How to Identify and Diagnose Lawn Problems

Here are some common lawn and turfgrass pests and how to identify them:

Grubs

Grubs come out of winter hibernation and start to eat your lawn's roots. By late spring, grubs enter the pupa stage to transform into beetles. The adult beetles surface in summer to feed on your garden and lay eggs in your lawn. The eggs hatch into new grubs that will begin to feed on your lawn's roots.

There are few ways to detect grubs. First, look for signs such as skunks, raccoons, and birds digging up your yard to feast on mature grubs. Next, as grubs consume the grass roots, dead patches emerge, peeling away like loose carpet. Finally, even before these patches appear, you might sense a spongy feeling when walking on your lawn, similar to freshly laid sod, signaling potential grub damage to the roots.

The key to successful grub control is to apply treatment at the appropriate time based on the product label directions. Preventative grub control products like Scotts® GrubEx®₁ Season Long Grub Killer should be applied in spring through early summer before or just as the grubs hatch. Always follow label directions when applying any control product.

Lawn Moths and Sod Webworms

Sod webworms are the larvae of lawn moths. They live in the root level of your lawn and munch up the grass leaves. At the root level, you'll see small white tubes made of silky web. These pests can cause major lawn damage if their populations are high in a yard. When the weather turns hot, patches of your grass may start to turn brown. If you see little moths flying above your grass at dusk, and the brown patches start to get larger, you could have sod webworms. Look for saucer-sized brown patches where your lawn is driest. The centers of the patches may have been eaten away and replaced by weeds.

Early treatment is key. At the first sign of webworm damage, treat your lawn with Ortho® BugClear™ Insect Killer for Lawns & Landscapes Concentrate. It can be used in a tank sprayer or applied using an Ortho® Dial N' Spray Hose End Sprayer with your garden hose. It will start killing webworms, as well as other listed insects, within minutes. Ortho® BugClear™ Insect Killer for Lawns & Landscapes is also available in other easy to use forms like hose-end sprayers and granules so you can choose the option that best fits your needs.

Routine maintenance is also a must. Feeding your lawn with a product like Scotts® Turf Builder® Lawn Food provides the nutrients your grass needs to grow strong and protect itself from insect damage. Your lawn will begin to wilt when water is needed. As much as possible, take advantage of nature's sprinkler and rely on the rain to water your lawn. If using sprinklers, water lawns deeply and infrequently (1" of water per week is all that your lawn needs).

Mole Crickets

Mole crickets, like moles, have enlarged forelegs adapted for digging. Found throughout most of the United States, they cause the most damage to lawns in the southeast. Mole crickets can create several tunnels along the soil surface and deep underground. They feed on other insects and grass roots. On warm nights, some mole crickets can feed on plant stems and leaves at ground surface level. You may see small mounds of dirt scattered on the soil surface. Your lawn also may feel spongy when you walk on it due to the detachment of turf from the soil. Grass will eventually turn brown and die in areas where mole crickets have tunneled.

Mole crickets can be difficult to control because they stay in burrows deep below the soil surface during the day and only emerge at night. Treatments are most effective when they are applied in early summer or at the first sign of lawn damage. Mole crickets are most vulnerable when they are young (nymph stage). During this stage, they are smaller and closer to the soil surface.

To kill mole crickets in the lawn, make sure the soil is moist before application, this will encourage the mole crickets to come to the surface, then apply Ortho® BugClear™ Lawn Insect Killer1 or Ortho® Home Defense® Insect Killer for Lawn & Landscape, following the label directions.

If you are looking to feed your lawn and control insects at the same time, reach for Scotts® Turf Builder® SummerGuard® Lawn Food with Insect Control. This product builds strong and deep roots, creating drought tolerant grass that stays strong and lush, even in the harshest, driest conditions. It also includes an insecticide to control listed lawn pests.

While bugs may hide in the grass and below the surface, lawn diseases are easy to identify by the damage they do to your lawn. Checking your soil’s condition and paying attention to weather changes also helps when diagnosing lawn problems. The best defense against any type of lawn disease is to grow strong, healthy grass. Scotts® Turf Builder® Healthy Plus Lawn Food is a 2-in-1 fungicide and lawn fertilizer that prevents and controls 27 listed diseases. Here are some of those diseases, along with how to identify them: