Within the last week I have discovered a new pest on our golf course. It's unfortunate in with the way that we have suffered some turf damage from this pest but also positive in the sense that I now know it's an issue and will be able to prevent any damage in the years to come. Here is a picture of the little bugger.
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| Black Turfgrasss Ataenius Grub |
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It's hard to believe that this little grub could cause so much damage. This grub affects the turf plant by feeding on it's root system. This was a major key to me when I inspected the turf, because it's roots are not in tact you can basically peel the turf right off the soil. This along with the fact that a lot of the damage is from the crows and robins pecking away at the turf in search of a meal. Here are some photos that I took this afternoon of the damage caused by this little grub. Keep in mind it's about the size of a grain of rice.
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| #4 Fairway Grub Damage. |
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| #10 Fairway Damage. |
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To the untrained eye this might look like a typical Hot Spot. With a little help from the birds it led me to investigate further and determine the main cause. I really feel the damage was more severe because of this past weekends 100 degree temps. Keep in mind that this grub eats the roots of the plant and add in 100 plus temps and we're asking for trouble( the plant can't survive without a root system). Upon confirming our grub problem we made a fairway insecticide application today to put this grub in check. I am hopeful that the application was not to late in the year and we will be able to stop the damage from occuring. Now that I know this pest is a problem on our property I will be able to plan accordingly in the years to come to ensure that this will not happen again. Below is a life cycle for this pest and you can see that in April is when it's in the egg stage. This is when an insecticide will provide a 100 percent control.
Next year we will be making our insecticide application in mid April to target the eggs before they reach the pupa stage and cause damage to our turfs roots. Once one application is made it can have a residual for up to three years eliminating any grub activity. This is just one case of the multiple things that are uncontrollable on a golf course.
