Pasture Mealybug Nymph Photo by S. Biles As our pastures green up in the spring, it is important for us to determine when the pasture mealybugs begin to emerge from the soil. In Australia, their research has shown the pasture mealybug is first found in early October. Since their seasons are opposite ours, their October is analogous to our April. I have been scouting pastures for the past few months to see when the first nymphs emerge. This morning, 4/3/26, I visited several pastures that had pasture mealybug problems last year. As expected based on what they see in Australia, the first pasture mealybug nymphs were found in the three pastures I checked. The nymphs were very small, but visible. Reading glasses and a 10x hand lens help a lot. Our current management recommendations have not changed and we suggest you manage pastures to recover from previous damage by making appropriate fertilizer and weed management applications and following good agronomic practices. While ther...
