Bermudagrass Stem Maggot Farm Source: Wink Alison and Ed Tidwell, LSU AgCenter
We want to inform you of a new insect pest that is showing up in bermudagrass fields.
There have been confirmed infestations of the bermudagrass stem maggot in hay fields in northwest Louisiana and unconfirmed reports of the insect in northeast and central Louisiana.
The bermudagrass stem maggot (Athergona reversura) has been found in fields in northwest Louisiana and there have been unconfirmed reports of symptoms in hay fields in central Louisiana. I have included pictures taken by Lee Faulk from samples we took from fields in Webster Parish and a picture taken in Georgia or Alabama showing what it would likely look like in the field. The first picture shows the symptoms (top leaves in the plant dead) and the next is a picture of the larvae (maggot) that was found when the leaves were peeled back. The third picture relates well to the extent of damage I have noticed but in talking with people in other states that have seen fields, the damage can be significant enough that you would notice when driving by a field.
The adult is a small fly which is thought to lay eggs on the leaf sheath (pseudostem). Once hatched the larva (maggot) works its way to a node and feeds at the node. This feeding results in the death of the leaves arising above the node. So visual symptoms include the top 1-3 leaves being brown. The potential extent of damage is not well understood but so far it appears infestation is not devastating to bermudagrass stands but could possibly impact yields.
We were able to find the larvae by peeling back the leaf sheath. In most of the samples we peeled back we just found the damage and not the larvae.
This species is native to south Asia in an area extending from Japan to Pakistan and Oman and the first evidence of the insect species in North America occurred in a few counties in Georgia in 2010. Since that time the symptoms of the insect infestation have been identified in Alabama, Florida, Mississippi and into the Carolina’s on the east coast.
More information can be found at the following websites:
http://www.caes.uga.edu/commodities/fieldcrops/forages/Ga_Cat_Arc/2012/GC1207.pdf
http://www.aces.edu/pubs/docs/A/ANR-1462/ANR-1462.pdf
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