Pest
Fall armyworm watch
Fall armyworms can strip a healthy lawn down to brown stems in days once the caterpillars are large enough to feed actively, and migration makes outbreaks unpredictable. Check a thinning or brown patch with a soap flush: 2 tablespoons of dish soap in a gallon of water poured over a square yard brings caterpillars to the surface. Two to three or more per square foot is the point to treat.
Read the full guide →Shallow soil temperatures are in the action band at 83.5°F at the Titusville 7 E sensor, 86 miles from your location.
Window: Jul 1 to Sep 30. Window typically open for 2 to 3 weeks.
Why this, why now
- [23] University of Georgia Extension: Armyworms in Sod (2025)
- [24] Texas A&M AgriLife Extension: Armyworm (2022)
Dissent and uncertainty: Neither cited source gives a soil-temperature threshold for this pest. UGA describes timing as migration: moths move north from Florida each spring and summer on weather fronts. TAMU says populations die out each winter except in southern Texas and move north during outbreak years. Both scout by soapy-water flush, UGA treating caterpillar size (over 3/4 inch) rather than a count per square foot. The 2-inch 70°F trigger is therefore a seasonality proxy, not a source-derived figure, and it does not discriminate: 135 of 143 stations across the 15 eligible states (94.4%) passed it on 2026-09-12, inside the July-September window. Re-basing the trigger on a real signal, or dropping the soil gate and stating it as a seasonal watch, is open work.