Learn about fall armyworm treatment and how to deal with the damage these pests cause.
People are always yapping about needingsmaller lawns.
Now that can happen, and they won’t need to lift a finger.
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Fall armyworms are the larvae of a small, brownish-gray moth.
Learn how to spot armyworms and how to get rid of them if they invade your lawn.
How to Spot Armyworms
What do armyworms look like?
Fall armyworm. Yuck!.
You’ll never see them coming.
Female moths will lay up to 2,000 tiny eggs right on the grass blades.
The eggs hatch a few days later.
At first, the tiny caterpillars are green with a black head.
They grow to more than an inch long.
If you see this gobbling your grass, your lawn is in trouble.
People with heavily infested lawns report they can actually hear the munching.
These caterpillars are sneaky assassins, moving only at night and crawling into silk-lined burrows during the day.
You may first notice their presence as a brown patch of lawn that gets bigger every day.
In the South, it’s possible for you to get twice as many.
Twice the chance of having a bare dirt yard!
Let’s turn on the sprinkler and play in the mud right now!
Dethatching your lawn can also remove any inviting areas.
How to Attack Fall Armyworms
I have good news and bad news about armyworm damage.
If you have a zoysia grass lawn, you’re in the clear.
Fall armyworms don’t like zoysia.
The bad news is that they love Bermuda grass, St. Augustine, Kentucky bluegrass, and tall fescue.
The first twotypes of grassusually survive the onslaught and come back.
The latter two often die.
The key to defeating fall armyworms is spotting them early before they pull that last all-nighter on your lawn.
It won’t work on mature caterpillars, though.
This makes spraying the lawn quick and easy.
Granular lawn insecticides don’t work well.
Pests are a pain most gardeners must contend with.
Have you had to battle armyworms on your own turf?
Did you stash your lawn in the nick of time or was it a goner?
