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TURF talk |
What's bugging you?
Teresa Carson
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Crane fly larvae |
Believe it or not, a small group cares passionately about the bugs on your golf course and the problems they cause. Those caring people are turfgrass entomologists.
About 60 entomologists, graduate students and interested parties from the turf industry gave up their President’s Day weekend this year to meet at Bayer’s turf and ornamental research facility in Clayton, N.C., where they talked about insects and how they affect you.
A few insect problems were recurring themes. Billbugs were cited as an established or emerging problem in Massachusetts, North Carolina, both northern and southern Florida (there are five species in the state), Ohio, Indiana, Kansas, Texas, Arizona and California. In California, billbugs have been found in kikuyugrass fairways, and in North Carolina, billbugs are expected to become a huge problem on seashore paspalum. Billbug damage is often misidentified as disease (for example, dollar spot), drought or heat stress or damage from other insects. The Environmental Institute for Golf is currently funding billbug research in Florida.
Annual bluegrass weevil is another pest mentioned frequently by researchers from the northeastern United States. As noted in the May 2005 GCM (p. 105), the pest is spreading north to Canada, south to Delaware and Maryland and west to western Pennsylvania. Annual bluegrass weevil damage is also often misidentified; for example, in New England, yellow Poa annua caused by damage from the insect has been incorrectly identified as delayed spring green-up. Some products have recently added annual bluegrass weevil to their labels. Through 2007, EIFG is funding research at Rutgers University to develop options for biological and biorational control of annual bluegrass weevil.
Crane flies are also expanding their range in both the Pacific Northwest and the northeastern United States (click here for research on the crane fly). A nonnative species, the European crane fly has appeared on both coasts. Crane fly damage has been found at three locations on golf courses in California (two in Northern California and one in San Diego), but which species caused the damage is not known. Scientists also believe that, as with many of the insects mentioned, cases of crane fly damage on golf courses probably have been misdiagnosed in the past. In the Northeast, EIFG is funding a three-year research project designed to slow the spread of European crane fly and reduce its impact on golf courses in the area.
Chinch bugs, fall armyworms, sod webworms, white grubs and various beetles, including Japanese beetle, Oriental beetle, Asiatic garden beetle, European chafer and masked chafers continue to be turf pests in many parts of the country. Japanese beetle, for example, is present in more than 20 states. Cranberry girdler (a.k.a. subterranean sod webworm) is an emerging pest in Ohio. Research on possible biological controls and more accurate timing of chemical controls for these pests continues. EIFG is funding research to identify the species of Phyllophaga and Cyclocephala grubs on golf courses in Oklahoma and evaluate their impact.
Texas A&M scientists are investigating turfgrasses that are resistant to various insect pests. Currently in development are Poa hybrids that are resistant to fall armyworm; zoysiagrass hybrids resistant to fall armyworm, tropical sod webworm, zoysiagrass mite, tawny mole cricket, hunting billbug and grasshoppers; and St. Augustinegrass hybrids resistant to southern chinch bug.
David Held, Ph.D., who hosted last year’s turf entomology meetings at the Mississippi State Coastal Research and Extension Center in Biloxi, gave a brief overview of the impact of Hurricane Katrina on the turf industry in coastal Mississippi.
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