N RANCHING
atural Resources
Bermudagrass Stem Maggot Found in East Texas ‘Stealthy’ pest damages inside of stems — not outside
T
HE PRESENCE OF A NEW BERMUDAGRASS PEST HAS BEEN CON- fi rmed in Van Zandt County, and producers are
advised to be on the lookout, said Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service experts. Unlike other insects that attack plants from the
outside, the Bermudagrass stem maggot damages them from inside, according to Dr. Vanessa Corriher-Olson, AgriLife Extension forage specialist, Overton. “Basically, they consume material inside the stem,
unlike armyworms or grasshoppers, where the dam- age is external,” she said. The Van Zandt fi eld is the fi rst confi rmed instance
of the pest in Texas. The pest is native to southern Asia, common from
Japan to Pakistan. Somehow it made its way to the U.S., where it was found in 3 Georgia counties. “It’s relatively new to the U.S., and very little is
known about its life cycle yet,” Corriher-Olson said. “It is not yet known how damaging this insect will
be in Texas,” said Dr. Allen Knutson, the AgriLife Extension entomologist at Dallas who confi rmed the identity of larva found in a Van Zandt County fi eld of irrigated Bermudagrass this summer. What is known is infestation begins when the adult
fl y lays its eggs on a Bermudagrass stem near a node, Knutson said. The larvae, which grow to be about an eighth-inch long, look like a pale yellow maggot. They burrow into the Bermudagrass shoot to feed. This feeding causes the top 2 to 3 leaves to wither and die. Cutting open the stem just below these dead leaves will reveal the maggot and the brownish feeding site on the stem. The adult fl ies may go unnoticed; they are small
with dark eyes, Knutson said. The early stages of an infestation may go unnoticed,
too, Corriher-Olson added. “People are not going to realize they have the pest
until they see the damage,” she said. “It looks similar to what you might see from a light frost. Stem tops are
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