Beware sod shipments bearing billbugs

Shipments of warm-season sod sometimes arrive bearing little "gifts", in the form of a billbug infestation. While this problem seems to still be the exception rather than the rule, it's a headache that you most definitely don't want to be saddled with, as billbugs are notoriously hard to control once they have become established.

We suspect that most sod growers do not even know that their turf is infested, since billbug damage can take a long time to manifest itself.…