In Florida community association common areas and lawns, Chinch bugs are particularly active spring and summer (March through October) . If you find dry spots, starting in March and April, and you know that either you’ve had plenty of rain and your sprinkler system has full coverage, “check for Chinch”. More than one treatment is required to bring them into “submission”. A kind way of saying – killing those buggers who destroyed spots of my grass I worked so hard to make beautifully green and plush this year. The majority opinion is they kill grass by “sucking out the juices” of the stems of St. Augustine grass. They do not like Bahia grasses.
If your condominium association or HOA is professionally managed, report these dry looking areas to them. If you are a DIY community association, call your pest control company or your lawn professional, they should appreciate your input. It is difficult to find dedicated professionals that will be watching for this Chinch bug issue. It can easily be disguised as an area where your sprinklers do not reach. The Chinch bug population explosion season coincides with increasing daytime temperatures and lack of rain. The perfect combination of trying to tell which is which, dry areas or Chinch bugs. To further the difficulty, Chinch bugs like it dry and avoid wet areas. To tell the difference, look for the Chinch in these dry areas. To find the bugs, get on your hands and knees, and spread apart the grass leaves down to the thatch on the edges of the dry spots and watch for tiny beetles scurrying to hide among the brown decaying leaves. I usually pinch a “batch of thatch”, sprinkle it on my open hand, and watch for them scurrying to get off my hand. If you can see them easily scurrying, you have grass destroying populations. If you have to dig deep in the grass or thatch, and squint to find one or two, your populations will be easy to control. Just remember, they have built up resistance to chemicals. It’s like a star running back on a football team, the defense cannot stop him, they can only try to control him. Say what you want, but you won’t kill them all, and they will be back next year, usually in the same locations.
You can treat with Scott’s, and the active ingredient there is Bifenthrin. Bayer has a granular also, the active ingredient is Cyfluthrin. You can buy both of these at the local hardware, such as Lowe’s or Home Depot. Licensed pest control companies use Talstar, Bifenthrin. The success of treatments depend on conditions. Make sure you put down enough product, read the labels. Follow with rain or sprinkler, but too much rain will wash it right past the leaf and root zone in our sandy central Florida soil. Insecticides will kill most nymphs and adults, but not the eggs. They procreate many generations in a summer, and the life cycle will continue producing destroying populations unless treated often enough.
Expect to have to retreat. Inspect after a couple of days to see the degree of kill you achieved. If you have a professional company, don’t settle for treatments every other month according to a preset schedule. Check for populations yourself, identify areas of infestation, and meet with the spray company technician to show him the areas of concern. They should be obvious because of the dying grass areas. Retreatments may be required week after week if necessary, until the populations are under control. For the popular central Florida St. Augustine grass, Chinch bugs, summer fungus, and grubs are the problems to stay on top of, if you want a nice, healthy lawn.
