There are so many great things about summer, but it’s also prime insect season. Oftentimes, common summer insects will continue to cause problems into the fall months. While flying insects can be a nuisance for your outdoor enjoyment, it’s important to pay special attention to the insects you oftentimes can’t see; they can cause problems for your lawn and headaches for you.

Lawn Insect Identifier Tool

With warm temperatures and blooming flowers comes pesky insects. Some of them even have the potential to ruin your beloved turfgrass. It can be difficult to come up with an effective prevention and treatment plan if you don’t know which insect you need to control. Use our Lawn Insect Identification Tool to identify which kind of insect you may be dealing with and get recommended solutions. Start by answering the questions below. The Lawn Insect Identifier Tool does not serve as a professional diagnosis. It is used to make recommendations and provide general identification tips. Please collect and submit a sample to your local extension office for professional diagnosis.

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Mole Crickets Question

Do you notice small, finger-sized mounds or tunnels in your lawn? Do you notice little holes at the surface of your soil?*

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Grub Worms Question

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Billbugs Question

Do you notice punctured holes in the leaf blades of your grass? Does your grass look brown or like it's been damaged by drought?*

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Spittlebugs Question

Are there small little spots of a white frothy substance in your lawn? Do you notice insects hopping through the lawn when you walk through it?*

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Sod Webworms & Fall Armyworms Question

Do the grass blades in certain areas look skeletonized, leaving a windowpane-looking appearance in the grass blades? Have you noticed caterpillars in your lawn?*

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Fall Armyworms Question

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Sod Webworms Question

Do you see any caterpillars that look like this?

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Chinch Bugs Question

Did the damage in your grass start as irregular shaped yellow spots that continued to expand? Does it look similar to drought damage?*

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You may have grub worms, also known as white grubs.

Grub worms are the larvae of Japanese beetles, June beetles and other scarab beetle species that feed on the leaves of plants. As grubs, they devour the roots of your grass. Overtime, they can cause significant damage. Read product labels thoroughly before making applications to your lawn and garden.

Suggested Article(s):

Grub Worm Control
5 Tips for Controlling Japanese Beetles

Suggested Products:

Scotts GrubEx
Dylox 6.2

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You may have mole crickets.

Mole crickets are a common turfgrass pest that cause significant damage to home and commercial lawns by feeding mainly on turfgrass roots and shoots and by tunneling just beneath the soil’s surface of your lawn. They all share similar and distinct large, front claws that are used for digging. Read product labels thoroughly before making applications to your lawn and garden.

Suggested Article(s):

What is a Mole Cricket and How to Control Them

Suggested Products:

Merit 0.5 G
Bifen XTS

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You may have billbugs.

You may have bluegrass or hunting billbugs. Bluegrass billbugs, as their name suggests, feed on bluegrass and other cool season grasses like fescues. Hunting billbugs enjoy zoysia, bermuda grass, bahia grass and centipede grass. Read product labels thoroughly before making applications to your lawn and garden.

Suggested Article(s):

What is a Billbug and How to Control Them

Suggested Products:

Merit 0.5 G
Bifen XTS

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You may have spittlebugs.

You may have spittlebugs, often referred to as froghoppers. Although they typically prefer centipede grass over any other grass type, they can still be found in other grasses. Their nymphs form spittle as a protective layer from predators. As adults, they leave the spittle and hop around in the grass. Read product labels thoroughly before making applications to your lawn and garden.

Suggested Article(s):

What is a Spittlebug and How to Control Them

Suggested Products:

Spectracide Triazicide
Bifen XTS

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You may have chinch bugs.

Chinch bugs are little tiny black insects commonly found in lawns and gardens throughout North America. There are several different types of chinch bugs including the common chinch bug, the hairy chinch bug, the southern chinch bug and the western chinch bug. Chinch bugs can be spotted in other grass types like centipede grass, but they tend to love St. Augustine grass the most. Read product labels thoroughly before making applications to your lawn and garden.

Suggested Article(s):

How to Manage a Chinch Bug Infestation

Suggested Products:

Bifen L/P
Bifen XTS

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You may have sod webworms.

The sod webworm, sometimes called the tropical sod webworm is a lawn caterpillar that will invade your lawn usually around the months of May–July and will reappear in the fall. These are not to be confused with the fall armyworm or black cutworm. Full grown caterpillars are 3/4 to an inch in length and have four parallel rows of dark spots along their abdomen. They are solitary and move around individually. Read product labels thoroughly before making applications to your lawn and garden.

Suggested Article(s):

Sod Webworms in Home Lawns

Suggested Products:

Dylox 6.2
Bifen XTS

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You may have fall armyworms

The fall armyworm got its name by traveling in small “armies” and eating everything in its path. They are either green or a muddy brown with a wide, horizontal black stripe running down each of their sides. They are around 1–1.5 inches in length and have a lightly colored upside-down “Y” that marks the head of the worm. Read product labels thoroughly before making applications to your lawn and garden.

Suggested Article(s):

Invasion of the Fall Armyworms

Suggested Products:

Spectracide Triazicide
Bifen L/P

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If you chose "No" to all:

If you chose ‘No’ to all questions and no results were provided, please refer to our Insect Identification Guide.

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Clemson University entomologist, Dr. J.C. Chong, is an expert when it comes to understanding every nuance and characteristic of the creatures that crawl in and under lawns. He and his team spend hours evaluating each homeowner’s turfgrass at Clemson University’s Plant and Pest Diagnostic Clinic in order to determine if damage to the lawn was caused by an insect and if so, what kind.

Armed with information, a proper plan for repair can be put into effect. As Dr. Chong will tell you, prevention is the best way to stop damaging insects before they get a foothold.

There are both beneficial and destructive insects present in every lawn. Identifying insects correctly is the key to stopping a problem in your lawn before it begins as it will help you come up with an effective prevention and control strategy.

• Chinch Bugs
• Sod Webworms
• Fall Armyworms
• White Grubs
• Hunting Billbugs
• Spittlebugs
• Mole Crickets

Chinch Bugs

The chinch bug is a pervasive pest found throughout lawns in the southern part of the United States. This insect has a favorite food, St. Augustine grass, which is why chinch bugs are very common in Florida and Texas.

St. Augustine grass is one of the most widely used turfgrasses in Florida and Texas along with other southern regions of the United States.

Chinch bugs are tiny and are oftentimes not seen while damage is being done to the lawn. They like to hang around the soil level in the thatch of the grass.

Chinch bug damage looks similar to drought damage, so it can be difficult to diagnose a chinch bug problem. Chinch bugs in the adult form are about the size of the head of a pen, making them difficult to spot.

Check the edges of your lawn near sidewalks and driveways to see if any are present or conduct a float test. Check out the below insecticide products that are labeled to treat chinch bugs. 

Read the product labels for a full set of application instructions and check out How to Manage a Chinch Bug Infestation for more information.

Sod Webworms

Tropical sod webworms are a type of lawn caterpillar that are most common in the late summer and fall. The adult form is a small, lawn moth that is tan in color measuring in at about ¾ to an inch in size. It lays eggs on the blades and in the thatch of grass. Within about a week, small caterpillars hatch and begin to feed on the blades of turfgrass.

The damage looks like transparent grass blades as they “skelentonize” grass. Check out the below insecticide products that are labeled to treat sod webworms. 

Read the product labels for a full set of application instructions. Be sure to also take a look at the Sod Webworms in Home Lawns article for more information.

Fall Armyworms

The fall armyworm is a larger lawn caterpillar than the tropical sod webworm and outbreaks are common in the United States in the late summer to early fall timeframe. Fall armyworms are the larval stage of the fall armyworm moth, which has a wingspan of 30–40 mm.

Armyworms in the larval (caterpillar) stage have an inverted “Y” shape on their heads and feed on the blades of grass. They are also in the range of 30–40 mm long.

Fall armyworm damage includes small, brown areas of damage throughout the lawn and “skeletonizing” of the grass blades to create a transparent look in the grass. Check out the below insecticide products that are labeled to treat armyworms. 

Read the product labels for a full set of application instructions and refer to Invasion of the Fall Armyworms for more information.

White Grubs

White grubs, also referred to as grub worms, are the larval stage of a number of different types of scarab beetles like the Japanese beetle, European chafer, masked chafers, June beetles or May beetles.

While adults don’t bother turfgrass much, the damage to lawns comes while in the larvae form underground. White grubs feed on the roots of the grass. While most common from the spring to fall months, the worst lawn damage usually shows in late summer and early fall.

Check out the below insecticide products that are labeled to treat white grubs. 

Read the product labels for a full set of application instructions and read What is a Grub Worm and How to Control Them for more information.

Hunting Billbugs

The hunting billbug is a type of weevil with a long, crooked snout. Often noticeable on the blades of grass or on sidewalks near a lawn, hunting billbugs are especially fond of zoysia and bermuda grass lawns.

Billbugs feed on the blades, often leaving in their paths patches of browning and dying grass.

Read more about billbugs in What is a Billbug and How to Control Them and check out the below insecticide products that are labeled to treat them. Refer to the product labels for a full set of application instructions.

Spittlebugs

Found predominantly in centipedegrass, spittlebugs are small, winged insects that are black or dark brown with a bright red abdomen when their wings are lifted and two obvious red stripes across their backs. The spittlebug nymph hatches and begins sucking the juices out of the grass.

Telltale signs are a frothy substance down in the thatch level that the bugs typically live in, or a purple or white stripe running along the grass blade. Walking through a lawn infected with spittlebug adults is quite obvious as the bugs will fly to another section of the lawn as you walk through the area.

Check out the below insecticide products that are labeled to treat spittlebugs or learn more here. Be sure to read the product labels for a full set of application instructions.

Mole Crickets

Mole crickets are found throughout the southern United States and are not hard to see if they happen to be above the surface of the soil. Measuring over an inch in length, mole crickets are distinct from other cricket types as they live underground most of the time and use their “hands” to dig through the soil. This digging leaves small, raised areas in the landscape.

The damage from mole crickets comes from severing grass roots as they tunnel underground. Check out the below insecticide products that are labeled to control and prevent mole crickets. Read the product labels for a full set of application instructions. Be sure to also take a look at the What is a Mole Cricket and How to Control Them article for more information.

Insects can be difficult to find unless you know exactly what you are looking for.  So, if you suspect there might be an insect invasion in your lawn, one simple way to find out is to use a soap flush.

Mix four to five tablespoons of dish detergent with two gallons of water and then pour on a four to six sq. ft. area of the lawn. Insects will come to the surface over the course of the next five minutes. If you see them in large numbers, you need to treat them with an insecticide.