This week, a quick heads up on a pest rearing its ugly head in the lawn right now.
Q: I have a Bermuda grass lawn and I’ve got some brown patches starting to grow in it right now. It’s really sudden, too! In a week’s time, a large, damaged patch appeared. What’s going on?
A: As long as the lawn is properly being watered, the likeliest answer right now are armyworms.
Armyworms are a caterpillar-type pests that feed on a number of different crops, but they are perfectly happy to munch on healthy Bermuda grass. Look for small caterpillars munching on the grass blades, varying in size from as short as a quarter of an inch all the way to nearly an inch long. That latter stage doesn’t last long – each generation of armyworms feeds for roughly two weeks – but during the last four days of their feeding cycle, they’ll double in size and do most of the damage each generation will do.
It’s common for multiple generations of armyworms to do damage each late summer into the fall, so control this pest with one of several pesticides – Bonide Insect & Grub as a granular kill, Hi-Yield Bug Blaster (bifenthrin) or Eight (permethrin), or for organic maintenance programs, Captain Jack’s Deadbug Brew (spinosad). Keep up with treatment until you’re certain of control.
The good news is that Bermuda grass is vigorous, and the lawn should recover with treatment.