Lawn Caterpillars: ENY-352/IN608, 4/2006

Abstract

Are lawn caterpillars doing your mowing for you? Young caterpillars, or larvae, injure turfgrass by chewing notches along the edge of the leaves. This creates a ragged appearance (Figure 1) that may be hard to notice at first. Mature caterpillars eat a lot before they pupate and consume patches of turfgrass down to the crown. Because the turf looks scalped so quickly, people think that the damage occurs “overnight.” Several caterpillar species can be turfgrass pests, including the tropical sod webworm, the fall armyworm, and the striped grass looper. This document is ENY-352 (IN608), one of a series of the Department of Entomology and Nematology, UF/IFAS Extension. Original publication date: April 2006.