Moisture sprouts fungus in area lawns - 13 WTHR Indianapolis

INDIANAPOLIS - Rainy weather has been leaving its mark on several lawns, turning them red, but it can be stopped.

One homeowner noticed something in her apparently lush, green lawn that prompted her to call in a lawn expert.

"If you observe here, you can see a ring and it's very spotty and brown in color and the tips are red and they have a very threadlike extrusion on the top," said John Cahill of Cahill's Lawn & Landscape.

Which is where it gets its name: Red Thread.

Cahill says it's a fungus that had infected about two percent of his clients' lawns.

"When environmental conditions like humidity, moisture, temperature all come together, then these pathogens grown and spread up through the leaf blade," he said.

While red thread crops up in the spring, lawn experts say to get rid of it, you should manage it in the fall.

"The long-term solution is to plant resistant varieties," Cahill said.

He says reseeding in the fall with a grass that is resistant to red thread is the most effective method.

"I've never seen red thread affect the turf-type, tall fescue varieties," Cahill said.

He says in the meantime, there are some things a homeowner can do to keep it from spreading.

"The homeowner can mow high and use a very sharp blade and collect all these grass clippings," he said.

Cahill says spraying a fungicide will control red thread from spreading for about 18-21 days, but won't cure it.

"The grass itself has to grow back up from the roots," he said.

Cahill says you can speed that process up by fertilizing your lawn. But, he says, if you just wait for a string of days with temperatures in the mid-80s, red thread will grow out and go away on its own.

Red thread is not harmful in any way to humans, pets, or grass. The fungus doesn't even kill the grass, it just changes the color for about 8-10 weeks.