6 Types of Lawn-Damaging Pests in Texas

Summer is one of the best times for your lawn to experience extreme growth and thickening, but also one of the most potentially stressful times. Mowing, watering, and monitoring the health of your lawn is a constant worry. However, dry spells and Texas heat aren’t the only problems your lawn faces in the summer. Sometimes an even bigger threat is the variety of different summer lawn pests that can wreak havoc across a widespread area of your lawn in a short amount of time.  When lawn pests get brought up, one of the first things that comes to most people’s minds are grubs. Although grubs can cause extensive damage if left untreated, they are rarely a problem in the Bryan/College Station area. However, there are many other problem pests that you should be aware of and know the signs of their damage to look for in your yard. These pests can be hard to identify without a professional, especially since there are several life stages that have different appearances. If you’ve noticed patchy, dying grass across your lawn, it might be a sign you’re dealing with one of the following pests.

Chinch Bugs

Chinch bugs are some of the worst pests that can appear in your lawn, and they spread rapidly during the summer months. When your lawn starts to show signs of chinch bug damage during the season, it’s important to treat them immediately and take steps to prevent their appearance in the future. Unless you catch them early, the damage they do can be irreversible and the damage they do will require re-sodding in those areas. These bugs are tiny and hard to spot, measuring about 3/16th of an inch long when fully grown. Immature bugs are just black typically, but as adults, they grow white wings and form distinct triangle patterns on their backs. Chinch bugs feed on the sap of grass blades by piercing them with their mouthparts. As they feed, they inject a toxin that disrupts the plant’s ability to transport water and nutrients.

Your lawn will start to look dry and brittle shortly after chinch bugs arrive as the grass dies out from their eating. These patches of dry-looking grass will grow and spread across your lawn. While the grass will look sickly, it can be hard to identify the cause as chinch bugs without a lawn care professional. These brown patches can originally look like the result of fungal issues or the result of just not watering enough. However, watering your lawn won’t resolve the issue, and the patches across your lawn will continue to grow without treatment. Chinch Bug damage can be avoided altogether though by keeping your lawn well irrigated before and during hot periods and by applying a preventative product ahead of time. A lawn stressed by the heat is much more likely to experience Chinch Bug infestation than a healthy lawn.

You can read more about chinch bugs here.

Fire Ants

Fire ants are probably something you look out for in the summer when going somewhere outdoors, like a park or the woods. Nobody likes these aggressive pests, but the hills on your lawn are even worse than you might think for the health of your lawn. They build mounds that can be up to 18 inches high. These hills disrupt the evenness of your turf with their size and where they appear across your lawn. The large mounds also smother areas of grass and over time kill out those patches where they rest. While these mounds are tripping hazards that break up your lawn, fire ants bring more than just aesthetic problems. The mere presence of fire ants is a danger to your lawn. When soil is displaced by their tunneling, it can alter soil composition and drainage. This places stress on the roots of your grass over time as well. Combined with their aggression, it’s worth treating them right away to form a safer environment for you, your visitors, and your lawn. There are both baits and contact insecticides that advertise themselves for fire ants, but prevention in February or March is recommended, if possible, to get the best control. However, Fire Ants can be controlled at any point of the year.

Sod Webworms

Like grubs, these are the larvae of insects that damage your lawn as they grow. Once they mature they become lawn moths, which settle on your lawn and feast on your grass. Sod webworms feed primarily at night, chewing on grass blades. This leaves small, irregular patches of brown or dead grass. These spread quickly across the lawn and often start in hard-to-reach places on your lawn. They also create silken tunnels or webbing in the thatch layer where they hide during the day, which harms the health of your grass and the quality of your soil over time.  The patches they leave can sometimes look like they appear overnight, but they quickly grow to spread and cover your lawn. You can identify sod webworms by looking for larvae and silk tunnels in the thatch layer. Checking regularly for brown patches, tunnels, or larvae helps stop their spread. Sod webworms are also attracted to tall grass, so make sure that you constantly mow your lawn to a proper height. Most sod webworms that we see in Bryan and College Station are affecting Bermuda lawns.

Fall Army Webworms

Despite the name, fall army worms do pose a threat during the late summer. They look like caterpillars, measuring around 1 1/2 inches long. While they vary in color, they have distinctive stripes on their bodies and an inverted “Y” shaped head. If left untreated, these guys will also grow into moths. They reproduce so quickly that there can be multiple waves of larvae over the course of a single season. Not only can they swarm your lawn during the late summer and fall, but they feed on entire blades of grass and leave behind bare patches. We see armyworms the most when we’ve had a lot of rain in the summer and early fall months. September is the most likely month to see them for BCS, but seeing them as early as July is possible as well.

Their feeding creates a “scorched” appearance on the lawn where the blades of grass look brown and barren. There might be holes or jagged edges on individual blades. If you pull away browning grass, you might be able to see them feeding. They move quickly across patches of grass, feeding in large groups and causing extensive damage all over the yard. The “army” part of their name comes from their habit of marching across fields in a large mass, similar to an invading army. They are especially active in the early morning or late afternoon. For the best results when treating these patches on your lawn, treat them with insecticide during the periods when they are actively feeding. 

You can read about both sod webworms and fall army worms here.

Mole Crickets

Mole crickets look unique to other crickets, with their large front legs working to dig as well as jump. This allows them to tunnel through your soil, causing harm to the roots of your grass across the lawn. These crickets have short wings and are 1-2 inches long, usually being a gray or brown color. Raised tunnels are a huge sign that mole crickets have invaded. Visible tunnels or burrows a few inches wide on your lawn are likely the result of these pests. Their burrowing activity leads to uneven turf across your lawn. Not only does this look unsightly, but it damages the soil and leaves it susceptible to erosion or disease. Mole crickets also feed on grass roots and stems, leading to dying patches and a spongy feeling when you walk on your lawn. 

Another sign that you’re dealing with mole crickets might be an increase in bird visitors on your lawn since they commonly forage for this species. This could lead to even further damage without treatment. Applying soapy water to their tunnels or affected grass can flush mole crickets up to the surface. Mole crickets prefer sandy soil, so these pests are not common in the clay lawns of Bryan and College Station, but they are a possible pest to keep in mind.

Grub Worms

While they might be rarer in our area, it’s still possible that you might have a grub problem that you have to get under control. Grub worms, commonly known as grubs, are the larval stage of various beetles such as Japanese beetles, June beetles, and chafers. They do their dirty work underneath the roots of your grass, burrowing into the soil and working to ruin your lawn from the inside. Grubs feed on the roots of grass, which disrupts the grass’s ability to absorb water and nutrients. This leads to patches of dead or dying grass appearing across your lawn. The first signs of the damage being specifically from grubs are if your grass feels spongy underfoot and can be easily pulled up like a new piece of sod that was just laid. Pulling grass and soil up can reveal the C-shaped grubs underneath. Brown patches of grass that do not respond to watering or fertilization, like chinch bugs, are also indicative of grubs. The damage that these bugs can do over such a short time will wreck your lawn even before these grubs grow into bugs that feed on your grass. A good way to check for grubs is to routinely dig up a small patch of your lawn, especially in the late summer and early fall months. Finding a grub or two here and there in the lawn does not necessarily mean there is a problem, but finding several grubs in a few foot area probably does. Grubs are easily prevented with the correct products and timing of application. It is much more cost-effective to prevent a serious grub infestation than to treat them once they’ve already taken over.

You can read more about lawn grubs here.

Do You Have These Pest Issues?

If you live in the College Station area and think that your lawn might be dealing with pests, look into The Fertilizer Guy to treat your lawn’s issues. Our team has years of experience specifically identifying what pests are doing damage to your lawn and safely treating them. When you work with us, you’ll not only get rid of your insect problem but have a healthier lawn in the long run. We treat every client’s lawn like we would our own. You can receive a free quote for our pest control services by contacting us today!