Some clouds. Low around 70F. Winds light and variable..

Some clouds. Low around 70F. Winds light and variable.

In the last week I have started hearing about the presence of armyworms infesting many bermuda grass pastures, teff grass and lawns in Pittsburg County.

Mature armyworm larvae may be green, brown, or almost black and measure about 1 ½ inches long. There are black and reddish brown stripes on each side of the body and four small, black spots on the dorsal side of each abdominal segment. The head capsule is mostly black and is marked with a pale, inverted “Y” on the front.

For those wishing to put up grass hay, look for caterpillars and for “window paned” or chewed leaves. Scouting for caterpillars in the pasture is easy. Take a wire coat hanger, bend it into a hoop, place it on the ground, and count all sizes of caterpillars in the hoop. Take samples in several locations along the field margin as well as in the interior of the field. The hoop covers about 2/3 of a square foot, so a threshold in the pasture would be an average of two or three ½ inch-long larvae per hoop sample (3-4 per square foot). If the treatment threshold is exceeded, it is much easier to control them with an insecticide when they are small (less than ½ inch).

Keep in mind that THIS IS EARLY for us to be finding armyworms at these levels; typically our “August flight” is the biggest, so I encourage producers to regularly scout their grass pastures now and keep scouting over the rest of the month.

For control guidelines contact your local OSU Extension office or consult OSU Extension Fact Sheet CR-7193.

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