Chinch bugs target St. Augustine grass almost exclusively. If your St. Augustine is browning in sunny areas despite watering, chinch bugs may be the cause.
Southern chinch bugs (Blissus insularis) have a strong preference for St. Augustine grass. They feed by piercing grass blades and sucking out plant fluids while injecting a toxin that blocks water movement within the plant. The result looks like drought stress — browning, wilting grass — but watering does not fix it. Chinch bugs thrive in hot, sunny, dry conditions, making Georgia summers prime feeding time.
Chinch bug damage starts in the sunniest, driest areas of your lawn — along sidewalks, driveways, and south-facing edges. It spreads outward from these hot spots. The grass turns yellow, then brown, and eventually dies. Unlike drought stress, chinch bug damage does not recover with watering. Adult chinch bugs are tiny (about one-sixth of an inch) with black bodies and white wings.
Insecticides containing bifenthrin or imidacloprid control chinch bug populations effectively. Apply to the entire lawn, not just damaged areas, because chinch bugs spread outward from initial feeding sites. Preventive applications in late May or early June stop populations before they build to damaging levels. Maintaining proper irrigation helps too — chinch bugs prefer stressed, drought-weakened turf.
St. Augustine grass has good recovery ability if the damage is caught early. Once chinch bugs are controlled, resume normal watering and apply a balanced fertilizer to encourage regrowth. Severely damaged areas where the grass died completely may need re-sodding. St. Augustine does not fill in from seed — sod or plugs are the only options for bare areas.
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