9 / 10
Mole Crickets
Most common in the southeastern U.S., mole crickets — aka cricket moles, lawn crickets or flying moles — belong to the family Gryllotalpidae, along with grasshoppers and normal crickets. Adults grow to between one and two inches long and have large, mole-like front claws used for tunneling through the soil beneath turfgrass. These particularly unattractive critters weaken and kill your lawn by feeding on grass roots and shoots. Their burrows also push the surface layer of the soil up in small ridges that can lead to dehydration of germinating seeds and turfgrass roots. Sod Solutions’ Drew Wagner suggests using nematodes or insecticides containing bifenthrin, carbaryl, imidacloprid, gramma cyhalothrin, deltamethrin or permethrin to rid your yard of these invaders.
10 / 10
Spittlebugs
These small, winged insects sport two distinctive orange-red stripes across their backs and get their name from the white, foamy spittle-like substance they leave in the thatch layer of your turfgrass. Each blob contains an immature nymph. Hatched nymphs feed on the grass, causing white and pinkish-purple streaks running the length of individual blades before entire patches eventually turn yellow and brown. You can tell you have an infestation by simply walking through or mowing your grass and watching to see if a cloud of spittlebugs flies to another undisturbed section of your lawn. Although spittlebugs attack all types of turfgrass, they are most common in centipedegrass. When you spot spittlebug foam on your lawn, try washing it off with a hose and repeating the process every few days. This is often enough to keep an infestation in check. Otherwise, pyrethroid, carbaryl and cyfluthrin are the main pesticides used to control spittlebugs.
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7p63MoqOyoJGjsbq5wKdlnKedZLmqv9Nop6unkqGyrnnLmq6nZaCawLW%2Fjg%3D%3D