spittlebugs out of control

green in atlanta – posted 01 September 2010 06:39

HELP. I have a lawn service, but I am not sure they are taking my spittle bug problem seriously enough. Can anyone advise me what my expectations should be or how I can treat the problem myself? My service treated for them once earlier in the summer, and I asked them at that time if they should do a follow-up application “just to be sure”. They explained that I should just call them back if I saw more bugs. Well, the bugs came back in much larger numbers than before, and have inflicted some real damage. Could this have been avoided if they had just done two applications at an appropriate interval in the first place? By the way, one reason the bugs got as far as they did this time is because I tried to self-treat with an off the shelf granular from HD or Lowes which was completely ineffective. That delayed my phone call to the “pros” by about two weeks.

ken4255 – posted 01 September 2010 07:32

I’m in Marietta, and I have a bunch of these things myself — they’re the black leaf hoppers with red stripes on the wings, right? My lawn services wanted $300 or so to treat for them (no thanks). I spread some spectracide pellets and they seemed to go away for a few weeks, but now they are back. I was getting ready to try a spectracide hose-end sprayer. I’d also be curious if anyone has ideas on this. I’m not sure how much damage they’ll do.

green in atlanta – posted 01 September 2010 08:19

quote:Originally posted by ken4255:I’m in Marietta, and I have a bunch of these things myself — they’re the black leaf hoppers with red stripes on the wings, right? My lawn services wanted $300 or so to treat for them (no thanks). I spread some spectracide pellets and they seemed to go away for a few weeks, but now they are back. I was getting ready to try a spectracide hose-end sprayer. I’d also be curious if anyone has ideas on this. I’m not sure how much damage they’ll do.

I don’t know how lethal they are , but certain areas are starting to look like hell. This happened to me last summer as well. I wasn’t sure whether my turf was dead or alive going into the cold season. Luckily it greened up nicely this past spring — albeit later than usual. The problem is, if you can’t get rid of these buggers, their eggs survive the winter, and they all hatch when the weather warms up the next year. That is obviously what happened to me. FWIW, my “professional” service charged my $48 for one application on my approx. 6,000 sq/ft lawn.

turfgrass – posted 01 September 2010 17:33

spittlebugs are a treat as needed pest.

so to answer your question…no, there was nothing your “pros” could have done any different.

use a pyrethroid like “bifenthrin”…it will blister them.