Texas producers are contending with a new pest. The mealybug, or pasture mealybug, popped up in areas of the South and East Texas. The Gillespie County Extension Office asks producers to stay aware as concerns of the mealybug spreading increases.
“It’s just so new, we don’t know much about it,” said Brad Roeder, the Gillespie County Agriculture and Natural Resources Extension Agent.
It is known that the pest spreads through moving hay equipment. Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service thinks it may be spread through hay itself, wind or producers moving between pastures.
The largest concern is pasture and yard dieback.
“A lot of bugs will knock back or plant or eat the top out. But this bug, they will actually kill, even Bermudagrass,” Roeder said. “If you see some grass that’s got good moisture and is dying in areas, that’s a sign of [mealybugs].”
The young nymphs’ saliva is toxic to grass. As they feed the grass yellows then turns a reddish or purple color. Symptoms can appear within a week. The affected grass will look drought-stressed and dead. The weakened grass also becomes susceptible to secondary pathogens.
In Texas, mealybugs have been found in Bermudagrass, Bahiagrass, Johnsongrass, bluestem species, haygrazer (sorghum-Sudangrass), St. Augustine turf. AgriLife cautions that this list is likely not the complete list of affected grass.
Roeder said he is concerned for producers with little diversity.
“We have [King Ranch Bluestem] pastures that are 90% are KR Bluestem,” he said. “If they hit pastures like that and kill it all, is there going to be to be enough regrowth vegetation or live plants to protect the soil in case of a runoff event? And how long is it going to take that land to regenerate and regrow grasses?” The U.S. Department of Agriculture identified the bug, Heliococcus Summervillei in September in Texas. Mealybugs have long been a problem in Australian pastures. In the Western Hemisphere, it was first detected in the Caribbean around 2019.
Because it is a new pest, there are no herbicide labeled for the mealybug.
“They say this thing can hibernate in the ground, up to several inches, maybe even a foot. So, once its subterranean, no insecticide can touch it,” Roeder said.
However, TAMU Extension is working on identifying measures to combat the pest.
“It’s something that needs to be on their radar. People need to start find sources of information, wherever they can and start familiarizing themselves.”
Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service put out a factsheet on the bug, which can be found at agrilifeextension. tamu.edu/pasturemealybug.
While the bug is not in Gillespie County, Roeder asks producers to start being careful about cleaning equipment. Scouting for the mealybug in pastures, improved pastures and yards should start in the spring.
“This is something, we’ll need to start watching for in the spring and probably even more in the summer is when the symptoms will show up,” he said.
