The hairy chinch bug, Blissus leucopterus hirtus , is a small sucking insect that is mainly a pest of turfgrass. Lawns and golf courses may suffer severe damage during years of hairy chinch bug abundance. Small, dead brown patches in turf grass are the result of their feeding. Damage is most severe from the feeding of the young bugs as they pierce the cells of the grass blades and suck the sap from them.
Grass blades turn yellow and then become brown and die.
Hairy chinch bug-infested lawns have an appearance of poor vigor. There are many dead grass blades interspersed among seemingly normal ones. They thrive in periods of hot, dry weather, and areas in full- sun appear to be hit the hardest. Entire lawns can be killed by a heavy infestation of these sucking insects. Common hosts are bluegrass, fescues, bentgrass, and zoysiagrass.