Mole Crickets... Again!!

In a earlier post I explained how mole crickets are a major pest that impact golf courses and landscapes in the coastal south east.  They are interesting looking bugs that are extremely powerful for their size and have the potential to cause serious damage to turf if not kept in check.  I continued to monitor eggs through the first couple of weeks in June until one day I was checking for adults and found babies!!

We found these suckers on a Wednesday and went out the following Monday June 9th with our .2% Merit (imidicloprid) on a 20-0-5 fertilizer.  We applied the fertalizer at a rate of 200 pounds per acre. That gave us .4 lbs of Merit per acre as well as just under 1 pound of nitrogen per thousand square feet or 40 pounds of nitrogen per acre. Luckily we were able to treat the entire golf course (75 acres) in one day by utilizing two tractor mounted Lely spreaders. 

We marked our calenders and came back two weeks later with a follow up application of 0-0-22 with .1% Bifenthrin at a rate of 200 pounds per acre. That gave us .2 pounds of active ingredient per acre.  This application did not go as smoothly as the previous Merit application. Our backs were against the wall because the golf course was open on Monday June 23 for a senior event that was a 9 a.m. shotgun on all 18 holes.  We didn't start putting our product out until a little after 3 p.m. and were racing against looming thunderstorms and running out of daylight.  We were also operating with only one spreader this time because our other spreader operator was out that day. Long story short we did holes 14-18 on Monday June 23, holes 1-8 on Wednesday June 25 and finished up holes 9-13 and the driving range this past Monday June 30.  So far we have not noticed any more mole cricket activity since our last treatment. 

Let's Catch Up

As you can see I haven't posted anything in a while...... So let's get started on getting caught up since the last post. 

We have had an extremely busy May and first half of June. The golf management department is getting into its normal summertime maintenance routine with mowing all our short grass (tees/fwys/approaches) 3-5 times per week depending on weather. We are also mowing rough twice a week and fly mowing bunkers weekly. To put this into perspective for you we are mowing 200 acres of turf a week. And I'm not even counting greens which is another 3.5 acres mowed 10 to 14 times a week which is another 35 acres. 

On May 19, 2014 we aerified all our greens with a 3/8" hollow tine on a 2" by 2" spacing.  Cleaned up the plugs and rolled greens two directions with a salsco roller. Our objective was to remove organic matter (thatch), aid in water infiltration and most importantly allow some much needed gas exchange to take place in the root zone.  It had been 10 months since any significant aeration had occurred on the greens and man did they respond well. 

Greens aerification in progress.

Salsco rolling greens after plugs have been cleared.

In the photo above you can see the root system on this green is around two inches. This sample was taken May 26 with a soil probe. Please compair with the photo below.

This sample was taken literally 1" from the sample above at the same time on the same day.  The only difference being I put the soil probe directly over a aerification hole that was made 7 days prior. Note the length and amount of roots above.  

The two photos above perfectly describe the benefits of aerification better than I could ever do with words. And this was only with a 3/8" tine and no sand added back to fill the hole. Imagine the root mass our greens are going to gain when we do our major aerification in July. 

We are atypical in our approach to aerification. The majority of golf courses that have Bermuda greens in the southeast perform two aerifications per year. One typically in late May or early June and another sometime in August.  We have crafted our maintenance program to include three aerifications a year with two of them taking place during the month of July, a week apart from each other.  I'm getting ahead of myself..... I'll talk more about our major (disruptive) aeration as that takes place. 

Normal Greens Management

Once we got past aerification which only took us one day and caused very little impact to playability we have started our normal summer cultural practices.  During the prime growing season (May-October) for Bermuda in our area we veticutt our greens every 7 to 10 days and apply a light amount of sand and follow up the sand with a brush to insure the sand works down into the turf canopy.

Verticutting greens.  

We typically go in two different directions when we verticutt and always make a pass up and down the same line. We do this because as you move across a Bermuda green in any direction the grain changes.  In order to reduce grain you must go in both directions over the same pass. If not, you will only intensify the grain and adversely effect ball roll.  As you can see from the picture we are pulling up quite a bit of grass and organic matter that is building up just below the turf surface. We typically verticutt our green to a depth of 1/32 to 1/16 of an inch. I know, it doesn't sound like much but as you can see above we are pulling out a lot of material.  Following the verticutter is a blower to clear the green of excess grass then a mower to clean up the grass and smooth the green prior to sanding. 

Grooves made from the verticutter.  These are extremely important because they allow channels so to speak for the sand to settle into. 

Using push spreaders to apply a light amount of sand to greens following verticutting. 

Brushing greens. This is used to help work sand into the channels and leaf canopy so we don't pick it all up the next time we mow. 

So, now your up to speed on greens maintenance but I have much more to share. Unfortunately, at this moment, I am out of time. I will contine this again in the near future. Thanks for reading!

Mole Crickets

One of the pest golf course managers and landscapers in coastal southeast South Carolina deal with throughout the year are mole crickets.  They are insects that live in the ground and tunnel beneath the turf surface. In small numbers damage is minimal and in some cases acceptable. However if population are high and are left uncontrolled they can cause significant damage and in severe cases complete turf loss.

This picture is text book mole cricket damage in a golf course fairway.  This cricket has most likely been active in this spot for three to four days.  

Above is a picture of an adult mole cricket that I was able to capture by pouring a mixture of lemon scented dish soap and water into its tunnel.  The soap irritates the crickets and forces them to come to the turf surface.  I am not clear on exactly what impact dish soap has on insects but "flushing" is a common and effective practice when trying to identify and or capture many insects that cause damage to turf grass. 

I was able to flush up five mole crickets this past Friday morning while making my way around the golf course. Mole crickets are becoming more and more active as our temperatures continue to rise as we approach summer. 

Ok. So most of you are thinking why is this guy catching mole crickets?  Why doesn't he just put some bug killer on them and be done with it?  Well, unfortunately mole crickets are very difficult to control once they become mature adults. Once they become adults Orthene (acephate) is one of the few products that will give any significant amount of control.  It works best when applied late in the evening to the turf surface through a boom sprayer then watered in lightly to move the product into the canopy of the turf. 

The most successful way to control mole crickets is to treat for them soon after they hatch and are most succeptiable to insecticides we have available to use in our industry.  I monitor cricket activity through the spring and into the summer to determine when they lay their eggs and when the eggs will hatch.  Three weeks after eggs are laid they develope into larvae and it is at this time they are the most succeptiable to our treatments. Our first treatment is typically made the second half of May to the first half of June.  I treat the entire golf course with .2% Merit (imidicloprid) on a 20-0-5 fertilizer from Lebanon turf at 200#/A.  Three weeks after that we make our second treatment in order to catch any crickets that hatched late. Our second treatment is with a 0-0-22 w/ .1% bifenthrin at 200#/A.  

In order for these treatments to be successful it is critical they are timed properaly.  Applications made either too early or too late will not provide adequate control and you have essentially thrown about $18,000.00 down the drain. To insure our timing is spot on and we get the most out of our treatments I monitor cricket activity weekly. 

After I have collected several crickets by performing a soap and water flush I dissect them and inspect for the presence if eggs.  Above is a cricket that had eggs. I will continue to flush and dissect crickets two to three times a week and document my findings. Once I see a decline in the amount of crickets with eggs I will make a note of the date and in three weeks make my first application with Merit and three weeks after that treat with bifenthrin. 

I'll keep you updated as I move through this process. 

Monday Monday Monday

Wow!!! I have been so busy since my last post I'll hit the highlights. 

Picture of the morning sky while raking bunkers at Harbor Town for the Heritage. I raked bunkers in the morning and mowed fairways in the evening. Interisting fact about maintaining a golf course for a PGA tour event..... 42 maintenance staff for the week combining to work a total of 3200 hours. If you conservatively and I do mean conservatively assume each person was paid $10/hr not counting any overtime that is a maintenance cost if $32,000.00 for one week.  Wow!!!!!  I don't know about you but that's one heck of a chunk of change to me. 

Got back to my golf course to find everything looking pretty good. I was  there throughout the week of the heritage but didn't arrive til after players were out and as busy as we are it is challenging to look at everything while play is steady. 

With the weather warming up our use of the irrigation system is becoming more frequent. As with anything that sits relatively inactive for a prolonged period of time there will be issues with performance once you resume use on a regular basis. Above is an example of such an issue.  

As you can see the irrigation head was positioned on the edge of a lagoon. It was also a dead end instead of a loop. So,when we had to pressure our system up after our pumpstation went down TGE pressure blew the cap off the pipe and displaced the concrete thrust block put in place to prevent this from happening. 

Instead of fixing the problem where it occurred I chose to move the head away from the edge of the lagoon about 15 feet. This allowed me to install a new thrust block behind the cap which will better hold its place and prevent this from happening again in the future. 

We have also begun to slowly transition our winter overseed by applying extremely low rates of a selective herbicide (revolver) to our greens, tees and fairways. We started with 1/4 oz/acre on greens and 1/2 oz/acre on tees and fairways. To date we have made two applications at the rates listed above. The purpose is to only slow the growth of our cool season turf down enough to allow our warm season turf to take over. 

After an interisting weekend with our pumpstation malfunctioning three nights in a row when our temps reached 80 degrees and the wind blowing a steady 15 to 20 mph. We had a action packed Monday in the golf maintenance department. 

We mowed all our short grass including the driving range, our primary rough, intermediates and out of play areas.  

Starting after lunch we mowed greens again with the groomers set down 1/16" and mowed up and down the same pass (double cut).  Then we topdressed using dry 65 sand applied with rotary spreaders one direction.  We followed that with a brush so that we worked the sand down into the canopy of the turf. 

 

This process serves multiple purposes.  It helps increase speed and firmness of the putting surface, slows down the build up of thatch, helps with water and air movement and helps keep excess moisture from building near the turf surface just to name a few. 

We will likely begin increasing our frequency of top dressing as the weather continues to warm and our grass begins to take off. 

Spring is Here!!!

The azaleas started two weeks ago and are almost done now. Spring is definitely in the air in coastal South Carolina. It is a welcomed change.  

With spring here everything on the course is emerging out of dormancy and we are staying busy mowing rough for the first time, pruning all our love grass and adding pine straw, doing a little aerifying in weak areas in fairways and applying fertilizer to high traffic areas to give them a jump start.

Mowing rough the first time 2 weeks ago. 

Looking across the seventh fairway you can see the love grass has received its annual pruning and we are adding straw between the plants to increase the aesthetic value of the hole and also aid in weed control.

Aerifying weak areas in fairways. These areas tend to become extremely hydrophobic during late winter and early spring. We aerify in order to remove thatch and also create a channel for water to penetrate into the soil. We follow this process by watering these areas with a hose and applying a product that aids in water infiltration and retention. 

Trying to get the hang of posting pictures.... This is a old photo I have from this past years (2013) overseed.  This picture was taken from the green looking back toward the tee.  This was our first mowing in the afternoon 11 days after our seed went down.

Getting Started

Welcome!!!  This is the first post of many.... I hope.  Most of this blog will be dedicated to my professional experiences as they happen throughout the coming weeks, months and years.  I invite you to come along with me and experience the world of Golf Course Management that I have happily made my career.   I am excited to share my experiences with anyone interested in gaining some insight into this profession.