Wednesday, December 4, 2013

Integrated Pest Management for Billbugs in Orchardgrass

The bluegrass billbug and the hunting billbug, have caused widespread economic damage to orchardgrass, a cool season grass that is cultivated throughout the United States as a high-value forage crop. Although a number of cultural, biological, and chemical control methods have been suggested for billbugs in turfgrass and corn, there has been little focus on control in orchardgrass. Therefore, further investigations are warranted to verify the life histories of the bluegrass and hunting billbugs on orchardgrass, and feeding studies are needed to determine whether these species regularly feed on orchardgrass and, if so, how likely they are to become pests. Finally, the current measures available for control of billbugs in orchardgrass are extremely limited. New management tools, insecticides or otherwise, are required to effectively control this pest.



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