Conspiracy Theory of the Chinch Bug, St Augustine Grass and HOA

Not really into entomology (study of insects), that soon changes if you have a St. Augustine lawn and a Home Owners Association. According to Texas Agricultural Extension Service, the southern chinch bug is one of the most important insect pests (nuisance, pain, annoyance) of St. Augustine-grass in Texas, Florida and other Gulf Coast states. While primarily destructive in Gulf Coast regions and in the southern half of the state, chinch bugs can be a problem anywhere St. Augustine grass is grown. Even though the southern chinch bug is a severe pest only on St. Augustine grass lawns, it sporadically may feed on zoysia grass, centipede grass, bahia grass, or Bermuda grass.

Adult chinch bugs are dormant during the winter. Reproduction starts after the emergence of warm weather in the spring. With most favorable conditions, each female can dump up to 300 eggs, which hatch in about 2 weeks. The nymphal stage lasts about 30 days (less during hot weather), while the entire life cycle lasts 7 to 8 weeks. This rate of development permits time for three to five chinch bug generations annually. Nevertheless, as the season proceeds generations tend to overlap a great deal, with the result that all stages normally are found together. So as spring flowers appear, and bird sing – chinch bugs are waiting to eat your grass.

Chinch pests are a complex of three diverse species within the Lygaeidae family. They have piercing-sucking mouthparts and they nosh on the sap of grass vegetation. The little bugs exist in the thatch region of the turf grass stand, and have a preference to feed on the lower leaf sheath, and crown area of the plant. Thatch is a layer of accumulated dead plant roots, stems, rhizomes, and stolons between the live plant and the soil. The chinch bugs are a chief insect pest on home lawns throughout the country.  So is there no grass that the chinch pests will not eat? Is the Home Owners Association partnered with the chinch bug by requiring the St. Augustine grass in virtually every housing subdivision? Chinch pests damage grass in open, sunny areas. The bugs literally suck the juice from the plant and inject a chemical that clogs the plant’s vascular system.

St. Augustine lawns are found in many areas of the Southeastern United States. It’s a warm season, perennial grass. It’s a native grass of topical origin that extends from water marshes, lagoons and sandy beach ridges. St. Augustine grass does well with lots and lots of water – but it’s widely used in states like Florida that are under water restrictions in the summer. Once the grass dies the lawn has to be replaced with plugs, sprigs and/or sod. Years of trying to produce viable seeds for large commercial use have failed. To replace the damaged lawn takes $$$ to $$$$.

So every summer the grass/lawn subcommittee of the Home Owners Association patrols the neighborhoods (we pay dues for this). They look to see how many home owners are shaking their heads, and pointing to the ever spreading brown areas on the lawn. They take note of how many deliveries of sod are made. They watch to see if husbands are burying their tear stained faces in the lawn, as wives stand with hands on hips screaming, “Do something – I’m in the PTA with these people.” The children - poor kids – innocently asking, “Do we have to vacation in the backyard again?” The teens on the other hand know they will be pulling weeds by hand, while checking and identifying the species and stages of chinch bugs.