What are Lawn Pests?

In order to rid your lawn of damaging insects, you have to determine which bugs are the offenders. Here’s what our experts look for when identifying the lawn-destroying insects.

Tell-Tale Signs

You can often spot insect damage by looking for the following:

• Turf species: Start by identifying your grass type, because some lawn insects won’t attack a certain turf species.
• Location: Lawn-damaging insects prefer actively growing turf and avoid shade, so search the good turf around damaged areas for insect activity.
• Shape: Grass damage from lawn pests is often irregularly shaped—perfect circles are rarely caused by an insect.

Examining The Culprits

Once you find and snatch a pest, stick it on a clear piece of tape or in a sealable plastic bag so you can examine and/or show it to a TruGreen® expert. Start by checking its mouthparts to see if they match up with your turf grass damage:

• Piercing/sucking mouthparts: These lawn pests have a sharp straw or tube they insert into leaves and stems in order to suck out nutritious grass juices. Damage resembles drought stress and starts with yellowing grass blades, with blades eventually appearing wilted and dehydrated. Common culprits include Chinch Bugs, Greenbug Aphid, Spittle Bugs and Mites.
• Chewing mouthparts: The easiest way to spot an insect with chewing mouthparts is by its large mandibles—or jaws—on either side of its head. Chewing removes root or leaf tissue, leaving notches or holes in leaves. Examples of these insects include White Grubs, Billbugs, Mole Crickets, Sod Webworms and Cutworms.

Understanding the varying life cycles of lawn bugs, like how they grow and develop, is the key to controlling them before they cause damage to your lawn. Lawn-destroying insects all start as eggs, but different species vary in how often they go through metamorphosis—when they shed their exoskeletons to form larger ones. External forces such as soil and air temperature further affect metamorphosis. For lawn-damaging insects, there are two significant kinds of metamorphosis:

Complete Metamorphosis

Two prime examples are beetles, which begin life as grubs, and moths, which begin as caterpillars. Other common lawn insects of this type include Sod Webworms, Cutworms and White Grub species such as the Japanese Beetle, Oriental Beetle, Masked Chafer and Sugar Cane. These insects have four distinct life stages: egg, larva, pupa and adult.

• Larvae: Insect larvae look very different in form and shape than adults. They damage turf grass the most as they feed, grow and molt.
• Pupae: Larvae transform into pupae and then don’t move or feed. They hide in protected, secluded spaces as they transform into adults.
• Adults: When fully mature, adults emerge from pupal casings and lay eggs of their own.

Incomplete Metamorphosis

Insects that undergo incomplete metamorphosis, such as the chinch bug and mole cricket, continuously increase their populations. They can reach turf grass-damaging levels quickly, so routine scouting, early identification and rapid response control are essential to preserving your lawn’s health. These insects have only three life stages: egg, nymph and adult.

• Nymphs: These are immature adults and resemble adults from the beginning—however, they are smaller in size and sometimes color. Nymphs molt and grow many times. At each molt, a nymph’s wing buds grow more and more pronounced.
• Adults: Once the nymphs are fully winged, they are sexually mature adults. Nymphs and adults feed on the same host together for their entire life cycles

These lawn pests can be controlled as nymphs or adults, but not as eggs.

Lawn pests can damage soil, roots, leaves, and stems, or suck moisture from grass, and controlling them requires a multitiered attack: selection, prevention, management and treatment.

Four Steps

• Selection: Choose the best turf grass species for your climate and region, preferably one that isn’t as susceptible to local lawn-damaging insects. For example, some types of Tall Fescue, Creeping Red Fescue and Perennial Ryegrass have microscopic fungi that ward off above-ground lawn pests.
• Prevention: A healthy lawn needs little to no pesticide treatment. Look toward proper mowing, watering, irrigation and fertilization tactics to curb lawn-damaging insect infestations.
• Management: Remove thatch and promote naturally occurring predators and parasites that feed on lawn-damaging insects—install birdhouses or look into beneficial nematodes.
• Treatment: Determine what insect you’re dealing with by the type of lawn damage and then look through the individual pages below for treatment options

What if Lawn Pest Control Doesn’t Work?

If you’re still having problems, check to make sure you’re actually dealing with an insect:

• True insects have three body regions: head, thorax and abdomen.
• Insects also have six legs (three pairs), and adults may have two pairs of wings.
• Spiders and mites are NOT true insects—they have two body regions (cephalothorax and abdomen) and eight legs (four pairs).

Then make sure you have identified the pest correctly. Although similar insects are grouped together because their damage and overall appearance are similar, several different species of lawn pests can be present. 

For help getting rid of lawn pests, contact a TruGreen® expert today