Turf Pests
Grubs, armyworms, sod webworms, and other insects that damage lawns in Middle Tennessee. Browse 16 entries in our identification guide.
Japanese Beetle
Popillia japonica
<p>Japanese beetles (Popillia japonica) are more of an ornamental plant pest than a turfgrass pest in their adult form, the iridescent green-and-coppe...
White Grubs
Scarabaeidae larvae
<p>White grubs are the larval stage of various scarab beetles, including Japanese beetles, June bugs, masked chafers, and others, and they feed on gra...
Masked Chafer
Cyclocephala spp.
<p>Masked chafers (Cyclocephala spp.) are native scarab beetles whose larvae are among the most common white grubs damaging turfgrass roots in Middle ...
European Chafer
Amphimallon majale
<p>The European Chafer (Amphimallon majale) is an introduced scarab beetle that has expanded steadily across the eastern United States since its accid...
Asiatic Garden Beetle
Maladera castanea
<p>The Asiatic Garden Beetle (Maladera castanea) is a small, chestnut-brown scarab introduced from Japan and China that arrived in the northeastern Un...
Black Turfgrass Ataenius
Ataenius spretulus
<p>Black Turfgrass Ataenius (Ataenius spretulus) is one of the smallest turfgrass-damaging scarab beetles in North America, adults are only about thre...
Fall Armyworm
Spodoptera frugiperda
<p>Fall armyworms (Spodoptera frugiperda) do not overwinter in Tennessee. Every year, moths migrate north from Florida, and in some years, roughly eve...
Japanese beetle larvae
Popillia japonica
<p>In the Middle Tennessee landscape, Japanese Beetle Larvae, the common 'white grub', are an inevitable reality. If you live in Columbia, Spring Hill...
June bug larvae
Phyllophaga spp.
<p>June bugs, the genus Phyllophaga, with dozens of species in Tennessee, are the large, clumsy brown beetles that smack into porch lights and windows...
Sod Webworm
Crambus spp.
<p>Sod webworms are the larval stage of small lawn moths, the ones you see fluttering up from the grass when you walk across your lawn at dusk. The la...
Hairy chinch bug
Blissus leucopterus
<p>The Hairy Chinch Bug (Blissus leucopterus) is a small, sucking insect that feeds on turfgrass by inserting its piercing mouthparts into the leaf sh...
Billbug
Sphenophorus parvulus
<p>The Bluegrass Billbug (Sphenophorus parvulus) is a snout beetle that acts more like a stealth assassin than a typical turf pest. While most homeown...
Southern mole cricket
Scapteriscus borellii
<p>The Southern Mole Cricket (Scapteriscus borellii) is an introduced pest from South America that has been established in coastal and southeastern st...
Black cutworm
Agrotis ipsilon
<p>The Black Cutworm (Agrotis ipsilon) is a moth larva, not a true grub, whose caterpillars feed on turfgrass shoots at or just below the soil surface...
Crane fly larvae
Tipula spp.
<p>Crane flies are large, long-legged flies that look like outsized mosquitoes, adults have a wingspan of an inch or more, thread-thin legs, and a hab...
Bermudagrass mite
Eriophyes cynodoniensis
<p>The Bermudagrass Mite (Eriophyes cynodoniensis) is a microscopic eriophyid mite, so small it cannot be seen with the naked eye, that lives and feed...
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