Rhodesgrass mealybug (RMB), Antonina graminis(Mask.) is a serious pest of turfgrass in putting greens of golf courses. Compared to other areas of the course, putting greens are intensively managed with multiple applications of fertilizers and insecticides. The hypothesis of this study was that a low to moderate population of RMB optimized by N fertilizer can be effectively managed using insecticide. In 2019, an experiment was conducted on ‘TifEagle’ bermudagrass putting green in Columbus, GA. Six treatments were arranged in RCBD with six replications. The treatments were: 1) low N only, 2) low N plus insecticide, 3) medium N only, 4) medium N plus insecticide, and 5) high N only, and 6) high N plus insecticide. For N fertilizer: 9.76, 19.53, and 29.3 g/m² of N per year were applied for low, medium and high treatments, respectively at biweekly interval starting May. Insecticide, flupyradifurone (Altus®) was applied once at 1022.5 mL/ha during mid-Aug. Number of RMB and N content as well as aesthetic appearance were determined from each plot. Before insecticide application, number of RMB was significantly greater in high N treatment than in low N treatment. Foliar N was significantly greater in high N followed by medium N than in low N treatment. After insecticide application, significantly lower number of RMB was present in high N plus insecticide treatment than in the rest of the treatments. Aesthetic score was significantly greater for high N plus insecticide treatment than for high N only and medium N plus insecticide treatment.
