Pasture Mealybug in Hay

Will the pasture mealybug be moved in hay bales?  This is one of the many questions asked over the past year. My thought has been, yes, the mealybug can move in hay bales, but we have no research on this topic.

The problem with the mealybugs staying in cut grass is, as the grass dries, there is less plant sap for the mealybug to feed on. So the logical assumption is the insects will leave the grass. 

A few weeks ago, Dr. David Kerns shared some data on this showing most mealybugs left the grass but about 5% were found in the cut grass 48 hours after cutting.

I conducted a similar research test on a field of WW-B Dahl grass near Port Lavaca. The results were similar to those of Dr. Kerns. In the Port Lavaca Test, about 100 mealybugs were found in a similar amount of grass as the 2 sq ft samples taken prior to cutting the grass. This is 8.7% of our pre-cutting counts. The test is planned to be continued by sampling the hay bales for live mealybugs.

More to come...





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