Don’t Let Tropical Sod Webworm Eat Through Your AL Lawn

 

It’s that time of year again when tropical sod webworms start showing up in southern AL yards. You don’t have to let your lawn grass succumb to these pests.

What are Tropical Sod Webworms?

At first, you may notice tropical sod moths. These moths are yellow with dark stripes on their wings. You’ll see them in the early morning hours or at night flitting around outdoor lighting.

Female tropical sod moths will lay their eggs right on top of grass blades. Then, the eggs hatch and the tropical sod webworms start eating ferociously on your turfgrass.

You’ll know that the tropical webworm eggs have hatched. You’ll wake up one morning and notice huge swaths of turfgrass is now tan or brown. It will seem that sod webworms ate your lawn overnight.

Tropical sod webworms can eat up to 1,000 square feet of turfgrass. They eat through warm season grasses, such as

• Bermuda grass
• Zoysia grass
• Centipede grass
• Augustine grass.

Tropical sod webworms are similar to armyworms. But you can tell if you have sod webworms from their silky webs on your lawn in the morning, or birds are eating at one spot in your yard.

You can tell if it’s sod webworms or armyworms doing the damage. Sod webworms feast at night, and armyworms eat during the day.

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Killing Off Tropical Sod Webworms from Your AL Lawn

Pest control for tropical sod webworm moths and eggs are ineffective. However, there are pest controls that will kill tropical sod webworms in the larval stage.

Effective tropical sod webworm pest control contains one of these active ingredients:

• Bifenthrin
• Carbaryl
• Chlorantraniliprole
• Halofenozide
• Permethrin

Getting Your Lawn Back in Shape

If webworms massacred your AL lawn, you need a lawn care company to repair it for you. Your lawn care technician will apply the right type of fertilizer to your lawn, so it recovers.

However, if you think you can run out to your favorite home and garden center to pick up a bag of lawn fertilizer, be careful!

Your lawn care professional carries commercial-brand fertilizer that contains the right ratios of potassium and phosphorous.

In late summer and early fall, you don’t want to add more nitrogen to your yard. Nitrogen mixed with heat, humidity and rain raises the risk of brown patch and other diseases affecting your lawn.

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You can help your lawn recover by only watering it once or twice a week with an inch or two of water. If it rains, that amount goes toward your yard’s weekly water allotment.

Also, you should raise your mower height to only take the top third off of your yard grass.

If you’re still scalping your lawn every week, stop it. Scalping weakens your turfgrass, opening up to insect damage and disease.

How Xtreme Turf Lawn Care Stops Sod Webworms from Eating Your Lawn

Xtreme Turf Lawn Care can rid your lawn of tropical sod webworms for good. We’re OTPS certified (Ornamental & Turf Pest Supervisor) to treat your lawn for tropical sod webworms as well as other lawn pests.

We have proven results with our pest control services. We’re a full-service lawn care company.

After we get rid of tropical sod webworms, we’ll apply fertilizer to your turfgrass that contains only phosphorous and potassium with no nitrogen to encourage turf recovery.

If you think you have tropical sod webworms eating their way through your lawn, call us today at 251-648-9947 or fill out our contact form.

Xtreme Turf Lawn Care serves homeowners in Daphne, Fairhope, Foley, Gulf Shore, Loxley, Mobile, Saraland, and Spanish Fort, AL.

Sources:

Fontenot, Keith, “Worm Invasion Devouring Lawns.”

Gill, Dan, “How to Treat Sod Webworm Damage in a Lawn.”