Lawn Pest and Fire Ant Control in Tampa, FL

The grass most Tampa lawns are growing

Almost every residential lawn in Hillsborough County is St. Augustine, usually Floratam. It spreads by runners above the soil, it makes a thick mat, and it is the preferred food of the southern chinch bug. That pairing is the single biggest reason lawns here go brown in summer.

Bahia turns up on larger lots and rural edges, and it brings mole crickets with it. Zoysia appears on newer builds and handles chinch bugs better while being fussier about mowing height. Knowing which grass you have changes what we look for.

Reading the damage before treating

The mistake is treating the brown. Dead grass in the middle of a patch has nothing living in it. The insects are out at the margin, in the green grass that is about to turn, which is where we get on hands and knees and part the runners.

Chinch bugs cluster at the soil line in the sunniest, driest parts of the lawn, so damage starts along the driveway edge, the sidewalk strip, the south facing side of the house and anywhere reflected heat collects. Sod webworms leave chewed, notched blade edges and green pellets of frass down in the thatch. Mole crickets leave a spongy, tunnelled feel underfoot and small soil pushups. Grubs leave grass that lifts like a loose carpet because the roots are gone.

Fire ants on Tampa lots

Red imported fire ants take over disturbed ground fast, so the worst yards are the new subdivisions where sod went down last season, along Boyette Road and through the Riverview and Brandon growth areas. Mounds appear after rain, often overnight, and a single lawn can carry dozens.

Two approaches, used together. Broadcast bait goes across the whole lawn and gets carried underground by foragers, which reaches colonies you have not seen yet. Individual mound treatment handles the ones next to the play set or the front walk now. Bait works slowly and thoroughly. Mound drenches work fast and locally.

Watering, mowing and the things that undo a treatment

A granular product sitting on top of dry thatch does nothing. It has to be watered in to reach the soil line where chinch bugs and grubs live, so we tell you how much to run the irrigation and when.

Two habits cause most of the trouble we see. Cutting St. Augustine too short exposes the runners and stresses the grass into exactly the condition chinch bugs prefer, so three and a half to four inches is the target here. Watering a little every day keeps thatch permanently damp, which encourages fungus and webworms. A heavy soak two or three times a week, early in the morning, does more for the lawn than any product we can put on it.