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Scotts Turf Builder SummerGuard Lawn Food with Insect Control — fertilizer + insecticide product photograph on a plain background
Scotts Turf Builder SummerGuard Lawn Food with Insect Control — fertilizer + insecticide

Fertilizer + Insecticide

Scotts Turf Builder SummerGuard Lawn Food with Insect Control Review

★★★★☆ 3.9/5

our editor rating how we score

4.5/5 from 8,306 shoppers at Amazon — their number, not ours.

$47–$57

Typical price · 5,000 sq ft per 13.35 lb bag

Affiliate links — see our disclosure. Commissions never influence verdicts.

A summer feeding and a surface-insect treatment in one pass. Convenient when scouting has already confirmed an insect problem — and the wrong choice when it hasn't.

Our Verdict

Genuinely useful in one specific situation: your lawn needs its summer feeding AND you have confirmed chinch bugs or surface-feeding insects. Outside that overlap it is the wrong tool, because it applies an insecticide across the entire lawn whether or not anything is there to kill. Extension guidance is consistent that insecticides should follow a scouting threshold, not a calendar — so we rate this lower than its convenience alone would suggest.

✅ Pros

  • One pass instead of two when you genuinely need both jobs done
  • Effective on chinch bugs and other surface feeders that damage warm-season turf
  • Spreader-applied — no mixing or spraying
  • Well suited to St. Augustine lawns, where chinch bugs are the signature pest

⚠️ Cons

  • Applies insecticide to the whole lawn even where no pest is present
  • Bifenthrin is toxic to bees and aquatic life — keep it off blooming weeds and away from drains
  • Ties your feeding schedule to your pest schedule, which rarely line up
  • If you only need to feed, a plain fertilizer is cheaper and more responsible

Product type

Fertilizer + Insecticide

Active ingredient

20-0-8 fertilizer combined with bifenthrin 0.086%

Price range

$47–$57

Coverage

5,000 sq ft per 13.35 lb bag

Best for

Summer feeding on a lawn with a confirmed surface-insect problem

our editor rating

3.9 out of 5

Where our facts come from

Label read on EPA's label database

EPA Reg. No. 101563-254-538

Read the label yourself →

We opened this product's accepted label on EPA's own Pesticide Product Label System — the strongest source available for what a product is registered to do.

What we found when we read it

Base label read 2026-08-04 on EPA PPLS (accepted 24 April 2025). EPA Reg. 101563-254-538 — a three-part distributor number, so the Scotts bag is a narrowed version of base registration 101563-254, whose registered name is 'TALSTAR 0.086 LAWN GRANULAR INSECTICIDE WITH FERTILIZER'. SummerGuard is FMC's Talstar granular in a Scotts bag. Bifenthrin 0.086%. The distributor registration shows as Registered 08 September 2025. CORRECTION: our targets listed WHITE GRUBS. The label's pest list does not contain them. What it does contain is Black Turfgrass Ataenius — a scarab whose larvae are technically white grubs but a much smaller, surface-feeding species — alongside chinch bugs, armyworms including fall armyworms, sod webworms, billbugs, mole crickets, cutworms, European crane fly, annual bluegrass weevils and a set of household pests. Corrected 2026-08-04. AND THE LABEL SAYS IT ITSELF, three separate times: 'Corrects lawn insect problems [for grub control, use Scotts GrubEx]' and 'For grub control, apply Scotts GrubEx anytime from late-April to mid-August.' This is not a label that merely omits grubs — it directs the buyer to a different product for them, which makes our old white-grub claim a contradiction of the registrant's own instruction. This is also the cleanest example on the site of how a pyrethroid bag earns the word 'grub': one legitimate small-scarab entry on a long pest list, not general white-grub control.

Where this page and the container disagree, the container wins — the label is the legal authority on rates and restrictions. How to read one yourself.

Where This Product Matters

Matched against each state's actual disease, weed and pest pressure.

Mole crickets (Gulf Coast turf's own pest)Fall armywormsChinch bugs (St. Augustine)

Application window: Bermuda and zoysia: May through August. Centipede: one light feeding, and that is the whole programme

Cutworms

Application window: UAF gives fertilizer analyses rather than pounds of nitrogen. Minimum maintenance is 5 lb of 22-11-11 per 1,000 sq ft in spring and again in late summer. A premium programme is 5 lb of 22-11-11 in late May, 5 lb of 22-4-4 in late June and again in July, then 5 lb of 8-32-16 in late August or early September — the last one deliberately low in nitrogen and high in phosphorus and potassium to build winter reserves

Chinch bugsMole crickets (southern counties)

Application window: Bermuda and zoysia: May through August. Fescue in the north: September and October only

Armyworms and cutwormsBillbugsSod webworms (lawn moths)

Application window: Fescue: October–November and March–April; Bermuda: May–August

BillbugsSod webworms

Application window: CSU splits it by grass: bluegrass and ryegrass take 0.5–1 lb N mid-March to April, 1 lb May to mid-June, none July to early August, 1 lb mid-August to mid-September and 1–2 lb early October to early November — buffalograss and blue grama invert that entirely, taking nitrogen only from May to early August

Chinch bugs (sunny, dry, sandy strips — the shoreline and the road edge)Sod webworm

Application window: UConn's two dates are May and early September, with a third in June only if you bag the clippings — 2 lb of nitrogen per 1,000 sq ft a year if clippings are returned, 3 lb if removed, and never more than 1 lb of soluble N at once. Nothing before April 15 or after mid-October

Chinch bugs (hot dry sand along drives, walks and the beach-town lots)Sod webwormBillbugsMole crickets at the far southern edge, where the coastal plain starts behaving like the mid-Atlantic South

Application window: Delaware is a soil-test state by law and by Extension practice — the University of Delaware declines to publish blanket rates and tells you to follow the report. The autumn feeding is the one that carries a transition-zone lawn; 3 DE Admin. Code 1204 sets per-application limits, no-application periods and setbacks on top of that

Southern chinch bugsMole cricketsTropical sod webwormsFall armyworms

Application window: April–May and September–October (check local summer blackout ordinances)

Fall armywormsChinch bugs (coastal St. Augustine)

Application window: Bermuda: monthly light feedings from full green-up (late April) through August

Chinch bugs on St. Augustine

Application window: Rate follows species: hybrid bermudagrass has the highest requirement, zoysia, St. Augustine and seashore paspalum are intermediate, and centipede needs the least. Because growth never stops and the soils leach, the pattern is lighter and more frequent rather than two or three big applications — and seashore paspalum wants nitrate-N rather than ammonium-N during establishment

Sod webwormCutworms

Application window: UI publishes a five-slot schedule for a medium-to-high maintenance bluegrass lawn: half to one pound of nitrogen per 1,000 sq ft in mid-March or April, one pound in early May or June, NOTHING in July or early August, one pound in mid-August or September, and one to two pounds in early October or November with the higher rate optional. A season total runs anywhere from 0.5 to 5 lb depending on the quality you want; a low-maintenance tall fescue lawn sits at 2 to 4 lb

BillbugsSod webwormsChinch bugs (sunny south-facing slopes)

Application window: Labor Day and Halloween feedings do 80% of the work; optional light Memorial Day application

BillbugsSod webwormsChinch bugs

Application window: Purdue's five slots: up to 0.75 lb slow-release in April, 0.75–1.0 lb in May, 0.75 lb in July on irrigated lawns only, 1 lb in September, and 1.5 lb of fast-release urea in November after the final mowing while the grass is still green

Black cutworms and armyworms, arriving on spring storm fronts into a crop landscapeBillbugsSod webworms

Application window: Early September and late October — the fall programme carries an Iowa lawn

Chinch bugs, a perennial Kansas pest across essentially every turf type rather than a coastal or sandy-soil specialistCutwormsSod webworm

Application window: K-State splits this by species rather than by month. Tall and fine fescue: about 1 lb of nitrogen per 1,000 sq ft, applied in autumn. Zoysia: 1 to 1.5 lb, in early summer. Buffalograss: the least of any Kansas lawn grass — 1 lb in early June improves colour and density, and more than that makes it weedy

Fall armywormsSod webwormsChinch bugs (dry sunny banks)

Application window: Fescue and bluegrass: September and late October. Check the soil test before buying anything with a middle number — Inner Bluegrass limestone soils routinely test phosphorus-sufficient already

Annual bluegrassSouthern chinch bugs (primarily a St. Augustine problem)Tropical sod webwormsMole cricketsFall armyworms

Application window: St. Augustine takes at least 1 lb of nitrogen in June and again in early to mid-August, up to about 3 lb a year, applied from midspring to midsummer

Sod webwormChinch bugs (dry sandy strips along the coast and the river valleys)

Application window: UMaine is specific and restrained: no more than two pounds of nitrogen per 1,000 sq ft a year, and if you feed once, do it between August 15 and September 15. Any remainder goes down in May after spring green-up, not before it

Hairy chinch bugsSod webwormsBillbugs

Application window: Tall fescue feeds September and late October — and the state's blackout starts November 16, which is earlier than most neighbours

Hairy chinch bugsSod webworms

Application window: Late spring and early September, with a late-October application where the rules allow — the season is short enough that timing matters more than rate

Annual bluegrassBluegrass billbugSod webworms

Application window: April through October, and MSU is specific that applications should go down before November — later nitrogen leaches over winter rather than feeding the grass

Sod webwormsBluegrass billbug

Application window: The University of Minnesota scales nitrogen by maintenance level AND soil organic matter: a low-maintenance unwatered lawn takes a single September application of 0.5–1 lb, while a watered lawn with clippings removed takes four — August, September, early October and May–June — and no single application should exceed 1 lb per 1,000 sq ft

Mole crickets (coastal counties)Chinch bugs (St. Augustine)

Application window: Bermuda: May through August. Centipede: one light feeding a year and nothing more

Sod webwormsChinch bugs (sunny southern slopes)

Application window: Fescue: September and late October, with a light spring feeding at most; zoysia and bermuda: May through August

Sod webwormCutworms

Application window: MSU's figure for most Montana conditions is 2 to 4 pounds of actual nitrogen per 1,000 sq ft a year, split into two or three applications, with never more than 1½ pounds of available nitrogen going down at once. It also warns off high-nitrogen and rapid-release products specifically because they promote disease. A spring seeding gets a ½ lb nitrogen starter before the seed

Chinch bugsSod webwormCutworms

Application window: UNL publishes dates, not seasons, for cool-season lawns: April 15–25 at 0 to 0.5 lb of nitrogen per 1,000 sq ft, May 25–June 5 at 0.5 to 0.75, August 25–September 5 at 0.5 to 0.75, and October 15–November 1 at 0 to 0.25. Western Nebraska shifts one to two weeks later in spring and one to two weeks earlier in autumn. Buffalograss and zoysia get one application, May 5–15, at about 0.5 lb — and buffalograss should never exceed 2 lb a year

BillbugsSod webworms

Application window: Bermuda in the south: May through August. Tall fescue and bluegrass in the north: spring and early autumn

Chinch bugs (dry sunny sand along the river valleys)Sod webworm

Application window: One to two pounds of nitrogen per 1,000 sq ft a year is UNH's range for a home lawn — lower than the coastal states south of here. The last application of the year should be down before September 15 in northern New Hampshire and October 1 in the south

Sod webwormsChinch bugsBillbugs

Application window: Legally March 1 – November 15 for homeowners (professionals get to December 1), and capped at 3.2 lb of nitrogen per 1,000 sq ft a year — weight it to September and October

Chinch bugs in hot dry sandy strips, which describes most of the stateSod webwormCutworms and armyworms in monsoon years

Application window: New establishment gets 0.5 to 0.75 lb of nitrogen per 1,000 sq ft every other week for six to eight weeks. After that the calendar follows the grass, not the state: cool-season lawns in the north feed spring and autumn, warm-season lawns in the south feed through the warm months and stop well before dormancy

Bluegrass billbugChinch bugsSod webworms

Application window: September is the one application Cornell recommends at every level of lawn quality; May, June and October are optional extras, and no application may exceed 1 lb of nitrogen per 1,000 sq ft

ArmywormsMole crickets (sandhills region)Sod webworms

Application window: Fescue feeds in fall: September, October and late November — never in summer

Bluegrass billbugSod webwormCutworms

Application window: NDSU is emphatic that autumn is the most important time. If you feed once a year, feed in September and target Labor Day; a fuller programme is two applications of 0.75 to 1.0 lb of nitrogen per 1,000 sq ft, one in early to mid-September and one around the final mow. Nitrogen applied before September 15 should be about 50 percent slow-release

BillbugsHairy chinch bugsSod webworms

Application window: September and early November (winterizer) carry the lawn; optional light feeding late May

Chinch bugs

Application window: Bermuda and zoysia: May through August. Buffalograss wants almost none — feeding it is how people lose it to weeds

BillbugsSod webworms

Application window: Light and frequent through spring and autumn west of the mountains; east-side lawns follow a shorter, more conventional cool-season programme

Hairy chinch bugsSod webwormsBillbugs

Application window: September and late October, and the state closes the window on December 15 — the tightest legal autumn sequence of any state here, because the rate caps limit how much can go down in each of those passes

Chinch bugs (South County sand and sunny road edges)Sod webworm

Application window: Late spring and early September, with the September application doing most of the work. The Water Resources Board's statewide guidance asks for moderate rates and never above label — and municipal ordinances in the bay towns cap it far below that

Annual bluegrassMole crickets

Application window: Centipedegrass takes nitrogen in May and once in late summer only, 1–2 lb a year total; the last application goes down before August 15 in the Upstate and before September 1 on the coast

Sod webwormCutworms

Application window: SDSU puts the emphasis late and scales it to how you keep the lawn: a low to moderate maintenance lawn gets one application about Labor Day; a moderate to high maintenance lawn gets one in late August to very early September and a second roughly four weeks later, around October 1

Sod webworms

Application window: Fescue: September through November; Bermuda and zoysia: May through August

Chinch bugsFall armyworms

Application window: Late April after full green-up, June, and early September

Sod webworms

Application window: Late spring and early September, kept modest — pushing growth in a place where every inch of it is irrigated costs water as well as fertilizer

Sod webwormChinch bugs (dry sandy strips in the valleys)

Application window: Late spring and late August to early September, with the late-summer application carrying the year. Get it down early — the growing season closes fast north of Rutland

Chinch bugsSod webworms

Application window: Cool-season lawns take 2.0–3.5 lb of nitrogen a year across September, October, November, April and May at 0.5–0.7 lb a month; bermuda and zoysia are fed only between April 1 and August 15

Annual bluegrassCutworms

Application window: Mid-May only if the lawn is thin or yellow, then September–October; slow-release synthetic as late as mid-November

Bluegrass billbugSod webwormCutworms

Application window: Autumn carries a transition-zone lawn, so the September feeding is the year's most valuable. Nitrogen is the one nutrient required regardless of what the test says; phosphorus, potassium and lime should all follow the report, which in West Virginia usually asks for lime

Bluegrass billbugSod webworms

Application window: About 2 lb of nitrogen a year in total: roughly 1 lb at the second mowing in spring and 1 lb between September 1 and 15, with any summer application kept under 1 lb and only on irrigated lawns

Sod webwormCutworms

Application window: UW's numbers are the lowest of any state we cover, and deliberately so: 1 to 2 pounds of nitrogen per 1,000 sq ft a year produces a very nice lawn in most of Wyoming, never more than 1 pound in a single application, and one to two applications a year is the manicured programme. For Kentucky bluegrass or tall fescue specifically, UW suggests considering fertilizing once every one to three years. Use quick-release in spring while soils are still cool, and switch to slow-release or organic once they warm

Common questions

Common Questions

How much does Scotts Turf Builder SummerGuard Lawn Food with Insect Control cost?

Scotts Turf Builder SummerGuard Lawn Food with Insect Control typically runs $47–$57, covering 5,000 sq ft per 13.35 lb bag.

What does Scotts Turf Builder SummerGuard Lawn Food with Insect Control treat?

Scotts Turf Builder SummerGuard Lawn Food with Insect Control targets Chinch bugs, Armyworms (including fall armyworms), Sod webworms, Black turfgrass ataenius, Billbugs (including bluegrass billbugs), Mole crickets, among others.

What is the active ingredient in Scotts Turf Builder SummerGuard Lawn Food with Insect Control?

20-0-8 fertilizer combined with bifenthrin 0.086%, registered under EPA Reg. No. 101563-254-538.

What is the biggest downside of Scotts Turf Builder SummerGuard Lawn Food with Insect Control?

Applies insecticide to the whole lawn even where no pest is present

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