If you’ve ever taken a trip down south, you’ve seen the mole cricket. They’re big, shovel headed and creepy looking pest insects. Identify the Mole Cricket by their brown, velvety bodies and spade-like front legs evolved for digging. Adult mole crickets are about an inch long. Mole Crickets also have wings a quarter inch long. They can have you running for a Palm Harbor Florida Mole Cricket Exterminator
Mole crickets cause their most damage in warm climates. However, you can find these guys all along the coasts of the southeastern U.S. Irregularly raised burrows, and dying grass can recognize Their damage. These insects are often attracted to lawns that have an abundance of thatch—a thick, spongy mat of runners and undecomposed grass clippings on the soil surface.
Moreover, improper mowing and excessive water or fertilizer can lead to this condition. Mole crickets find this to be suitable habitat and will eventually overwinter within deep burrows, which are created by their extensive digging. Once the soil warms up in spring, they will work their way up to the surface to feed on grass, usually at night. This feeding also takes place in the upper inch or so of soil.
Palm Harbor Florida Mole Cricket Exterminator: Infestation Signs
There’s usually only two significant visible signs of mole cricket infestation.
The first you’ll see is small, brown soil mounds in your lawn. Similar to ant hills but not quite as easy to spot. The other is patches of dying grass dappled throughout your lawn. The mole cricket’s tunneling habits cause these patches.
Since the mole cricket is nocturnal, it’s not easy to identify the pest during daytime hours. To be entirely confident you’re dealing with mole crickets, mix two tablespoons of dishwashing liquid with a gallon of water in a large bucket and pour the solution over a 1–2 square-foot area of your lawn that you think has been affected by mole crickets. Perform this task in the early morning or late evening. If mole crickets are present, they’ll surface within a few minutes.
Palm Harbor Florida Mole Cricket Exterminator: What you can do
Once you get a mole cricket infestation, there’s not much you can do without the help of a professional. The best thing you can do for your lawn is to contact a Palm Harbor Florida Mole Cricket Exterminator that uses natural methods of pest controls to get rid of these things and not damage your lawn.
