Mole Cricket
Burrowing lawn pests that tunnel through turf roots, leaving spongy, dying grass.
Photo: no rights reserved (CC0) · public domain/CC0 · Wikimedia Commons
About 3–5 cm long, light brown with velvety skin and enlarged, shovel-like front legs designed for burrowing. Resemble a cross between a cricket and a mole. Adults can fly.
Sandy Florida soils under Bermuda, Bahia and St. Augustine turf. They're most active in spring when adults fly and lay eggs, and damage peaks in summer as nymphs grow.
- Spongy, raised tunnels in the lawn soil surface
- Irregular brown dying patches in Bermuda, Bahia or St. Augustine grass
- Turf that pulls up easily because roots have been severed
- Mole crickets on the surface after heavy rain or irrigation at night
Mole crickets are one of Florida's most damaging turf pests — their burrowing severs grass roots, causes soil upheaval and creates conditions for secondary drought stress and weed invasion.
Rhino's lawn & ornamental program targets mole crickets with granular and liquid treatments timed to nymph emergence in early summer, when they're smallest and easiest to kill.
Our Lawn & Ornamental Service service