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-copp...
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 g...
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 thr...
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 ev...
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 windo...
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 l...
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 surfa...
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 ha...
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 fe...
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