MOLE CRICKETS

PROBLEM:  Small mounds of soil are scattered on the soil surface.  The lawn feels spongy underfoot.  Large areas of grass turn brown and die.  To determine if the lawn is infested with mole crickets, make a solution of 1 ounce of liquid dishwashing detergent in 2 gallons of water.  With the mixture, drench 4 square feet of turf.  If present, mole crickets – greenish gray to brown insects, 1½ inches long, with short front legs and shovel like feet – will come to the surface within 3 minutes.

ANALYSIS:  Mole crickets (Scapteriscus species).  Several species of mole crickets attack lawns.  They prefer bahia and bermuda grass but also feed on St. Augustine, zoysia, and centipede grass.  They damage lawns by tunneling through the top 1 to 2 inches of soil, loosening it and uprooting plants and causing them to dry out.  They feed also on grass roots, weakening the plants.  Mole crickets feed at night and may tunnel as far as 10 to 20 feet before the sun rises.  In the daytime, they return to their underground burrows.  Adults migrate from their burrows to new areas twice a year; in the spring from March to July and again from November to December.