Integrated Pest Managementin Turfgrass

Dr. Linda A. Gilkeson

Pesticide Management Branch,Be Environment

reproduction and weak points in its cyclewhen control will be most effective. TheBCMAFF Plant Diagnostic Laboratory inCloverdale provides an important serviceto turf managers in identifying turf dis-eases and other problems. To take advan-tageof this service, make sure thatsamples are taken and shipped accordingto instructions from the lab. For example,to identify turf diseases it is important totake samples from the advancing edge ofa fungal infection so that the diseased andhealthy turf is present in the sample. In-clude as much written information for thelab as possible, such as when symptomswere first observed, the pattern of disease,how much of the area is affected, pesti-cides that have been applied and othermanagement information.

Although it might seem enough to sim-ply identify a weed as "broadleaved" ornot, specific identification is importantbecause weeds provide clues to soil con-ditions and management problems. Forexample, clover does well in compactedconditions, English daisy thrives in moistareas, while other species are indicators ofdroughty soils, low fertility and otherconditions.

To aid identification and inspection,everyone should have a magnifying glassor hand lens; some companies or parksdepartments find it worthwhile to investin a microscope. It is a good idea to build

continued on page 8

Integrated Pest ManagementIntegrated Pest Management, or IPM, is

a systematic approach to pest manage-ment. It uses all available techniques in anorganized program to suppress pest popu-lations in effective, economical and envi-ronmentally safe ways. Properlyimplemented, it is a decision making ap-proach based on site specific managementand using multiple control methods. Thebasic principles of IPM are to reduce pes-ticide use by improving the timing of ap-plications, to replace pesticides withnon-toxic alternatives and good manage-ment and to redesign the underlying man-agement system to prevent pest problemsand to conserve beneficial species. Al-though chemical and pesticides are a toolin an IPM program, too often they havebeen used as a substitute for other man-agement methods. Indeed, after four orfive decades of relying on chemical pesti-cides, we have forgotten that there areother, very effective pest control tech-niques available.

The Goal:Quality turfgrass with

minimum adverse effectson the environment.

The management of turfgrass pests,whether on golf courses, playing

fields or in parks and recreational facili-ties, is coming under increasing scrutiny.Both turf users and non-users that live inthe vicinity of the facilities are becomingincreasingly concerned about the use ofpesticides, whether they are herbicides,fungicides or insecticides. Turf managershave no choice but to address this con-cern. Golf course superintendents havebeen particularly aware of this issue andthrough their professional organizationshave been involved in research into turfmanagement practices, including alterna-tives, for several years. Parks and sportsturf superintendents are also becominginvolved as more municipalities enactbans on pesticide use and/or adopt inte-grated pest management policies.

Components of an IPM Program:Identification

Identification of the problem is essentialto developing an IPM program becausemost treatments must be tailored to aparticular species. Once a problem is iden-tified, it is possible to find out about thepest's biology, conditions that favour its

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up a labelled selection of specimens andphotographs of pests for future reference.Once these have been identified, the col-lection remains as a reference for speedyidentification the next time the problemoccurs.

MonitoringMonitoring is critical to the develop-

ment of an IPM program because it pro-vides the information needed to makedecisions about the timing of treatmentsand whether or not they are necessary.Most monitoring programs are based onregular inspections for pests and may in-clude taking samples or recording counts.For example, monitoring for disease outbreaks may involve daily visual inspec-tions as well as collecting and countingdiseased versus healthy blades of grass.Keeping track of weather conditions thatare conducive to the development of fun-gal diseases would also be part of a diseasemonitoring program.

Other pests are monitored on differentschedules. For example, sampling for era-neflies may be done only in the late sum-mer, when the larvae are present in theturf, while monitoring for weeds may bedone twice a year, in mid-May and againin mid-August. Sampling methods forweeds involves laying a grid over an entirearea, such as a sports field, or laying outa series of random transects in larger areasof turf. The number of weeds along thetransects or within the grids is thencounted and recorded. If the sampling isconducted the same way each time, it willbe possible to tell whether the averageweed population is increasing or decreas-ing. It is common for managers to findthat they need fewer pesticides to obtainsatisfactory results when they base their

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treatment decisions on information froma monitoring program.

Injury LevelInjury levels are defined as the unaccept-

able levels of damage from pests. Work inagriculture has primarily been on eco-nomic injury levels, but in turf and otherlandscape areas, an aesthetic injury levelmay apply. In this case, the need for treat-ment depends on how much damage thepublic will tolerate, which depends onhow noticeable the damage is, the type ofpest and location of the damage.

In turf management, different injury lev-els apply depending on the purpose of theturf. For example, most people appar-ently do not notice weeds in a lawn whenthe weed cover is 5 - 10% and homeowners are often content with higher pro-

. portions of weeds. For general use turf ina park, an injury level of 40% weed coveris considered acceptable by some munici-palities. On the other hand, weeds onplaying fields might be hazardous to theplayers or disrupt the playability of a sur-face if they exceed 200/0 coverage. On agolf course putting green the tolerance forweeds would be considerably lower. Be-cause different areas of turf will havedifferent standards, it is important toseparate areas in a park or recreation fa-cility according to the type of use, loca-tion, soil condition and other relevantfactors. The monitoring programs mustbe tailored to the different sites to accom-modate the differing injury levels for vari-ous pests.

Establishing an Injury Level forWeeds in Turf

Although little research has been pub-lished in this regard, turf managers can

Ronald M. CraigPresident

develop a reasonable idea of injury thresh-olds for weeds in their own recreationfacilities. One method is to choose areasof turf with acceptable levels of weeds andcount 5 -10 transects or grids in theseareas. Then count the same number oftransects in areas that are marginal andagain in areas that have an unacceptablenumber of weeds. When the percentageof weeds from each class of turf is aver-aged, the manager should be able to arriveat a workable guideline for acceptable andunacceptable proportions of weeds.

Action ThresholdsAction threshold are when to apply

treatments to prevent pests from reachinginjury levels. Action thresholds and injurylevels appear to be virtually the samewhen pesticides are used as controls. Be-cause pesticides act immediately to stoppests, the. most economical applicationsare just before the pest population reachesa damaging level. In contrast, when bio-logical control agents are used, they usu-ally require time to become establish andbreed in sufficient numbers to control thepests. Therefore, the most economicaltime to apply biological controls (the ac-tion threshold) might be much earlier inthe season, before pest numbers reach theinjury level.

Little work has been done on estab-lishing action or injury threshold for pestsin the landscape and turf sector. Becauseit is so subjective, an aesthetic injury levelwill change with changes in the aestheticvalues of the turf users and varies with thedifferent types of turf areas and uses.

Continued on page 9

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TreatmentsTreatments are, naturally, key. compo-

nents to an IPM program. Often morethan one type of treatment is integratedinto a program to control a particularpest. It is usually necessary to integrate avariety of treatments for several differentpests to develop a complete program. Al-though there is a range of treatmentsavailable to IPM managers, for turf themost relevant are cultural, biological andchemical control; these are discussed be-low. The main physical control used inturf is hand pulling weeds, which is aviable alternative to herbicides in somecases.

Before considering treatment further,perhaps the first consideration for a turfmanager is whether it is possible to redes-ign the system by reducing the area of highinput turf. This saves money, reduces im-pact on the environment and allows moreresources to be spent on other areas ofturf. Turf area can be reduced by plantingto competitive ground covers or wildflowers. Although wild-flower meadowsrequire care to become established andmust be mowed at least once in the fall,they can reduce the need for fertilizer,

water and labour for mowing. Allowingturf to mature also may be an option.Although mature turf areas and meadowsmay look ragged at times, some managersovercome this by mowing a single swathalong the edges of the area to provide theneat look of parkland. It may also befeasible to reduce high input turf areas byreplacing heavily used sports turf withartificial surfaces. High traffic areas thatare difficult to maintain, such as joggingpaths, can also be paved or mulched.

Cultural ControlsCultural controls are often called pre-

ventative controls because they involvethe entire management of the turf. Formost turf, it is possible to use culturalmanagement methods to satisfactorilysuppress weeds because grasses are highlycompetitive plants. Healthy, well-man-aged turf can out-compete even estab-lished dandelions.

Choice of plantings:1. Plant species adapted to conditions.

This includes adaptations to climateand soil, to the intensity of use and tospecific local conditions, such as shade

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or low moisture. For example, peren-nial ryegrass and creeping red fescueare more tolerant of shade; mixturesof fescues and perennial ryegrass aremore wear resistant than bluegrass.

2. Plant disease and insect resistant culti-vars. There has been substantial suc-cess in breeding Kentucky bluegrassfor resistance to disease and there arealso improved cultivars of fescues withresistance to several fungal diseases.Some cultivars are also available withbeneficial endophytic fungal infec-tions, which confer insect resistanceand possibly some disease resistanceon the grass plants.

Endophytic fungi:These are fungi that infect grass and live

symbiotically inside the grass plants. Theybenefit the host grass by producing toxinsthat poison grazing animals, includingkilling and repelling turf-feeding insects,such as sod webworms and chinch bugs.Endophyte infected grasses are generallymore vigorous than the same cultivarswithout endophytes and there is someevidence that they are more tolerant ofmoisture stress and fungal infections.

continued on page 10

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ships of plants in turf and have a greateffect on turf health. The optimumheight for general use turf is 7 - 9 ern(21/2 - 3 inches). Generally, the longerthe grass, the healthier and more com-petitive it is. The roots are deeper ongrass. Plants with longer leaves and thelonger blades shade weed seeds so theycannot germinate. A University ofMaryland study showed that resettingthe mower to cut at 2 1/2 inches re-duced weeds from 53% to just 8% ofthe total area in the plots (other man-agement was the same for both). Al-though some turf must be keptconsiderably shorter than this, any in-crease in height will benefit the turf.

6. Manage play to protect turf. As com-paction and drainage are serious prob-lems in B.C. turf used year around,user expectations of year-around usemay have to change. Play should berestricted where possible to coincidewith turf conditions and to eliminatelate fall to early spring use whengrasses are dormant and soils are wet.

Optimum turf management:1. Manage the fertility of the turf. It is

important to use slow release fertiliz-ers and to fertilize only when turf isable to take up nutrients. Set realisticquality goals and apply the minimumrates of nitrogen and phosphorus nec-essary to sustain the desired turfgrassquality. Avoid over fertilizing, whichproduces excess growth and thus morethatch and fungal disease problems.

2. Manage thatch. A I-ern thick layer ofthatch is beneficial to the turf, but adeeper layer leads to stressed roots andincreased susceptibility to fungal dis-eases and sod webworms. Thatchbuilds up when there is excessive plantgrowth relative to the ability of soilanimals and organisms to break downand digest the organic material. Exces-sive fertilizer or pesticide use reducesthe. natural population of soil organ-isms, including earthworms. Earth-worms digest and mix thatch into thesoil, therefore killing worms on golfgreens to alleviate a problem with theircastings increase thatch problems.Studies show it is very rare to seethatch build-up where earthworm

populations are abundant.3. Improve irrigation systems. This in-

cludes ensuring efficient and even dis-tribution of water and allowing themaximum drying before turf is used ormowed to reduce disease and compac-tion. Managing moisture is a very im-portant part of weed and diseasecontrol on turf. For example, areas ofgolf courses with dry soil show in-creased susceptibility to dollar spot,broad-leaved weeds invade areas thatare drought stressed and low moistureconditions are associated with inva-sions of quackgrass, dandelions, plan-tain, yarrow and white clover. Manyweed species, such as crabgrass andchickweed, are favoured by frequentirrigation and overwatering.

4. Aerate turf to break up compaction.Clover and some broad leaved speciescompete well in compacted soils. Turfroots under stress from compactionare also more susceptible to disease.Mechanical aeration is usually done atleast once a season for actively usedturf.

5. Increase mowing heights. Mowingpractices alter competitive relation- continued on page 11

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Biological Control

The use of natural enemies of pests asbiological controls includes releasingcommercially produced beneficial speciesand conserving native species. For exam-ple, insect parasitic nematodes are nowregistered to control cranefly larvae(leather jackets) in turf and BT (Bacillusthuringiensis) which is a caterpillar dis-ease, can be used to control sod web-worms. There are also many native insectsand mites present in healthy soil that preyon these pests.

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micro-organisms can be conserved by re-ducing fungicide use; they can also beadded to turf by topdressing with com-post, which is rich in micro-organisms.Studies have shown that monthly applica-tions of compost and sand topdressinghave been effective in suppressing dis-eases such as dollar spot, brown patch,grey snow mould, and red thread.

Competitive control might be consid-ered a type of biological control becauseit involves oversee ding with highly com-petitive grasses to prevent weeds fromgrowing. Some managers overseed withturf-type perennial rye grass at least oncea year, in some cases up to four times ayear, to maintain the integrity of heavilyused turf. This is cheaper than re-soddinga field and minimizes the amount of timethe turf is out of operation.

Chemical ControlUnder an IPM program of turf manage-

ment, it is possible to reduce and eveneliminate pesticide use without sacrificingthe desired quality and performance ofturf. If monitoring determines that it isnecessary to use pesticides, reduce the

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impact on non-target organisms bychoosing the least toxic products and byapplying them in spot treatments. Takeadvantage of the most efficient applica-tion equipment, such as the lance or wipe-on type of applicators, to further reducethe amount of chemical needed to accom-plish the desired level of control.

EvaluationEvaluation is the final, but very impor-

tant, component of an IPM program. Thisis the stage for analyzing results, decidingon improvements and recording costs andbenefits. Generally IPM programs costmore than conventional practices for thefirst few years, but they become less ex-pensive than conventional managementin later years. Therefore, good records areimportant for tracking the long-term re-sults and benefits from an IPM program.

[Reproduced from Turf Line News, Vol. 116,June/July, 1993. Dr. Gilkeson was scheduled tospeak at the Ontario TUrfgrass Symposium inJanuary, 1997, however, government budg~t con-trois prevented her from attendingi

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