RESEARCH S t. Augustinegrass [Stenotaphrum secundatum (Walt.) Kuntze] is widely used as a lawn grass in warm, tropical, and subtropical regions of the world (Sauer, 1972). It is a popular choice for lawns in the southern United States due to its aesthetically pleasing appearance and shade tolerance (Busey and Davis, 1991; Trenholm and Nagata, 2005). However, St. Augustinegrass is prone to thatch accumulation (Horn et al., 1973), which is conducive to insect and disease problems (Haygood and Martin, 1990). The southern chinch bug (SCB, Blissus insularis Barber) is the most economically important insect pest of St. Augustinegrass and is found throughout the Gulf States, from Texas to Florida and further north into Georgia and North Carolina (Henry and Froeschner, 1988; Sweet, 2000). Southern chinch bugs have piercing-sucking mouthparts and feed on the phloem of grass plants within meristematic tissues (Painter, 1928). In doing so, SCB deposit their salivary sheaths in the plant tissue at the site of feeding (Backus, 1988). These insects normally reside in the thatch area of the turfgrass stand and prefer to feed on the lower leaf sheaths and crown area of the plant (Anderson et al., 2006). Affected areas turn yellow, then brown, and ultimately die. As the season progresses, these areas can coalesce into large areas or entire lawns of dead grass (Reinert et al., 1995).