Controlling Turfgrass Pests / Edition 3

by Thomas W. Fermanian, Malcolm C. Shurtleff, Roscoe Randell, Henry T. Wilkinson, Philip L. Nixon

Overview

This book is a valuable reference to turfgrass consultants and representatives of a variety of agribusinesses that serve the turfgrass industry. It contains both the technical and practical information necessary for decision-making and the day-to-day operation in all areas of turfgrass culture and management. Coverage is provided on maintenance of turfgrasses. other pertinent topics include biology and management of weeds in turfgrasses biology and management of diseases in turfgrasses as well as biology and control of insects and related pests in turfgrass. coverage is also included on the application of equipment and the safe use of pesticides. For Turf Managers, Landscapers, Lawn Care Managers, and Golf Course Superintendents.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780130981431
Publisher:	Pearson
Publication date:	05/03/2002
Edition description:	3RD
Pages:	654
Product dimensions:	6.80(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.50(d)

About the Author

Thomas W. Fermanian is an Associate Professor of Turfgrass Science in the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Dr. Fermanian received a Ph.D. in turfgrass science at Oklahoma State University in 1980. He then accepted a position in the department of Horticulture at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Dr. Fermanian has remained at the University of Illinois for 21 years and is currently an associate professor in the department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences.

Dr. Fermanian has developed several knowledge engineering and qualitative data analysis tools for agriculture, along with computer-based turfgrass management systems. One of these programs, AgAssistant, was used to build the weed i0entification key. In addition to his interests in computing systems and programming, his major work is in lowinput, site-specific management of turfgrass weeds and the use of plant-growth-regulating compounds on fine turfs.

Malcolm C. Shurtleff received his B.S. in biology from the University of Rhode Island in 1943 and his M.S. (1950) and Ph.D. (1953) in plant pathology from the University of Minnesota. He is now an Emeritus Professor of Plant Pathology at the University of Illinois, where he resided on the faculty from 1961 to 1992. He served in the U.S. Navy during World War II.

Dr. Shurtleff taught plant disease control and diseases of turfgrasses and ornamentals and was an extension plant pathologist in Rhode Island, Iowa, and Illinois for 42 years, handling all types of plant disease problems. He is the author of 9 books, 16 encyclopedia articles, 393 magazine articles, and 1,651 extension and research articles on plant diseases.

Dr. Shurtleff has been honored nationally by being accorded Fellow status by the American Phytopathological Society, given the Adventurers in Agricultural Science Award of Distinction by the International Congress of Plant Protection, and the Distinguished Service Award from the USDA.

Roscoe Randell is an internationally recognized entomologist who recently retired after more than 35 years of service to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Dr. Randell began his public service as a county extension adviser and continued to work directly with turf managers, diagnosing insect problems, throughout his career. In 1985, Dr. Randell received the Illinois Turfgrass Foundation's Distinguished Service Award.

Henry T. Wilkinson has researched and taught turfgrass pathology at the University of Illinois for over 19 years. He has discovered numerous new turf diseases in both cool- and warm-season grasses and has solved pathological problems in many different parts of the world. His main pathological expertise is in soil-borne pathogens of turfgrass. He was raised in Princeton, New Jersey. He graduated from Purdue University (B.S.) and Cornell University (M.S. and Ph.D.) and studied as a postdoctoral fellow at Washington State University.

Philip L. Nixon is an Extension Entomologist for the University of Illinois. After being located in the Chicago area from 1980 to 1987, he moved to his present position at the Champaign-Urbana campus. He advises and teaches turfgrass professionals on proper insect pest management and conducts research on turfgrass insects. He also is a coordinator for the Pesticide Applicator Training Program at the University of Illinois. Dr. Nixon has advanced degrees from Southern Illinois University and Kansas State University.

Read an Excerpt

This book is an up-to-date account of the current state of the art and science of turfgrass pest management. The third edition has been written as a basic text for college students in turfgrass management, landscape architecture, turfgrass pathology, and economic entomology. It is also designed as a comprehensive reference for professional turfgrass managers, including golf course superintendents; lawn-care-company personnel; park and cemetery officials; those responsible for maintaining turf on sports fields, at airports, and along highways; seed and turf producers; and landscapers. It should prove a valuable reference to turfgrass consultants; representatives of a variety of agribusinesses that serve the turfgrass industry; county, area, and state extension (advisory) personnel; and master gardeners involved in the diagnosis and suggestion of control measures for turfgrass pests, officers in state and federal departments of agriculture and regulatory agencies, vocational agriculture and biology teachers, garden-center personnel, garden writers, and home lawn enthusiasts. The book contains both the technical and practical information necessary for decision making and the day-to-day operation in all areas of turfgrass culture and management.

The stimulus for writing this book has come from the rapid expansion of the turfgrass industry in the past 10 to 30 years and a tremendous increase in the numbers of professional turfgrass managers responsible for managing turf as free as possible of weeds, insects, diseases, and other pests. There are a number of excellent books available on turfgrass management and culture. However, a text-reference book that concentrates on the diagnosis, fundamental biology, and control of turfgrass weeds, insects and other animal pests, and diseases is needed.

The authors humbly submit this work as such a book.

Emphasis is placed on how to identify turfgrass pests, where and why they occur, the damage that may take place, the life cycles of pests, plus cultural, chemical, and other management strategies designed to keep pest damage to a minimum.

This edition stresses integrated pest management (IPM) systems for controlling turfgrass pests. Insects and diseases often occur in combination with weeds and/or as a result of one another. For example, thinning and killing of a turf stand by diseases and/or insects allows weeds to germinate and invade the damaged area. Insects and diseases commonly weaken turfgrass plants, making them more susceptible to another type of pest. Every IPM program on a golf course, home or industry lawn, athletic field, park, cemetery, and seed or sod farm is aimed at managing the turfgrass to its competitive best by manipulating all the cultural aspects of turfgrass management, supplemented where needed with the proper application of growth regulators and pesticides. The basic steps of any IPM program are presented in sec. 2.1.

An icon appears at the beginning of each section in the book representing one of the three major IPM steps. These icons have been inserted to help the reader focus on material that will assist them in executing these important IPM principles. It is our hope that these visual cues will assist you in understanding how presented materials relate to basic IPM principles.

Emphasis is placed on minimizing the severity of all types of pest damage through properly-organized cultural management. The effectiveness of pesticide applications (to control weeds, insects, diseases, nematodes, or rodents) can only be achieved if proper cultural management programs have been followed. Underlying mismanagement, which commonly allows a pest to become a problem, must first be resolved. Specific recommendations are given for each pest, integrating all available IPM tactics. Suggestions are given for cool- and warm-season turfgrass species growing in humid, wet, dry, and arid conditions under low, medium, or high maintenance.

The enlarged chapter on integrated management blends the various strategies and general turfgrass maintenance practices into a unified whole. The recommendations made take into account the cultural aspects of turfgrass management (such as proper establishment or renovation using locally adapted resistant species and cultivars, proper irrigation, mowing height and frequency dethatching, adjustment of the nitrogen rate and source, soil modification by coring or aerification and topdressing soil pH adjustment, traffic and soil compaction, plus judicious use of pesticides, biological, and legal control measures). Successful turfgrass management, including pests, is an art based on sound scientific knowledge. Due to frequent changes in pesticides, pesticide formulations and other chemicals used in turfgrass culture, climatic variations, and the turfs grown, this book should be supplemented by current pest control programs and bulletins available in each state or country from the local extension (advisory) office or state agricultural experiment station.

Accurate diagnosis is the first step in the control of any pest. The detailed keys in chapters 5, 6, and Appendix D plus the numerous illustrations, are designed to make positive diagnosis as simple as possible. The extensive index should also be helpful.

Much of the research information concerning turfgrass culture, including the biology and control of weeds, insects and plant diseases, is scattered throughout thousands of scientific journals, trade publications, turfgrass conference proceedings, and field day programs, and is therefore not easily available to students, turfgrass managers, and others interested in controlling the wide range of turfgrass pests. Many thousands of references were reviewed during the preparation of this text. Each of the major chapters ends with a list of the more pertinent and widely available references for those wishing to study in more detail a certain pest or maintenance activity. The text is complemented by numerous line drawings, photographs, and color plates that have been carefully selected to illustrate all of the common and uncommon pests, even the rare ones. In writing this book, the authors assume the reader possesses an elementary knowledge of such basic sciences as botany, chemistry, and soil science.

Comments regarding the general usefulness of the text and/or errors or omissions in the text are always welcome. With your suggestions, future editions can become even more valuable for the diagnosis and management of turfgrass pests.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction.


2. Maintenance of Turfgrasses.


3. Abiotic Turfgrass Problems.


4. Biology and Management of Weeds in Turfgrasses.


5. Biology and Management of Diseases in Turfgrasses.


6. Biology and Control of Insects and Related Pests of Turfgrass.


7. Application Equipment and the Safe Use of Pesticides.


8. Calibrating Equipment.


Appendix A: Measurements and Conversions.


Appendix B: Calculating Land Areas.


Appendix C: Land-Grant Institutions and Agricultural Experiment Stations in the United States.


Appendix D: Key to turfgrass Weeds.


Glossary.


Index.

Preface

This book is an up-to-date account of the current state of the art and science of turfgrass pest management. The third edition has been written as a basic text for college students in turfgrass management, landscape architecture, turfgrass pathology, and economic entomology. It is also designed as a comprehensive reference for professional turfgrass managers, including golf course superintendents; lawn-care-company personnel; park and cemetery officials; those responsible for maintaining turf on sports fields, at airports, and along highways; seed and turf producers; and landscapers. It should prove a valuable reference to turfgrass consultants; representatives of a variety of agribusinesses that serve the turfgrass industry; county, area, and state extension (advisory) personnel; and master gardeners involved in the diagnosis and suggestion of control measures for turfgrass pests, officers in state and federal departments of agriculture and regulatory agencies, vocational agriculture and biology teachers, garden-center personnel, garden writers, and home lawn enthusiasts. The book contains both the technical and practical information necessary for decision making and the day-to-day operation in all areas of turfgrass culture and management.

The stimulus for writing this book has come from the rapid expansion of the turfgrass industry in the past 10 to 30 years and a tremendous increase in the numbers of professional turfgrass managers responsible for managing turf as free as possible of weeds, insects, diseases, and other pests. There are a number of excellent books available on turfgrass management and culture. However, a text-reference book that concentrates on the diagnosis, fundamental biology, and control of turfgrass weeds, insects and other animal pests, and diseases is needed.

The authors humbly submit this work as such a book.

Emphasis is placed on how to identify turfgrass pests, where and why they occur, the damage that may take place, the life cycles of pests, plus cultural, chemical, and other management strategies designed to keep pest damage to a minimum.

This edition stresses integrated pest management (IPM) systems for controlling turfgrass pests. Insects and diseases often occur in combination with weeds and/or as a result of one another. For example, thinning and killing of a turf stand by diseases and/or insects allows weeds to germinate and invade the damaged area. Insects and diseases commonly weaken turfgrass plants, making them more susceptible to another type of pest. Every IPM program on a golf course, home or industry lawn, athletic field, park, cemetery, and seed or sod farm is aimed at managing the turfgrass to its competitive best by manipulating all the cultural aspects of turfgrass management, supplemented where needed with the proper application of growth regulators and pesticides. The basic steps of any IPM program are presented in sec. 2.1.

An icon appears at the beginning of each section in the book representing one of the three major IPM steps. These icons have been inserted to help the reader focus on material that will assist them in executing these important IPM principles. It is our hope that these visual cues will assist you in understanding how presented materials relate to basic IPM principles.

Emphasis is placed on minimizing the severity of all types of pest damage through properly-organized cultural management. The effectiveness of pesticide applications (to control weeds, insects, diseases, nematodes, or rodents) can only be achieved if proper cultural management programs have been followed. Underlying mismanagement, which commonly allows a pest to become a problem, must first be resolved. Specific recommendations are given for each pest, integrating all available IPM tactics. Suggestions are given for cool- and warm-season turfgrass species growing in humid, wet, dry, and arid conditions under low, medium, or high maintenance.

The enlarged chapter on integrated management blends the various strategies and general turfgrass maintenance practices into a unified whole. The recommendations made take into account the cultural aspects of turfgrass management (such as proper establishment or renovation using locally adapted resistant species and cultivars, proper irrigation, mowing height and frequency dethatching, adjustment of the nitrogen rate and source, soil modification by coring or aerification and topdressing soil pH adjustment, traffic and soil compaction, plus judicious use of pesticides, biological, and legal control measures). Successful turfgrass management, including pests, is an art based on sound scientific knowledge. Due to frequent changes in pesticides, pesticide formulations and other chemicals used in turfgrass culture, climatic variations, and the turfs grown, this book should be supplemented by current pest control programs and bulletins available in each state or country from the local extension (advisory) office or state agricultural experiment station.

Accurate diagnosis is the first step in the control of any pest. The detailed keys in chapters 5, 6, and Appendix D plus the numerous illustrations, are designed to make positive diagnosis as simple as possible. The extensive index should also be helpful.

Much of the research information concerning turfgrass culture, including the biology and control of weeds, insects and plant diseases, is scattered throughout thousands of scientific journals, trade publications, turfgrass conference proceedings, and field day programs, and is therefore not easily available to students, turfgrass managers, and others interested in controlling the wide range of turfgrass pests. Many thousands of references were reviewed during the preparation of this text. Each of the major chapters ends with a list of the more pertinent and widely available references for those wishing to study in more detail a certain pest or maintenance activity. The text is complemented by numerous line drawings, photographs, and color plates that have been carefully selected to illustrate all of the common and uncommon pests, even the rare ones. In writing this book, the authors assume the reader possesses an elementary knowledge of such basic sciences as botany, chemistry, and soil science.

Comments regarding the general usefulness of the text and/or errors or omissions in the text are always welcome. With your suggestions, future editions can become even more valuable for the diagnosis and management of turfgrass pests.