Turfgrass Insect Library

A devastating pest of annual bluegrass on golf courses, with larvae feeding in stems and crowns.

Social insects that nest in turf; mounding disrupts the surface and can bury/desiccate turf, while imported fire ants also sting people.

Caterpillars that chew foliage, sometimes overnight, leaving notched leaves and circular dead spots.

A microscopic eriophyid mite that causes tufted, witches-broom growth on bermudagrass.

Weevils whose larvae bore in stems then feed on crowns/roots, causing drought-like dead patches.

A small scarab whose grubs damage golf course fairways, tees, and greens; overwinters as an adult and feeds earlier than other white grubs.

Sap-feeding bugs that inject toxins, causing expanding patches of yellow then dead turf in sunny, dry areas.

A large solitary digging wasp whose burrowing females push up soil mounds in thin, sandy, sunny turf.

Soil-dwelling earthworms are beneficial below ground but deposit muddy surface mounds (casts) that disrupt closely mown, high-value turf.

Larvae (leatherjackets) feed on roots and crowns, thinning turf in cool, wet regions.

A sap-feeding aphid that injects toxins, causing burnt-orange patches especially in shade.

Tiny root-feeding scale insects of warm-season turf (especially centipedegrass); nymphs encase themselves in pearl-like cysts and are very hard to control.

A metallic-green scarab whose adults skeletonize foliage and whose root-feeding larvae are turf-damaging white grubs.

Small piercing-sucking insects that remove plant sap; usually minor but heavy populations whiten and thin turf, especially new seedings.

Burrowing crickets that tunnel through the root zone, uprooting turf and creating spongy soil.

Large insects whose nymphs feed on tree roots for 13–17 years; emergence holes can riddle turf, especially under trees.

Sap-feeding scale insects and mealybugs of warm-season turf; the rhodesgrass mealybug can wither and kill bermudagrass and St. Augustinegrass.

Larvae of small lawn moths that chew leaves at night, creating ragged brown patches.

Sap-feeders whose nymphs hide in frothy spittle; heavy feeding yellows centipede and bermudagrass.

Root-feeding scarab larvae that cause wilting and patches of turf that pull up like carpet.

Hard, cylindrical, wire-like larvae of click beetles that chew turfgrass roots; damage is usually minor unless populations are large.