Exotic mole crickets (Scapteriscus spp.) are the most injurious insect pests of golf courses, lawns, sod farms and pastures in Florida and throughout the southeastern United States. Damage is caused by tunneling and feeding on the root system which creates extensive galleries. We sought to suppress mole cricket numbers using the entomopathenogenic nematode Steinernema scapterisci Nguyen and Smart. We placed 20 linear pitfall traps on two mole cricket hot spots within 10 different fairways on two Gainesville golf courses (40 traps total). Within each fairway, one hot spot (1/10th of an acre) was treated with nematodes and the other was untreated. The percentage of mole crickets infected with S. scapterisci before the fall 2001 application was 16.7% at Ironwood Golf Course and 20.4% at Gainesville Golf and Country Club. This showed that the nematode persisted on these golf courses from earlier applications made in 1988. Pesticides were commonly used on both courses. Post application infection to date is 33.9% at Ironwood and 24.4% at Gainesville Golf and Country Club, respectively. Data also demonstrate that the nematode is moving into untreated areas of the golf courses. Thus, use of S. scapterisci against pest mole crickets is a sustainable and low-risk IPM tool for turfgrass managers.
Species 1: Orthoptera Gryllotalpidae Scapteriscus spp (mole cricket)
Keywords: biological control
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