Neighborhood Pest Control

Several kinds of lawn caterpillars including sod webworms, armyworms, and cutworms may cause damage to all grasses. The most common lawn caterpillar in our area is the sod webworm. The larvae are greenish with many black spots and between 1/2 to 3/4-inch in size. Adults are dingy brown moths with a wingspread of about 3/4-inch. Larvae feed on the grass blades and cause noticeable damage within 2 weeks. They complete their life cycle in 5-6 weeks and have several generations each year. Armyworms and cutworms larvae are brown to greenish in color and have stripes along their sides. Sod webworms are usually not present in sufficient numbers to damage grass before June in south Florida, July in central Florida, and August in north Florida.