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It is my intention to give the readers a better understanding of what we do to maintain The Farms Country Club's 18 hole championship golf course and grounds.


Monday, March 28, 2011

Annual Bluegrass Weevil Adults Already?

The Annual Bluegrass Weevil is a common pest on golf courses in the northern states. We at The Farms Country Club see damage of varying degrees on a yearly basis due to our high population of Poa Annua (Annual Bluegrass). We have become quite good at controlling this pest through our regimented scouting, varied control methods, experience and the continual pursuit of the latest research results. Still, are we good enough? We have already employed a new method of scouting for the adults this year. Adults primarily “overwinter” in wooded areas and make their way to our fairways tees and greens where damage is most obvious. Adults lay their eggs in plant stems (sheaths) and the larvae that hatch actually do the most damage to the Poa.

Back to our new scouting method…

In an effort to see exactly when the adults are traveling to the fine turf areas, we decided to fabricate our own pitfall traps. The traps are very basic in design and are simply constructed with some 2” PVC pipe, a 2 liter soda bottle and some duct tape. MacGyver would be proud! We have installed the two traps adjacent to fairways one and ten which are excellent indicator areas.

These traps have already proven to be quite functional. We installed the traps on March 18th and already had trapped adults by March 21st. Our trap on hole number ten caught the most ABW adults, twenty-four! What does this mean? The timing of the movement of adults is earlier than expected. We will be adjusting the timing of our pesticide applications to improve efficacy. The improved timing should result in better control of the adults, which will reduce the amount of eggs laid. Less eggs means less larvae equaling less damage.

We are hoping that the improved timing of our pesticide applications will reduce visible ABW damage while maintaining the budgeted cost for its control.

For more information on the Annual Bluegrass Weevil check out my blog entry from July 23, 2010

ABW Pitfall Trap Design

Pitfall Trap on Hole #1

Pitfall Trap on Hole #10 Caught 24 Adults in Two Days!

Annual Bluegrass Weevil Adult Caught on Hole #10