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Have You Seen Small, Tan Moths In Your Lawn?

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mowing lawn and moths emerging While mowing my lawn over the weekend, I began seeing the annual emergence of small, tannish moths flittering across the lawn in front of my mower. Depending on where you live, these moths become apparent from July through September. Their numbers can be impressive as they rise out of the lawn. This causes concern to homeowners as they worry about their lawns and the possible damage moths can do. To some savvy homeowners and experienced lawn care professionals, the shape and color of the moth resembles the more damaging sod Webworm Moth. The Webworm Moth’s larvae can cause significant damage to home lawns. Fortunately, Vagabond Sod Webworms don’t seriously damage home lawns.

vagabond sod webworm

Like many adult insects, the moths themselves do not cause any damage to the lawn. They may sip nectar from a flower or dew from a grass blade, but their sole purpose is to find a mate, procreate, lay eggs and die. Like their counterparts, the Vagabond Sod Webworm larvae do feed on grass blades, but they do so at a time when the grass is growing rapidly, so the damage is barely noticed. Most insect females lay their eggs in a cluster, but the female Vagabond female drops her eggs bomb-like, as she flies across the lawn at dusk. Many of these eggs are eaten by other insects that are foraging in the lawn.

There is only one generation of Vagabond Sod Webworm per year. Their life-cycle includes:

  1. They hatch
  2. Feed throughout the fall
  3. Over winter in the larval stage
  4. Resume feeding in late winter to early spring
  5. Pupate into a cocoon
  6. Finally the cocoon will remain in the thatch until the following late summer to early fall. (The more damaging species of Sod Webworms can have two or more generations per year).
As was mentioned earlier, their feeding rarely causes any damage to the turf. Until I learned of the existence of this insect, I always thought that I had found early Sod Webworm when I was inspecting lawns in February and March. Now I know that what I had discovered was the over-wintering Vagabond Sod Webworm. If you have a pest that you need controlled contact your local Spring-Green.