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Turf Insect Pest

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... of their damage, with the grass going into dormancy, making damage difficult to detect ... Ground beetles, spiders, some ants, big-eyed bugs, phytoseiid ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: Turf Insect Pest


1
Turf Insect Pest
2
Introduction
  • Turfgrass value functional, aesthetic, and
    economic
  • All values adversely affected by pest
  • Over 300 million acres of turf in the US
  • 81 percent in more than 50 million lawns
  • 19 percent in parks, golf courses, athletic
    fields, cemeteries, sod farms, roadsides, other
    sites
  • Turfgrass culture a 25 plus billion dollar per
    year industry in the US

3
Introduction
  • 500,000 plus people make their living directly
    from the establishment and maintenance of turf
  • 25 to 30 million households use pesticides at
    least once yearly on lawns to control insect
    pests _at_ cost gt 1 billion dollars

4
Driving Factors in Turfgrass Pest Management
  • Increasing demand for high quality turf
  • Increasing public concern about potential risks
    to human health and environment

5
Diagnosis and Sampling of Insect Pests
  • Damage caused by insects can often be confused
    with diseases, drought, or pesticide injury
  • Therefore, proper diagnosis is the first step in
    any successful control program

6
Diagnosis and Sampling of Insect Pests
  • Specific pest identification (start with
    suspects)
  • Sampling (based on suspected causes of damage)

7
Diagnosis Guided by the Use of the Knowledge
Regarding
  • Type of damage
  • Location of habitat
  • Season of occurrence
  • Other clues

8
General Indications of Potential or Actual Insect
Pest Problems
  • Surface Feeding
  • Large numbers of birds feeding on turf area
  • Small moths flying zigzag patterns over the turf
    surface, especially in late evening
  • Rapid loss of green color similar to fertilizer
    burn or drought injury, even though the area is
    adequately irrigated
  • Frass at or near the soil surface

9
General Indications of Potential or Actual Insect
Pest Problems
  • Subsurface feeding
  • Loose turf surface indicated by poor footing or
    excessive traffic injury
  • Damage to turf by insect feeding mammals (moles,
    skunks, and raccoons)
  • Overall thinning of turf
  • Chlorotic areas/ patches of browning turf

10
Three Major Habitat areas for Insects in Turf
  • Leaves and stems
  • Thatch
  • Soil

11
Insect Pest in/on Leaves and Stems
  • Most easily controlled because treatments may be
    applied directly timing of application is the
    most important criterion
  • Detected by careful examination of stems, leaf
    sheath and leaves (May require magnification)
  • Bermudagrass mite
  • Winter grain mite
  • Rhodesgrass mealybug
  • Greenbug
  • Fruit fly

12
Insect Pest in Thatch
  • Thick thatch (grater than ½ inch) attracts
    chinch bugs and others. May impede penetration of
    pesticides into the soil
  • Chinch bugs
  • Sod webworms
  • Cutworms
  • Armyworms
  • Fiery skipper

13
Insect Pest in ThatchDetection
  • Flotation primarily to determine the presence or
    absence of chinch bugs
  • Detergent flushes for caterpillars, weevils, mole
    crickets and other insects
  • With either of these techniques, it is important
    to sample at the edges of heavily damaged areas
    since the highest insect populations are often
    located here rather than in areas already
    exhibiting severe damage

14
Insect Pest in the Soil
  • Much more restricted in movement
  • Mole crickets
  • Ground pearls
  • White grubs
  • Billbugs
  • European cranefly
  • Primary sampling by examination of the root zone
    and the soil and sod
  • Soap flushes work well for mole crickets

15
Types of Damage
  • Chewing insects most common type among turfgrass
    insects
  • They have strong mandibles which bite or sever
    tissues
  • Damage symptoms exhibit physical removal of plant
    tissues
  • Stripping away of the epidermis of leaves
  • Notching of leaves and stems
  • Complete severing of plant parts

16
Types of DamageChewing Insects Cont.
  • Hollowing out of stems and crowns
  • Pruning of roots
  • Most chewing insects of turf are immature forms
    (larvae and nymphs) but a few adults are also
    included
  • Common chewing pest White grubs, armyworms, mole
    crickets, sod webworms

17
Types of DamageSucking Insects
  • Sucking insects pierce and suck plant tissue with
    modified mouthparts that form a beak which
    surrounds needle-like mandibles and maxillae
  • Salivary secretions (sometimes toxic to the
    plant) are pumped into the plant to aid in
    sucking up plant sap and cell contents
  • Plants injured by this method of feeding
    generally remain completely intact

18
Types of DamageSucking Insects Cont.
  • The entire plant starts to deteriorate because of
    the loss of plant sap or in the response to the
    injection of toxic salivary secretions
  • Early symptoms Yellowing, wilting, blasting of
    leaves, necrosis, followed by browning and death
    of plant
  • Both adults and nymphs of piercing sucking
    insects damage turf
  • Common insects in this group include chinch bugs,
    greenbugs, and ground pearls

19
Seasonal Occurrence
  • Differences in seasonal occurrence of insects and
    damage provides diagnostic clue
  • Winter only the winter grain mite causes damage
    during winter
  • Spring European crane fly, mole crickets in warm
    humid regions, and the single generation
    scarabaeids may cause damage in the spring
  • Summer everything else (for example multiple
    generations of scarabaeids)
  • Fall Mole crickets and white grubs

20
Value of early Detection
  • Early symptoms frequently evident before the
    actual pest is observed
  • Damage can progress rapidly when large numbers of
    insects are present
  • Some insects easier to control in early stage of
    development

21
Early Symptoms
  • First symptom of damage caused by leaf and
    stem-feeding insects is yellowing of leaves in
    small isolated patches
  • Root feeders cause a gradual thinning of the turf
  • Positive attribution of symptoms to a pest
    requires determination that the pest is present
    in a damaging stage
  • Dead or brown turf may no longer be harboring the
    pest responsible
  • Proper identification is important for proper
    treatment and prevention

22
Insect Control Strategies for TurfCultural
Control
  • Host plant resistance
  • The underling susceptibility or suitability or
    the lack thereof principle method of
    controlexhibits constant pressure of each pest
    generationimmunity is the ultimate level but
    rarely obtainableexhibition of various degrees
    of resistance or susceptibility to best
  • Endophytes sometimes contribute to resistance

23
Insect Control Strategies for TurfCultural
Control
  • Turf Vigor
  • Vigorous, steadily growing stands can deter
    permanent turf damage
  • Rapidly growing rhizomes and stolons quickly fill
    in small localized dead patches
  • High nitrogen fertilizer can help recover a
    generally thinned stand

24
Insect Control Strategies for TurfCultural
Control
  • Soil Moisture
  • In high temperature and moisture stress, two
    groups of insects, chinch bugs and sod webworms,
    do most of their damage, with the grass going
    into dormancy, making damage difficult to detect
  • When adequate moisture is present, symptoms of
    damage are easier to detect in the form of yellow
    leaves and small brown patches

25
Insect Control Strategies for TurfCultural
Control
  • Thatch Management
  • Affects some insects directly (chinch bugs), also
    affects the efficacy of insecticide applications
  • Many organic insecticides adsorb to organic
    matter
  • Dursban is very readily bound to thatch
  • Many registered pesticides are broken down
    readily in UV light, and so they must penetrate
    quickly to do their job

26
Insect Control Strategies for TurfBiological
Control
  • Predators, parasites, and pathogens that attack
    pest species. Predators include other insects and
    sometimes vertebrates
  • Advantages of natural controls include their
    safety, relative permanence, and relative
    economy, although all of these dont apply in all
    cases

27
Insect Control Strategies for TurfBiological
Control
  • Predators
  • Free-living organisms that consume a prey
    relatively non-specific such as
  • Ground beetles, spiders, some ants, big-eyed
    bugs, phytoseiid mites and staphalinids common

28
Insect Control Strategies for TurfBiological
Control
  • Parasitoids
  • Insects that have a parasite-like relationship to
    their host, resulting in host death, develop
    inside host quite host-specific, include a
    number of Hymenoptera and Diptera

29
Insect Control Strategies for TurfBiological
Control
  • Pathogens
  • Fungi, viruses, and bacterial organisms, with
    some nematodes and protozoans host specific,
    potentially self-sustaining, depend heavily on
    environmental conditions to work
  • milky disease (bacterial disease of Japanese
    beetle grubs)
  • B. thuringiensis, a commercially used pathogen of
    lepidoptera and others
  • Nematodes , commercially inoculated with a
    bacterial pathogen, used against a number of
    soil-dwelling turf pests

30
Insect Control Strategies for TurfChemical
Controls
  • Pesticides (see current state recommendations)
  • Important to follow label directions accurately
  • Adherence to legal requirements may be necessary
  • Most must be watered in after application
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