Bugs!

 

 

These little critters that the red arrows are pointing to are called Annual Bluegrass Weevil.  This pest has been around for a few years and been difficult to control because of how may generations they have which is up to five in a season.  This past Sunday I was looking at the poa annua in the 7th fairway and noticed how the poa seemed to be stressed even though the ryegrass seemed fine.  Thinking this was more than drought stress I started to do a little digging.  After cutting out a section of turf they were easily noticeable.  They are currently in the larvae stage that you see now.  Typically in Spring the adults emerge from their winter hideouts and start finding some prime areas to lay their eggs. They munch on the stems and crowns of the plant which cause the turf to look drought stressed unless you look closer.  Now that we know we have them we will be adding additional control measures into our agronomic plan for next year to make sure when get the best control at the best time no matter what stage this bug is in.

 

 

On Monday we went ahead and sprayed an insecticide on the 7th fairway and the perimeter to knock down any of the ABW (annual bluegrass weevil) that we could.  Since we are going after the larvae stage of the ABW we to water this product in to kill them.