Dr. Dennis Hancock, UGA Extension Forage Crops Specialist, has sent word that bermudagrass stem maggot damage is beginning to show up across the southern part of the state as far north as Laurens County. These pests can be a major problem for our hay producers if populations are high enough. One of the first signs of the presence of BSM is a yellowing\/bronzing of the uppermost two or three leaves of the bermudagrass. It will be somewhat similar to frost damage. If you were to examine the plant, you would likely see where the BSM has fed at the top node which caused the\u00a0decay of the top few leaves.<\/p>\n
Generally\u00a0the best time to apply insecticides for BSM is 7-10 days after the last cutting. If the grass is\u00a0still not responding, then a sequential application\u00a0in another 10 days\u00a0is an option.\u00a0As of now, various pyrethroids are\u00a0recommended for BSM such as lambda-cyhalothrin (Warrior\/Karate), cyfluthrin (Baythroid), zeta-cypermethrin (Mustang Maxx), and others. It is important to get sufficient canopy penetration, so applications with a water volume of 12-15 GPA will likely yield better control. However, it is not always economical to spray for BSM. Usually we do not spray before our first cutting or cuttings\u00a0in the fall\u00a0because our yield loss from BSM will not be enough to cover our insecticide costs.<\/p>\n
If you observe damage from BSM, please let me know so I can relay the information.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dr. Dennis Hancock, UGA Extension Forage Crops Specialist, has sent word that bermudagrass stem maggot damage is beginning to show up across the southern part of the state as far north as Laurens County. These pests can be a major problem for our hay producers if populations are high enough. One of the first signs […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":217,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-79","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/bleckleyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/bleckleyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/bleckleyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/bleckleyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/217"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/bleckleyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/bleckleyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":80,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/bleckleyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79\/revisions\/80"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/bleckleyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/bleckleyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/bleckleyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}