Fall Armyworms!!!!

Over the last week we have noticed a large hatch of Armyworms!!!  How do we know we have an outbreak of Armyworms?   Because they are eating the grass!  Take a look at the picture below and you can see where the left side of the grass is brown, while the other half is green.

The brown grass on the left is infected with Armyworms, and they are literally "marching" their way across the green grass by eating all the green stuff they can see!!  This picture is of #7 Overlook, but we discovered Armyworms all across both golf courses. 

Take a look at the next picture to see how we identify where the worms are:

A "soapy flush" is used to push all the worms and insects to the top of the turf canopy.  Once we see signs in the turf that we may have an insect problem, we will do soapy flushes across the golf course to identify what areas we need to treat.  

If you look closely in the picture you can see 5 or 6 Armyworms.  This is what we look for after a soapy flush.  Once we saw all the worms in one small area, we confirmed we had a problem.  The good news is a light insecticide application will kill them on contact, and the grass will make a full recovery in a few weeks!  If you see your yard at home looking unusually brown or lacking color, do a soapy flush and see if you have Armyworms!!!