Managing Turfgrass Pests

About this book

Written by three of the top professionals in the turfgrass field, Managing Turfgrass Pests, Second Edition brings together hundreds of solutions and best practices to help you manage turfgrass weeds, diseases, and insects more effectively. Since Managing Turfgrass Pests of the bestselling first edition, advances in pest-resistant turfgrass cultivars and pest control products have led to significant changes in the ways pests are managed. This revised and updated second edition reinforces those management tactics that are still relevant and covers new approaches that have been introduced since the first edition.

Managing Turfgrass Pests discusses the concept of integrated pest management, incorporating cultural, biological, and chemical control measures. In particular, the authors emphasize the philosophy of minimizing pests through well-defined and well-implemented cultural systems. Rather than simply relying on a pesticide solution for control, they explain how to fine-tune cultural practices to better address the question of why the pest is present in the first place. Once these cultural practices are in place, any pesticide that is still required will be much more effective at controlling the pest.

New in This Edition
- Revised and updated descriptions of economically important turfgrass pests
- Revised and updated cultural approaches to turfgrass pest management
- Revised and updated biological methods of turfgrass pest management
- Revised and updated chemical control of turfgrass pests
- More than 200 new color illustrations

Packed with photographs, this full-color book provides updated information on best practices and control measures for turfgrass pest management. It also explains how to integrate various management strategies to ensure quality and functional turf. Throughout, the authors offer practical recommendations to help you optimize the competitiveness of your turfgrass against the pests that inevitably become part of any ecosystem.

Contents

Weeds and Their Management

Introduction

Managing Turfgrass Weeds
Weeds as Indicators
Natural Reasons for Voids
Management Reasons for Voids
Steps in Weed Control Strategy

Managing Summer Annual Grasses
Crabgrass
Goosegrass
Foxtail
Barnyardgrass
Fall Panicum
Dallisgrass

Managing Winter Annual Grasses
Poa annua

Managing Perennial Grasses and Sedges
Creeping Bentgrass
Tall Fescue
Orchardgrass
Quackgrass
Rough Bluegrass
Nimblewill
Bermudagrass
Zoysiagrass
Nutsedge

Managing Summer Annual Broadleaf Weeds
Oxalis
Knotweed
Prostrate Spurge
Purslane
Lambsquarters
Puncturevine
Carpetweed
Florida Pusley

Managing Winter Annual Broadleaf Weeds
Common Chickweed
Henbit
Shepherd’s Purse
Corn Speedwell
Bedstraw

Managing Biennials
Yellow Rocket
Wild Carrot
Black Medic

Managing Perennial Broadleaf Weeds
Wild Garlic
Dandelion
White Clover
Common Plantain
Buckhorn Plantain
Mouse-Ear Chickweed
Ground Ivy
Sheep Sorrel
Canada Thistle
Chicory
Curly Dock
Bull Thistle
Heal All
Ox-Eye Daisy
Hawkweed
Thyme-Leaf Speedwell
Creeping Speedwell
Wild Violet
Stitchwort
Cinquefoil
Yarrow
Moss
Betony
English Daisy
Oxalis
Dollar Weed

Weed Management: Integrated Pest Management
Chemical Control Recommendations
Further Reading

Turfgrass Diseases and Their Management

Introduction

Monitoring Disease and Establishing Thresholds
Monitoring
Thresholds

Environmental Conditions and Use of Cultural Practices to Manage Diseases

Biological Control of Turfgrass Diseases

Winter and Early Spring Diseases
Microdochium Patch (aka Pink Snow Mold or Fusarium Patch)
Pythium Snow Blight
Typhula Blight or Gray Snow Mold
Yellow Patch or Cool-Temperature Brown Patch

Diseases Initiated in Autumn or Spring That May Persist Into Summer
Anthracnose
Ascochyta and Leptosphaerulina Leaf Blights
Brown Ring Patch or Waitea Patch
Dollar Spot
Large Patch
Leaf Spot, Melting-Out, and Net-Blotch (Formerly Helminthosporium Diseases)
Necrotic Ring Spot
Powdery Mildew
Pythium-Induced Root Dysfunction
Rapid Blight
Red Thread and Pink Patch
Spring Dead Spot
Stripe Smut and Flag Smut
Take-All Patch
Yellow Tuft or Downy Mildew

Diseases Initiated During Summer That May Persist Into Autumn
Brown Patch and Leaf and Sheath Spot
Copper Spot
Dead Spot
Fairy Ring
Gray Leaf Spot
Leaf Spot, Melting-Out, Net-Blotch, and Red Leaf Spot
Localized Dry Spot
Pythium Blight
Root Decline of Warm-Season Grasses
Rust
Slime Mold
Southern Blight or Sclerotium Blight
Summer Patch
Superficial Fairy Ring
White Blight or Melanotus White Patch
Yellow Ring

Seedling Diseases or Damping-Off

Bacterial Diseases
Bacterial Wilt
Bacterial Decline

Plant Parasitic Nematodes

Virus Diseases
St. Augustine Decline and Centipede Mosaic

Blue-Green Algae, Moss, and Black-Layer
Blue-Green Algae (aka Cyanobacteria)
Moss
Black-Layer

Collecting and Sending Diseased Samples to a Lab
Parasitic Nematode Assay

Fungicides Used to Control Turfgrass Diseases
Professional Fungicide Use Considerations
Types of Fungicides
Nontarget Effects of Fungicides
Fungicide Application

Acknowledgments
Bibliography

Turfgrass Insect and Mite Management

Goal of Insect and Mite Management
Pest Management Process
Pest Identification

Insects and Mites Associated with Turf: An Introduction
Classes of Arthropods

Pest Life Cycles
Insect Metamorphosis
Mite Life Cycles

Zones of Activity (Turf, a Unique Habitat)

Monitoring
Tools and Strategies for Timing of Controls

Selecting Appropriate Controls
Pest Management versus Pest Eradication
Integrated Pest Management
Monitoring in IPM
Control Options
Cultural Controls
Biological Controls
Chemical Controls
Insecticide Groups: Chemical Categories and Modes of Action
Using Pesticides to Manage Insects and Mites in Turf
Insecticide/Miticide Affects on Nontarget Animals
Equipment for Making Insecticide/Miticide Applications

Leaf- and Stem-Infesting Insect and Mite Pests
Bermudagrass Mite
Clover Mite
Banks Grass Mite
Winter Grain Mite
Greenbug
Sod Webworms (= Lawn Moths): Introduction
Bluegrass Webworm
Larger Sod Webworm
Western Lawn Moth
Tropical Sod Webworm
Grass Webworm
Cutworms and Armyworms: Introduction
Black Cutworm
Bronzed Cutworm
Armyworm
Fall Armyworm
Lawn Armyworm
Other Turf-Infesting Caterpillars
Striped Grassworms (=Grass Loopers)
Fiery Skipper

Stem- and Thatch-Infesting Insect and Mite Pests
Chinch Bugs
Hairy Chinch Bug (and Common Chinch Bug)
Southern Chinch Bug
Insecticides and Application
Twolined Spittlebug
Rhodesgrass Mealybug (=Rhodesgrass Scale)
Bermudagrass Scale
Billbugs: Introduction
Bluegrass Billbug
Hunting Billbug
Annual Bluegrass Weevil (=Hyperodes Weevil)
Cranberry Girdler
Burrowing Sod Webworms
European Crane Fly, Common (or Marsh) Crane Fly, or
Leatherjackets
Frit Fly

Soil-Inhabiting (e.g., Thatch- and Root-Infesting) Insects
White Grubs: Introduction
Maximizing Control of White Grubs with Insecticides
Black Turfgrass Ataenius
Asiatic Garden Beetle
European Chafer
Green June Beetle
Japanese Beetle
Northern Masked Chafer
Southern Masked Chafer
Oriental Beetle
Sugarcane Beetle and Sugarcane Grub
May and June Beetles, Phyllophaga
Mole Crickets: Introduction
Monitoring Spring Adults
Sampling for Summer Nymphs
Tawny Mole Cricket
Southern Mole Cricket
Short-Winged Mole Cricket
Ground Pearls

Nuisance Invertebrate, Insect, and Mite Pests
Earthworms
Slugs and Snail
Spiders and Tarantulas
Chiggers
Ticks
Sowbugs and Pillbugs (Isopods)
Centipedes
Millipedes
Earwigs
Bigeyed Bugs
Leafhoppers
Ground Beetles
Rove Beetles
Fleas
March Flies (Bibionids)
Ants: General
Fire Ants
Cicada Killer

Nuisance Vertebrate Pests
Common Grackle
Starling
Moles
Pocket Gophers
Skunks and Civet Cats
Raccoon
Ninebanded Armadillo

Further Reading

Index

Customer Reviews

Biography

Dr. Thomas L. Watschke is presently professor emeritus of turfgrass science at the Pennsylvania State University, where he was on the faculty for 35 years. Dr. Watschke has been honored nationally by the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America and the American Sod Producers Association, Division C-5 (ASA, CSSA) Grau Award, and has been accorded fellow status by both the Crop Science Society of America and the American Society of Agronomy. He is recognized throughout the world for his teaching and research accomplishments in weed science, plant growth regulation, and water quality. He has made presentations in France, Australia, Spain, England, Scotland, and Canada and is active in the International Turfgrass Society.

Dr. Peter H. Dernoeden is a professor of turfgrass science in the Department of Plant Science and Landscape Architecture at the University of Maryland. Dr. Dernoeden has published more than 100 scientific journal articles and several books, including Creeping Bentgrass Management, Second Edition. He is a Fellow of the American Society of Agronomy and the Crop Science Society of America (CSSA). He received the Fred V. Grau Turfgrass Science Award from the Turfgrass Science Division of CSSA. He was also the recipient of The Dean Gordon Cairns Award for Distinguished Creative Work in Agriculture from the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources at the University of Maryland. In 2012, he received the Colonel John Morley Distinguished Service Award from the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America.

Dr. David J. Shetlar is a professor of urban landscape entomology at The Ohio State University. Dr. Shetlar has authored and coauthored numerous trade magazine articles, research journal articles, books and book chapters, and extension factsheets and bulletins. Dr. Shetlar, who goes by the professional nickname of the "BugDoc," produces the popular P.E.S.T. Newsletter in association with the Ohio Nursery and Landscape Association. He was one of the recipients of an Annual Leadership Award presented by Lawn and Landscape and Bayer in 2005. He also received the Educator & Public Service Award from the Ohio Nursery and Landscape Association in 2010.