The Soap Test Worth Running Before You Close on an Onslow County Home

Mole crickets do most of their damage underground in Onslow County's sandy soil, and a buyer touring a home has no way to know if the yard already has an active population without checking, since the visible symptoms, spongy patches and thinning turf, often get chalked up to drought or a rough patch of weather by a seller who isn't looking closely.

Why Sandy Soil Makes This Worse

These burrowing insects thrive in loose, well-drained sandy soil, tunneling through root zones and severing grass roots as they search for food. N.C. Cooperative Extension's Craven County office, covering New Bern and the surrounding area, has flagged mole crickets as a top insect pest of coastal North Carolina lawns for exactly this reason. Centipede and other warm-season grasses common in the area have relatively shallow root systems, which makes them especially vulnerable to root damage that isn't visible from the surface until a section of lawn is already struggling.

Why Checking Before Closing Matters

Checking before closing matters more than checking after moving in. A lawn that looks fine during a showing in one season can be hiding an active population that only becomes obvious once the new owner has already settled in and started their own maintenance routine, at which point it's easy to mistake the damage for something they caused rather than something they inherited.

Timing the Treatment

Mole crickets are easiest to treat as young nymphs in late spring and early summer, before they've caused visible damage. Catching an existing population early with a professional lawn pest inspection, ideally before or right after closing, is a much smaller job than waiting for brown patches to show up on their own months later.