Important Insect Pests in Warm Season Turfgrasses Turfgrass Pest ...

Important Insect Pests in 

Warm Season Turfgrasses 

Turfgrass Pest Management 

• Goal: Maintain safe, attractive, green 

surface for aesthetics and recreation 

Developed and delivered by: Eileen A. Buss 

Associate Professor & Extension Specialist 

Entomology & Nematology Dept., UF/IFAS 

eabuss@ufl.edu 

Photos contributed by: E. Buss, L. Buss, J. Castner, D. Potter, D. Shetlar 

• Why does anyone care about insects? 

• Some physically/aesthetically destroy the turf 

• Some bite or sting 

• Insecticide use in private/public areas is a 

sensitive issue 

Pressures to Reduce Pesticide Use 

• Many available insecticides have CAUTION 

labels 

• Many people are still thinking about 

hazardous products that were available 15- 

20 years ago 

Insect Diagnostics 

1. What is your BEST “tool”? 

• Your eyesight! 

• Keep your eyes healthy and keep your 

contact/ eyeglass prescriptions up-to-date 

1

Monitoring 

Soap flush 

Visual sampling 

Vacuum sample 

• Use about 2 TBSP per gallon of water, and use 2 gallons 

of mix per square yard of turf 

• Test this solution in an inconspicuous area to see if turf 

damage occurs 

•Joy, Dawn Ultra & Ivory Clear rarely cause phytotoxicity 

Flotation or turf 

sample 

Important Things to Look For 

Describe the symptoms… 

• Mouthparts (chewing vs. sucking) 

• Body shape (long vs. thin, broad vs. 

narrow) 

• Wings (Present or absent? Texture – 

leathery, membranous, hard? Equal length? 

Lots of veins or very few?) 

• Antennae – beadlike, elbowed, etc. 

• Legs – jumping, walking, digging, swimming, 

… 

2

Look for silken webbing 

Tropical sod webworm ID 

Larva and frass in St. Augustinegrass 

Adults lack the elongate 

palps of regular sod 

webworms, and they hold 

the wings flat, in a 

triangular shape 

What do you need to know to 

manage caterpillars? 


• Infestations begin in the spring, but damaging 

g 

populations build in late summer and fall (pops. 

are year-round in S. FL) 

• Larvae develop better on fertilized turf 

• Killing young larvae is easier than for old larvae; 

don’t target eggs, pupae & adults 

• Products like Dipel (Bt), Conserve, & Dimilin are 

most effective against young larvae 

• Rotate insecticide modes of action (Acelepryn) 

3

Where do chinch bugs 

live and feed? 

Pest identification 

Small eyes 

Wing pads 

Reddish-orange body 

with white stripe 

Black triangle 

on white wings 

Adult and fifth instar 

Young nymphs 

False Chinch Bug Damage – Close up 

False Chinch Bug Damage, St. Petersburg, FL 

4

False Chinch Bug (Nysius raphanus) 

◦ Sporadic pest, usually not damaging 

◦ Same body shape as SCB, but different colors 

◦ Prefers plants in the mustard family (canola, 

radish), potato, lettuce, pigweed, turfgrasses 

◦ Mass migrations occur in hot, dry weather 

◦ Control: Pyrethroids 


manage chinch bugs? 

• 1 generation (egg to adult) takes 4-6 wks, and 

adults can live up to 2 months 

• Insecticides kill nymphs and adults, but not the 

eggs 

• Applying more nitrogen = more eggs being laid 

• Thick thatch is a great habitat and the organic 

matter binds certain insecticides (e.g., pyrethroids) 

• Insecticide resistance is real: ROTATE!!! 

Rhodesgrass Mealybug 

Rhodesgrass Mealybug 

(Antonina graminis) 

• Infested grass looks “tufted” – has shortened 

internodes, similar to mite damage 

• At least 1 mealybug is near the sprig base 

• Also a sporadic pest of turfgrasses; 

damage is worse in hot, dry weather 

• Feed in leaf sheaths, nodes, or at the crown 

• Only females; each 1 lays 300-600 eggs 

• 1 generation in 4-6 wks 

• Control? 

5

Describe the symptoms 

How can you confirm that grubs are 

the problem? 

Where do grubs live and feed? 

Some scarabs make mounds 

Pocket gopher 

Peltotrupes profundus 

Green June beetle casting 

6

Pest identification 

Identification of common grubs 

• Scarabs vary in size, color, and habits, but 

adults have 3-segmented, clubbed antennae 

• Larvae molt 3 times (have 3 instars) 

• Look at raster (hair) pattern for grub ID 

Raster 

Antenna 

Sugarcane 

grub 

EGG 

LARVA 

PUPA 

ADULT 


manage grubs? 

Following rescue treatments (Sevin or Dylox), GJB and 

flower beetle grubs often come to surface to die! 

• Development time depends on species; 

generally 1-2 generations per year in Florida 

• Insecticides should be targeted against newly 

hatched first instars; curative control of 3 rd 

instars is harder to achieve 

• Some grubs like areas of high organic matter; 

avoid organic fertilizers (e.g., chicken litter) 

• Insecticides usually need to be watered in to 

reach the soil 

7


Mole cricket subsurface tunneling 

uproots plants, resulting in the 

roots drying out. Tawny and 

shortwinged mole crickets also 

feed on the roots, resulting in turf 

injury. Large nymphs make small 

mounds in late summer when 

they emerge to feed on the soil 

surface at night. 

Mole cricket identification 

Pronotum 

Dactyls (digging claws) 

Tawny MC Shortwinged MC Southern MC 


manage mole crickets? 

• Most eggs hatch from May to July 

gg y y 

• Nymphs and adults are nocturnal, so 

applications timed for early morning or late 

afternoon may be more successful 

• Young nymphs are easier to kill than old 

nymphs and adults 

• Baits are effective in late summer & fall 

• Some insecticides repel mole crickets 

8

Fire Ants 

• Health hazard: painful stings, allergic reactions 

• Colonies invade sunny, open, and disturbed areas, 

like playgrounds and athletic fields 

• Mounds can be a turf aesthetic problem 

• Colonies can nest in electrical boxes 

• Fire ants are predators of other pests 

eXtension: 

http://www.extension.org/pages/9730/imported-fire-ants-membership 

Fire Ant Baits – common ai’s 

• Abamectin 

• Fenoxycarb 

• Fipronil 

• Hydramethylnon 

• Indoxacarb 

• (S)-methoprene 

• Pyriproxyfen 

• Spinosad 

How Do You Know It Worked? 

• Ants and mounds disappear for a while 

• Mounds are not just rebuilt somewhere 

else 

• Reduction in stings 

• But, be warned… 

• Treated turf can be reinfested from 

neighboring, untreated areas 

9

Important Insect Pests in Warm Season Turfgrasses Turfgrass Pest ...

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