Everybody loves having a nice lawn. A pleasant little stretch of green grass with a garden and a few trees is always nice. But it’s never that easy down here in Florida. The brutal heat isn’t the only thing our lawn has to deal with down here either. No sir, the lawn pests in Florida are second to known and cause widespread damage every season. That’s why today we’ll talk about some Florida lawn pests that may eat your turf. Not only that, but we’ll touch on some other Brandon Lawn Care tips as well.
Brandon Lawn Care: What’s killing my lawn?
It really is a challenge to keep your lawn looking great in Florida. Your grass has to be tough enough to handle some intense weather. Every year there are more and more 100-degree days too. And not only that, they have to be basically floodproof as well. But if that wasn’t enough for you, the biggest problem may be the bugs!
Most owners in the state right now could probably go outside and find a suspect patch of dead grass. It’s important not to ignore these early warning signs. So to equip you in your fight to keep your lawn strong, let’s cover some of the pests that could be causing your grass to die off or get sick.
Chinch Bugs
The southern chinch bug is one of the most common pests you’ll find in Central Florida lawns. In fact, it’s one of the most populous bugs in the entire Southeastern U.S. These bugs are small, but punch way above their weight class when it comes to lawn damage.
Adult chinch bugs have black bodies, and they’re extremely small. Even fully grown they only measure roughly three-sixteenths of an inch in length. They can fly, and have white patches on their wings. Both mature and immature forms of this insect feed off of grass stems, which drains the sap and kills the plants at the ground level. These bugs tend to group or cluster up rather than spread themselves out across an entire lawn. But once they exhaust a food source, they migrate to another area of a lawn.
The first signs of a chinch bug infestation are dry, circular, dead patches of grass. Areas that are infected but not yet dead are yellowish-brown. They tend to happen at the edge of the lawn, or in areas that are water-stressed. These bugs prefer dry conditions and thrive in sun exposed areas. One little Florida lawn care tip for you is to keep your lawn well watered because these guys love dry areas!
Grubs
There are hundreds of species of grub worms found in the United States. And unfortunately for our lawns, many grub worms reside in Florida as well. And if you wanna talk about Brandon lawn care, you have to talk about these guys. They just do too much damage every year to be ignored. Grub worms are actually the larval form of beetles. Most of the grub worms found in Florida lawns are immature Scarab beetles. But there are also May beetles, a.k.a. June Bugs. Not only that but Japanese and Green June beetles can also damage your lawn with their larvae.
Beetle larvae are most commonly referred to as white grub worms. That’s because of their light color and wormy, C-shaped bodies. All grub worms have three pairs of legs, which let them walk around and burrow rather than crawl. They range about three-fourths of an inch to two inches in length and are on average about an inch around.
Grub worm feeding activity is a quick killer for plants. You’ll damage done by grubs appear as dying patches on the surface of the lawn. Summer is the prime season for grub worms, and is when most lawns are established. Grub worms that hatch in the fall burrow down into the roots as deep as five feet to eat up those plants.
Florida Lawn Care: The Mole crickets
The mole cricket is one of the most visually distinct lawn pests of Florida. There are three subspecies of them in the sunshine state, and none of them are native to America. This invasive pest arrived sometime in the late 1800s. Since then they’ve established themselves in the state, especially in central Florida where they do extensive lawn damage every year.
Mole crickets are about an inch in a half in length. They have wings, light brown bodies, and elongated forelegs that are used for burrowing through the soil, similar to a mole. All mole cricket species thrive both above and below ground. Mole cricket damage manifests as dead and dying grass, as well as mounds of dirt and soil that they leave at the entrance to their tunnels. Mole cricket tunneling is what causes the worst of the damage. This activity forms a patchwork grid that loosens the soil and causes erosion problems.
Brandon Lawn Care: Basic Tips
Now, it may seem like there’s no hope for Florida lawns. But that’s not the case. Even if you get an infestation, you can contact us for some help to get some natural pest control done on your lawn. But on top of that, pests tend to target sick and dying turfs before anything else. So let’s go over some basic care tips to keep your lawn healthy.
What I always start with is warning people about fertilizers. You have to be prudent when you use those, as too much nitrogen from over-fertilization will attract pests. Also, don’t overwater your lawn. Especially during the rainy months. Excess water on turf grass promotes turf disease and insect attack. If you’re not sure your lawn needs water, look at the blades. When your lawn is thirsty, the blades of grass will fold in half in an attempt to conserve water. It’s recommended to water a lawn 2 to 3 times a week during the warmer months (when there isn’t rain) and every 10 to 14 days during the wintertime
And go easy on the mowing. You don’t need to slash your grass down to the roots every time. This is especially helpful as winter approaches. A healthy root zone will reduce the likelihood of winter damage to your turf grass.
