Lawn & Landscape Pest Control

The brown patch in the yard starts small and spreads by the week, and every homeowner has a theory about it — bad seed, too much sun, not enough water. Sometimes the answer is one of those. Often it is something living under the grass, and it is eating the roots. Lawn pests are the quiet destroyers of turf: the damage is above ground, but the cause is below it.

Lawn pest control is about identifying what is actually in the turf before treating it, because the treatments do not overlap. Grub control kills the white C-shaped larvae feeding on roots. Chinch bug treatments target the sap-sucking insects in the thatch. Fire ant control works on the mounds. Spray the wrong thing and the lawn keeps dying while you wonder why.

Signs of lawn pest damage

• Irregular brown patches that keep spreading, often in sunny spots — the classic signature of grubs and chinch bugs.
• Grass that pulls up like carpet with the roots eaten away, revealing grubs underneath.
• Spongy, wilted-looking turf that does not recover with watering.
• Fire ant mounds in lawns, beds, and along driveways — sometimes dozens at once.
• Birds and skunks digging in the lawn — they are feeding on the grubs, and they are usually the first ones to find them.

If the lawn is dying in patches and water does not fix it, it is time to look at what is under the surface.

The pests that damage lawns

• White grubs — the larvae of Japanese beetles, June beetles, and chafers. They feed on grass roots from late summer through fall, and heavy populations can destroy large sections of turf in weeks.
• Chinch bugs — tiny black-and-white bugs that suck sap from grass blades, injecting a toxin that turns the grass brown. They are worst in hot, dry summers and prefer sunny, well-drained lawns.
• Fire ants (Solenopsis invicta) — build mounds in sunny turf and deliver painful stings. A single yard can host multiple colonies, and the mounds damage mowers and make the lawn unusable.
• Moles — not a pest of the grass itself but of the grubs in it; their tunnels collapse and brown the lawn, and treating the grub population is part of the fix.
• Sod webworms and billbugs — less common but present in many regions, and part of a full turf inspection.

Each pest has a specific season and treatment window, which is why the inspection identifies the pest before the plan is built.

How professional lawn pest control works

1. Inspect. The technician identifies the pest, the extent of the damage, and the conditions favoring it — thatch depth, drainage, sun exposure, and soil moisture.
2. Treat. The right product is applied at the right life stage: grub control when larvae are feeding near the surface, chinch treatments at the first sign of damage, and fire ant mound treatments plus a broadcast application for the colonies you cannot see.
3. Advise. You get the care routine that helps the lawn recover — watering schedules, mowing height, and aeration — because the treatment kills the pest and the turf care repairs the damage.
4. Prevent. Seasonal programs time each treatment to the pest calendar in your region, catching populations before the damage shows.

Lawn pest treatment at a glance

DIY vs. professional lawn pest control

Granular grub killer from the hardware store is cheap, and it is also easy to misapply — the timing, the water-in, and the coverage all matter, and applying it in the wrong window is money on dead grass. Fire ant products are effective but the mounds are only part of the colony, and chinch bugs are frequently misdiagnosed as drought.

Professional lawn pest control works because the inspection identifies the pest, the treatment matches the life stage, and the application covers the whole turf — including the colonies you cannot see.

Keeping your lawn pest-free

• Mow at the right height for your grass type and keep the thatch under half an inch — thick thatch shelters chinch bugs.
• Water deeply and less often, early in the day, to avoid the conditions that stress turf and attract pests.
• Aerate compacted soil so roots grow deep and grub damage has less impact.
• Treat fire ant mounds as soon as they appear and never disturb them.
• Follow a seasonal turf calendar — the prevention visit in spring is the one that saves the lawn in August.

If your lawn has brown patches that will not recover, grass that lifts like carpet, or fire ant mounds in the turf, start with a free inspection. A licensed technician will identify what is in your lawn, tell you whether it is worth treating or just a watering problem, and quote the treatment honestly — before you spend another season guessing.