Turf Damaging Insects...

The world of insects is enormous. Most insects pose no threat to our plants or ourselves. However, there are just a few insects that can cause serious damage to our lawns.

Insects that may cause damage lawns include various root-, crown-, and leaf-feeding caterpillars; white grubs, which are the larvae of beetles; billbugs, which are weevils with white, grub like larvae; and chinch bugs, which are true bugs in the order Hemiptera. Armyworms, cutworms, mole crickets also cause damage to lawns.

Surface feeding insects

Surface feeding insects include Chinchbugs and Sod Webworm. These destructive insects are treated with our two summer applications to protect your lawn from damage.

Sod Webworm Chinchbug Adult chinchbugs are about 1/4 of an inch long and black with white wings folded over their backs. The insect mates early in the season when the temperature reaches about 70 degrees Fahrenheit. The female lays eggs on roots, stems, leaves, leaf sheaths or crevices in nodes and other protected places. Eggs are laid over a 2 to 3 week period, with one female laying as many as 500 eggs.

Subsurface feeding insects

Subsurface Feeding insects are primarily grubs. There are many types of Grubs that damage turf and we can control all of them with our Preventative Grub Control Application.

Japanese Beetle Grubs are the larval stage of many different beetles, including the Japanese beetle. The grub lives below ground and feeds on the roots of tender turf-grass plants that soon kills the plant. They are most destructive mid-late summer, but the damage they cause may not show up until early fall and by then, it's too late.

Damage is most severe in drought years.