   Common Pest around the home!
Grubs
Grubs are a common pest in
turfgrass. They are the larval stage of many different beetles.
During the warm summer
months, the female adult burrows around three inches into the ground to
lay her eggs.
As
soon as they hatch, these grubs start eating by sucking on plant roots
and continue sucking the juices until the turf dies.
Signs of grub damage are
fairly easy to notice. If you spot irregular patches of brown on a
well-watered lawn, there’s a good chance that area is infested with
grubs. The soil will also feel spongy and loose to where you can easily
roll back the sod like a carpet. When the turf is lifted to expose the
grubs, they usually will be lying on their sides in a C-shaped position.
When it comes to
controlling a grub infestation, timing is crucial. Grub elimination
should be timed to target them at the youngest stage when that are close
to the surface.
“The
story of grubs starts with a 4th of July party,” says Tom Kroll,
technical services manager, NuFarm Americas, Inc., Chicago, Illinois.
“The best way to control grubs is to apply insecticide just before the
eggs hatch. That window of opportunity is usually three weeks prior to
July 4th, from up to two weeks after July 4th.”
Kroll recommends using an
insecticide with the active ingredient imidacloprid in either dry form,
which can be applied with a spreader, or as a liquid, which is sprayed
on. Chloraniliprole and Trichlorfon are other active ingredients that
are effective.
Chinch bug
Another insect common in
turf settings is the chinch bug. Chinch bugs rapidly kill turf once
they’ve become established. Although they don’t attack all grasses, some
of the most common warm- and cool-season turfgrass species are likely
chinch-bug targets. Most of the varieties of grasses thrive in the
Sunbelt states.
Chinch
bug damage is usually first detected when irregular patches of turf
begin to turn yellow, then straw colored. These areas turn reddish brown
and eventually die, while the chinch bugs move on to healthy turf. A
yellow halo around the damaged area is typical of a chinch bug
infestation.
The
female lays its eggs, and as the eggs hatch the young chinch bugs,
called nymphs, do the damage. Nymphs are yellow upon hatching, but soon
turn red and have a light-colored band across their abdomens.
Chinch bugs suck on grass
juices while releasing a toxin that causes yellowish to brownish patches
in turf.
Over the
years, chinch bugs have become resistant to almost every chemical used
to control them, but insecticides containing bifenthrin have been shown
to be effective, because the chemical works both internally and
externally. “Bifenthrin kills the chinch bug both when the bugs ingest
plants that have been treated with the chemical, and also when
bifenthrin gets on their skin,” says Adam E. Manwarren, turf and
ornamental product manager at FMC Professional Solutions.
You could apply the
insecticide to the affected areas, or around the border of the
landscape, but because they can fly, it’s difficult to keep an area
totally free of chinch bugs. Manwarren recommends a broadcast
application on the entire lawn with either a liquid spray or granular
spreader. |