species have been known to carry infectious bacteria on their bodies. These bacteria may transfer to the food they come in contact with. Cockroaches have been known to be the cause of food poisoning, dysentary and diarreah in humans. They also can produce allergens on their bodys and fecal matter. Sometimes the American Cockroach has been implicated in causing respiratory problems and even childhood asthma.

More about Kastle Kare’s Pest Control Services for Ants, Cockroaches, and other bugs