Rifa Quarantine Treatments in Commercial Grass Sod, 1993

Abstract The only RIFA quarantine treatment labelled for use on grass sod is Pageant181 DF applied at 8.0 lb (AI)/acre. Candidate treatments were applied to nonproduction fields of common St. Augustine grass at 3 sites in 1993. Plots at Murff Turf Farms, Crosby, TX were treated on 26 May under extremely wet conditions; Pearl River Valley Turf, Wiggins, MS on 3 Jun under hot dry conditions; and Woerner Turf, Elberta, AL on 7 Jul under hot dry conditions. The Elberta, AL site received routine irrigation after treatment, but neither of the other sites were irrigated. Plots were 1 acre arranged in a CRD with 3 replicates per treatment at each site. Granular formulations were applied with a Herd GT-77® granular applicator mounted on a Suzuki LT4 all-terrain vehicle (ATV). Sprays were applied with a shop built boom sprayer comprised of 5 TSS-4 spray tips spaced 36" apart and overlapped by 5 TSS-3 spray tips. Both pumps and both booms were operated at 20 psi and the system was towed behind an ATV at 4 mph, providing a delivery rate of 32 gal/acre. RIFA population assessments were made in V* acre circular subplots in the center of each treatment plot immediately prior to, and at 6 wk intervals after treatment using a population indexing system (Lofgren and Williams, 1982. J. Econ. Entomol. 75:798-803). Data were analyzed for treatment differences using ANOVA and Tukey’s test.