Small Moths in the Bermuda Grass: BEWARE!

[Chuckie]

I am spot spraying my pasture today for horse nettle and spiny amaranth. As I am walking across the pasture the beige-slightly tinged with orange moths are flying everywhere. I had a feeling that it is the Army Worm moth. I have not caught one, but coming to the computer, it is the exact same color that I see in the sunlight.

There are quite a few out there, and tomorrow we cut the hay field. They will love the Bermuda as it starts shooting back up. Last year they robbed me of a hay cutting and I had to start feeding hay early as the pastures had to recover. It was major infestation. And just like they say, when you look down, the ground is moving. I hate these things!!

Everyone keep a close on on your hay fields and pasture in West Tennessee

 

[Kingfisher]

http://www.brownwoodnews.com/index.php? ... &Itemid=87

Just saw this today.

 

[hurleyjd]

I am spot spraying my pasture today for horse nettle and spiny amaranth. As I am walking across the pasture the beige-slightly tinged with orange moths are flying everywhere. I had a feeling that it is the Army Worm moth. I have not caught one, but coming to the computer, it is the exact same color that I see in the sunlight.

There are quite a few out there, and tomorrow we cut the hay field. They will love the Bermuda as it starts shooting back up. Last year they robbed me of a hay cutting and I had to start feeding hay early as the pastures had to recover. It was major infestation. And just like they say, when you look down, the ground is moving. I hate these things!!

Everyone keep a close on on your hay fields and pasture in West Tennessee

The army worms have totaled my Bermuda crab grass lawn. I saw a lot of small moths about two weeks ago they were about 3/8 an inch long.

 

[Tim/South]

Here we can sign up for notification if army worms are reported with in our state. Just got an email that they are now in 4 counties here. I am hoping the rain helps keep them at bay. I have the pesticide already. Learned last year to keep it on hand. Hard to buy once they show up.

 

[dun]

I thought they only fed while in the larvae (worm) stage. By the time they reach maturity all they should be wanting to do is reproduce and die. But I've nevr been affected by them so don;t know their lifecycle.

 

[Bigfoot]

I didn't reseed what I lost to them last year. I figured it'd come back. Mistake, spots are still bare.

 

[jedstivers]

Lambda Cy is cheap and kills them graveyard dead. Don't hesitate to spray.

 

[fenceman]

I thought they only fed while in the larvae (worm) stage. By the time they reach maturity all they should be wanting to do is reproduce and die. But I've nevr been affected by them so don;t know their lifecycle.

Pretty much correct. The moths are laying eggs. They lay eggs in tall grass, brushy overgrown areas. A good reason to keep the edges of your Hayfield cleaned up. The worms start to graze their about the size of a grain of rice. At first the damage is very minimal. At around 2 weeks they grow to about a inch and a half. 20 acres can disappear in one night. The moths are a warning. Watch for the telltale window in the blades of grass. (small perfect squares cut out of young tender blades)when you see that spray right now.
A good cold rain will stop them dead.

 

[dun]

The moths are a warning. Watch for the telltale window in the blades of grass. (small perfect squares cut out of young tender blades)when you see that spray right now.
A good cold rain will stop them dead.

Wouldn;t it be a good time to spray when the moths are active? Hopefully that would help to cut down on next years crop of worms

 

[fenceman]

The moths are a warning. Watch for the telltale window in the blades of grass. (small perfect squares cut out of young tender blades)when you see that spray right now.
A good cold rain will stop them dead.

Wouldn;t it be a good time to spray when the moths are active? Hopefully that would help to cut down on next years crop of worms

Makes sense. But it's not usually done until larvae or present. Most recommendations are to wait until worms are about a half inch long.
My understanding is this assures all eggs of that life cycle have hatched. This allows you to completely break the life cycle .

 

[dun]

The moths are a warning. Watch for the telltale window in the blades of grass. (small perfect squares cut out of young tender blades)when you see that spray right now.
A good cold rain will stop them dead.

Wouldn;t it be a good time to spray when the moths are active? Hopefully that would help to cut down on next years crop of worms

Makes sense. But it's not usually done until larvae or present. Most recommendations are to wait until worms are about a half inch long.
My understanding is this assures all eggs of that life cycle have hatched. This allows you to completely break the life cycle .

If they come back the next year obviously the lifecycle hasn;t really been broken. If you would spray when they're half in long and agin when you see the moths I would think that you would have a better chance of really interupting the cycle.

 

[jedstivers]

The moths are a warning. Watch for the telltale window in the blades of grass. (small perfect squares cut out of young tender blades)when you see that spray right now.
A good cold rain will stop them dead.

Wouldn;t it be a good time to spray when the moths are active? Hopefully that would help to cut down on next years crop of worms

You won't kill the moths and you won't kill the eggs. You can only reliably kill the worms.

 

[dun]

You won't kill the moths and you won't kill the eggs. You can only reliably kill the worms.

Why won;t you kill the moths?

 

[jedstivers]

You won't kill the moths and you won't kill the eggs. You can only reliably kill the worms.

Why won;t you kill the moths?

Don't really know, just know you have to go after the worms. It's the same way in cotton, we can't spray when we see moths but we start a time line and then start looking for eggs, then when we see them get a certain color we spray in so many days to get hatched wormes.
We used to have good chemical for the eggs but the epa ruined that.

 

[Jogeephus]

If you want to really see the moths, drive through your field at night. Killing the moths won't do much good because they will just be replaced by your neighbors moths because we don't have any insecticides that will last any length of time. Just have to fight them from the egg on. If you see a bunch of moths spray with Dipel and that will give you 30 days control. It makes them where they can't grow however its about useless if the worms have gotten some size to them. Typically the armyworms will be at their peak around a full moon so watch closely then.

 

[JWBrahman]

Army worms are finishing up the last isolated patches of Bermuda left on a few thousand acres of cattle pasture in the neighborhood. It didn't come back from last year's infestation. Instead, several varieties of Crabgrass took over the Bermuda's turf.

Chuckie, you may want to be ready to spot burn your dead Bermuda and plant something more resistant in its place. Burning is also a pretty decent way to kill them in the moth and larvae stage.

 

[Chuckie]

Hi JW, this time of the year, the rains begin to slow down. Even if you shave the ground too close, the grass does not grow back as fast and it can cause you to lose a cutting. We have been very fortunate to have a rain once a week. I will have to baby it to get two more cuttings. Right now, there is no damage to the bermuda, as it will get cut today or tomorrow. We have a 20% chance of rain today, and the yellow clouds could pass over us as indicated by wunderground.com It is a great site to pull up close to see exactly where the clouds are headed. It shows the cloud activity over the entire earth in every country, but you will have to type your location in the search engine. You can type your address, and it will pinpoint your house if you want to see if you will get the edge of a rain cloud or not.

Then after we cut the hay, I will study it, then spray it. They are not going to rob me this time of hay or pasture.

 

[jedstivers]

Hi JW, this time of the year, the rains begin to slow down. Even if you shave the ground too close, the grass does not grow back as fast and it can cause you to lose a cutting. We have been very fortunate to have a rain once a week. I will have to baby it to get two more cuttings. Right now, there is no damage to the bermuda, as it will get cut today or tomorrow. We have a 20% chance of rain today, and the yellow clouds could pass over us as indicated by wunderground.com It is a great site to pull up close to see exactly where the clouds are headed. It shows the cloud activity over the entire earth in every country, but you will have to type your location in the search engine. You can type your address, and it will pinpoint your house if you want to see if you will get the edge of a rain cloud or not.

Then after we cut the hay, I will study it, then spray it. They are not going to rob me this time of hay or pasture.

Not sure where you are but if you are just in a cattle area without row crops and all the products that go on them don't let the suppliers hold you up on price.
Generic lambda cy should be 50 dollars a gallon and the rate is a gallon to 50 or might be even more, I can't remember but I know 1-50 will smoke them. I'm thinking 1-70 will but I'd research before I ran that.
So for a dollar an acre you can have grass.

 

[Chuckie]

Jed, thank you for that advice. I will check into that. My husband works for Helena Chemical, and they usually carry all the products. We are in heavy crop production area. There are not that many cows in this area as the land is flat with no stone. It is a loam/clay soil, and the crops do real well here. About the only places you see cattle is if you find certain areas that have steep hilly areas, and those will pop up here and there, but seldom seen. Most often it is grown up in trees. There are only a few of us that mess with the cattle. It must be in our blood.

I am going to look it up now. Sometimes you can order it through Amazon as they offer AG supplies with free Prime shipping if the price is outrageous here.

 

[Chuckie]

It must be a chemical you must purchase with a license as I am not having any luck finding it on the web. I will get him to look into that tomorrow. Looks like a good product as it stays with the grass for a little while.

Here is a link for it's use:
http://msuent.com/assets/pdf/1582HayInsects10.pdf