Southern Pest Spotlight: Chinch Bugs

Have you noticed large areas of yellowing and dying grass in your lawn? Do the areas seem to be spreading and getting larger? Your lawn may be suffering from brown patch, but chinch bugs may also be the culprit. Chinch bugs are most damaging to St. Augustine grass, but can be found in other types of lawns. Our early, record breaking, rain lacking heat wave is the perfect breeding ground for all kinds of pests, especially the chinch bugs. Here's a little about chinch bugs:

Chinch bugs overwinter as adults in various protected areas, particularly among weeds and grasses near fields. Adults emerge in the spring and deposit eggs singly behind the leaf sheath or in the soil at the base of the small grain crop plant. In a few days, the eggs hatch and the nymphs begin feeding on all parts of the host plant from the roots to the uppermost leaves. The nymphs undergo six developmental stages, the last being the adult stage. Two to three generations occur per year, the later generations migrating to corn and sorghum when small grain crops become dry.

The chinch bug pierces the plant with its moth parts and sucks out the plant sap. This feeding prevents normal growth and results in dwarfing, lodging, and yield reduction. Severe infestations during early development may cause plants to wilt and die prematurely. Most injury is caused by the six nymphal instars.

- Oklahoma State University

According to The Texas Ag Extension Office the symptoms of chinch bug damage differ from brown patch symptoms which usually occur in a circular or semi-circular pattern. Chinch bug feeding causes irregular-shaped areas of dead and dying grass. Chinch bug damage also can be difficult to distinguish from that caused by drought. Detection of significant numbers of the insects themselves is the best proof that chinch bugs are the cause of the damage. The Natural Gardener is happy to take plugs of soil dug from your yard to ID with their fancy microscope. They recommend digging a square foot or so of soil from the border of one of the patches: include soil from the dying and the healthy areas of your yard. But once you ID the nasty little buggers - what is there to do about it?

Controlling chinch bugs starts with prevention. Aerate your lawn regularly and don't allow a thick bed of thatch to build up, providing perfect habitat for the eggs and adult bugs alike. Mowing properly helps to reduce thatch as well - by 'mowing high' or only cutting off 40% at most of the grass blades, you'll be placing less green matter back on the lawn to turn into thick thatch. Mulching mowers are also a fantastic option. Don't over fertilize your lawn. Over-application of fertilizer also contributes to thatch formation and makes lawns more attractive as a food source for chinch bugs. Chinch bugs thrive in heat stressed lawns, so remember to water your lawn appropriately and consider top dressing with compost in the early spring to help with water management and overall health.

If you can't prevent chinch bugs, you'll have to control them. There are natural and organic methods including promoting diverse and organic habitat for beneficial insects including big eye bugs, assassin bugs and ants. Consider insecticides as a last resort, as they will devastate the populations of these beneficial insects.

For a very thorough explanation of chemical control of chinch bugs, please visit the Texas Agricultural Extension's page on the subject. Pesticides should never be used without taking safety precautions and being absolutely sure that the pest your treating is the pest that is damaging your lawn. Knowledge is power!



Have you seen chinch bug damage in you rlawn? What do you plan to do about it?

This post is also found at Yard Farm Austin.

The Eco-Friendly Backyard *Guest Post*

Most of my readers will already know all these basics, but it's a good reminder that 'the well manicured lawn' is just plain 'wrong.' I love planting vegetables in my 'lawn' area, but there are plenty of other options. Enjoy this guest post by Emma L., a science and technology writer who enjoys studying phlebotomy and dreams of joining the league of radiology technicians.

Theres no place near the normal American home that doesn't reek of conspicuous consumption, and the backyard is certainly no exception. As post-WWII suburbs sprawled across the nation, so did the idea that a happy home was one in which the front and back yards were covered in emerald green turf. Not only does keeping a carefully maintained lawn use up an incredible amount of water (and money!), it also keeps rainwater from making its way through the soil to groundwater and causes pesticides and fertilizers to flow into nearby streams and rivers. Here are a few tips to green up your backyard and save a little dough in the process.


1. Get Rid of the Lawn
What is the alternative to a cushiony green pillow extending from your doorstep to the curb? How about a garden of native shrubs, flowers, and trees? Itll need to be watered and troubled over much less than a lawn, will allow water to percolate through the soil, and it will attract native wildlife.


2. Collect Rainwater
Having the sprinklers or the hose running all the time zaps money from your pocket and uses up precious resources. Consider putting barrels in your yard or under your gutters to catch rainwater to use on your plants, instead.


3. Mulch Those Plants
Even if you get rid of your water-sucking exotic plants and make the switch to native species, you can still preserve energy by mulching around what you do have. Mulching keeps the sun from sucking up water out of the soil.


4. Compost
Composting is a low-cost way to generate nutritious soil for your garden and cut down on the amount of household waste you send to a landfill. A tumbler or regular barrel is a great way to start. Check out this Cornell site for the basics.


5. Use Earth Friendly Yard Products
Most people maintain their yards to actively enjoy them, by picnicking, letting their kids play outside, etc. But would you really want your kids playing on a lawn that had been cared for with toxic pesticides and fertilizers? Check out organic lawn care options that are safer and easier on mother nature.


6. Upgrade Your Mower
Some old gas lawnmowers emit an incredible amount of pollution. Switching to a push mower is best, as they use less energy than ride-alongs. If you can't stand the idea of pushing a mower across your lawn, an electric ride-along is your next best bet.



This eco-friendly "no mow" lawn made of native grasses and plants is more attractive than any suburban turf I've seen.

Practice What You Preach

I believe in a few things very strongly. I don't like discussing them much, debating, or arguing to convince others of my beliefs - but i do like to teach by example and practice what i preach. This blog is the largest 'voice' of my convictions, and i hope that the tips and suggestions i write here will inspire others to delve more deeply into a life of sustainability. I think i've shown how easy it is to incorporate simple things and practices into our lives  to become more responsible human-animals on this planet of limited resources.

One of the practices and tools that i feel good about is the way i approach the maintenance of my lawn. I see my lawn as a green (sometimes) space that fills the areas between my vegetable gardens, is a place for toads and anoles to nestle in,  puppies to pounce through, and is a luxury to be enjoyed, but not necessarily pampered. If there's a drought, my lawn dies. I don't irrigate it, and save any sprinkling or captured rain water for my food crops and occasional thirst quenching of the native perennial beds. I help to promote the green of the lawn by leaving the 'grass' as tall as i can stand in the Summer (which shades the roots and encourages water thrift), and by scattering winter rye in the fall for Winter green coverage. My front lawn is mostly native horseherb, a low growing weedy thing that is quite lovely with little yellow flowers on occasion. There is also evil bermuda grass that encroaches on all my beds, and a few spatterings of St. Augustine here and there. I let the rye grass seed and get tall and seedy and unruly in the Spring (much to my neighbors' chagrine i'm sure) so that it can reseed itself for the next Fall. We've been lucky to have a fairly wet spring and the lawn is still green. Once the heat turned up (it's been in the high 90s, low 100s for the last few weeks) i stopped mowing. It got a little insanely tall, but it was still green - with an unfortunate side affect of promoting mosquito life to propagate and consume me. The last week and nearby hurricane have brought quite a bit of rain, however: time to mow. Even the horseherb was mounding at its peak height. My itching ankles, and my very short puppy appreciate the reduced lawn matter. I leave the cuttings on the ground to help shade the roots now exposed to the hot Texas sun, and to replace the nutrients stored in the leaves back to the soil.

And when i say mow - i mean mow the old fashioned way. No gasoline is used. I am not addicted to oil (or try hard not to be - my car has been used more as a sun-drier than a transporter of late) and only my own energy is expended in the process. I have a used reel type mower that i got locally - it can't quite defeat the highest weeds or navigate tight corners, so for those areas i use a rechargeable battery powered weed eater.  We've had it almost two years and both batteries are still working great, and are recyclable when they do hit the dust.

 I enjoy getting out there and sweating all over the place: burning calories while beautifying my yard, feeding the soil, saving gasoline, promoting a healthy environment for native critters to thrive, and teaching by the example of my own actions.