Prepping for pests

As with many of the other items on the superintendent's fall checklist, pest control varies significantly depending on whether the course is preparing for winter shutdown or gearing up for what it hopes will be an onslaught of play in the golfing high seasons of the Deep South or the desert Southwest.

The vast majority of pest control in the colder climates revolves around pathogens like pink or gray snow mold, dollar spot or other turfgrass diseases that can wreak havoc if turf is not properly treated with fungicides before cold weather and snow cover combine to create perfect habitat for the diseases. The trick for many superintendents is to time their final fungicide applications correctly to prevent having the protection washed away in fall rainfall before the snow arrives or in the snow-thaw-snow cycle.

"We're mostly trying to prevent pink snow mold," says Dave Groelle, superintendent at Chicago-area Royal Melbourne Country Club. "Our biggest decision is when to apply the fungicide. We want it to get into the growing plant, so the timing is critical for us. We usually apply it in the first half of November on fairways, tees and greens."
Some courses don't receive deep snow pack, and others are located in environmentally sensitive zones where certain fungicides are prohibited. The Essex County Club, located in the coastal area of Manchester-by-the-sea, Mass., fits into both categories. Director of golf and grounds Eric Richardson says the club treats for both late-season dollar spot and applies one large application for snow mold. As an environmentally sensitive site, however, Richardson applies Interface before the first snowfall, as well as Wintergreen, an anti-desiccant which covers and coats turf leaves to lock in the fungicide application for the winter months. Richardson further protects his greens with both permeable and impermeable covers to help keep roots warm and dry. As for other types of pests, Richardson's club is far enough north for Mother Nature to keep most insects out of play during the winter months, although he does apply some treatments to discourage grubs and Japanese beetles before putting the course to bed.

In addition to snow mold and dollar spot prevention, ValleyCrest Golf Course Maintenance national director Todd Bunnell says that particularly for courses who have recently undertaken some greens renovation, fall is a good time to do some preventative fungicide applications to control take-all thatch. Some of the products used for that purpose are Heritage QoI fungicides or Insignia, sometimes mixed with DMI.

Doug Oberman, director of sales for PBI Gordon, calls fall a “great time” to apply herbicides, especially to control the spring cycle of perennial broadleaf weeds such as dandelions and clover.

“Dandelions generally germinate in the fall and puffballs blow around when it starts cooling off in September,” Oberman says. “After we get some rainfall, they aren’t very big, but they are growing and establishing throughout the fall. Dandelions are the No. 1 broadleaf weed and they are fairly common on golf courses, and some clover could be growing as well. They can be controlled in the fall by using SpeedZone, Super Trimec and Trimec Classic.”

Rapid blight is another problem, particularly for western courses which get limited fall rainfall and thus have limited ability to flush salts from the plants' root zones, according to Bunnell. He said that particularly at Arizona courses which overseed their putting greens, it's a good time for a preventative application of herbicide to combat Poa trivialis. Similarly, because most forms of Poa germinate in the fall regardless of where it occurs, fall is a good time to treat it and hopefully retard its germination to mitigate its appearance in the spring.

Superintendents in Florida and some other parts of the Deep South face different problems at this time of year. Both Bunnell and John Foy, director for the Florida region of the USGA Greens Section, say plant parasitic nematodes are a threat throughout the area and need to be suppressed. Foy says some frequently used products are Multi-Guard Protect, Avid and later in the fall, Nortica to protect turf roots from nematodes. Another pest Bunnell says can wreak havoc on a lot of turf in a short period of time if not controlled in the fall are armyworms, which feed on turfgrass seed and need a quick application of insecticide as soon as they are detected. Jim Goodrich, fungicide and insecticide product manager for PBI Gordon, recommends applying Zylam 20SG and Zylam Liquid to control armyworms.

Other Florida concerns, Foy says, include tropical signalgrass, which is best treated in the late summer or early fall. Foy says that process has become more expensive due to the fact that MSMA, a favorite tool for control and prevention, is no longer available, and most approved chemical treatments are more expensive. Another Florida bane, due to the prevalence of Bermuda greens in the region, is rhizoctonia zeae, or sheath and leaf blight. Foy says infection of that particular pest typically occurs in the late summer, but generally isn't detected until the fall's cooler temperatures and shorter days arrive.

Winter frosts and snow keep most insect and animal pests holed up until the spring thaw at most northern courses, but Foy says occasionally mole crickets can be a late-season issue for Florida courses. Ironically, he says, one of Mother Nature's deterrents to mole crickets and grubs, the sandhill crane, creates problems for superintendents by tearing up turf as they dig for an insect dinner. And, as reported in the September issue (enter bit.ly/1uwX132 into your browser to read the article), red imported fire ants are a year-round problem at some Deep South courses as well as courses throughout much of the Southwest and Southern California and need to be controlled by bait applications or spot surface insecticide treatments.

Course maintenance in the desert Southwest at this time of year revolves primarily around overseeding of winter rye or other turfgrasses to replace the spring and summer Bermudagrass as it goes dormant. Many superintendents use a growth regulator to slow down the Bermudagrass during the winter months. Mike Tellier, superintendent at the two Desert Willow courses in Palm Desert, Calif., says he will include applications of Revolver during the late overseeding period to control Poa.

PBI Gordon’s Goodrich says fall applications are critical to prevent issues when overseeding. “Big fall activity is seeding turf areas,” Goodrich says. “If conditions are right, you can lose a lot of the seedlings because of the different pathogens that could wipe out those new seedlings. You can apply Segway preventatively to prevent the damping off disease.”

And, in addition to keeping the afore-mentioned fire ants under control, Tellier says the fall occasionally brings some late season insect issues, but that is controllable with light pesticide applications.

Jim Dunlap is a freelance writer based in Encinitas, Calif., and a frequent GCI contributor.