Black Grass Bugs

[Faster horses]

I had never heard of these until we moved to SE Montana and then
it was several years before we saw them and what they can do
to a tame grass stand. In a good year, they make the grass look
droughty. I looked them up and it doesn't sound like it is feasible
to spray them, only to graze the pasture down or burn it. Have any
of you dealt with these bugs?
They don't cover the entire pasture, but are in the basically same
area as last year. We hayed this field last year, and that is supposed
to help, but it didn't seem to.
I resized the picture. I hope it isn't too small to see the difference in
the area that doesn't have the bugs.

Oh, and the cheat grass is doing well in places: :x

Curious heifers

 

[flatlander]

Dig down on the edge of the poor doing grass and see if you have some of those bugs in the root system. We had a problem similar to what you have a few years ago. Turned out to be a beetle. Seem to work mainly on side of hills, never in the draws or top of the hill. First indication that something was amiss was when the skunks would dig it up like a bunch of hogs had been rooting around. And of course the cheat had a foothold and really did a number on what grass remained after that.

There was a type of spray that could be used but cost an arm and leg and I don't use any chemicals. A couple of farmer/ranchers lost half sections of grass.

I had quite a bit of luck broadcasting grass seed on top of the dead grass as soon as I noticed it in the spring (orchard,meadow,broome,fescue). One thing I did notice is that replanting asap keeps the weeds and cheat to a minimum.

 

[Shortgrass]

Diotomacious Earth?

 

[Dylan Biggs]

FH heifers are looking good! Starting to slick off nicely!

Never heard of the bugs, but like Shortgrass I would be tempted to try DE also.

 

[Faster horses]

It's a pretty large area. How do you use the DE?
You think they're shiney, Dylan? I wish they'd
hurry and all get really shiney...don't know why it's
taking them so long. Anyhow, thanks for your comment.

We were looking at the mud on some of them and we're
sure that's from the bulls.

 

[HAY MAKER]

I would use liquid seven on it.
good luck

 

[Dakota Plainsman]

I would use liquid seven on it.
good luck

If they are the same as we call black bugs, they are mostly in
crested wheat grass in this country. Sure makes you think that
it has been sprayed with roundup. We used to spray them with
furadan (spelling), but that is pretty wicked stuff. Have seed
liquid 7 and melathion used and does a decent job.

We are batteling alfalfa weevils in this part of the country bad. Got
a 120 acre field that turned white in less than a week. Really needs
cut but just stays too wet. Have had around 2" of rain here over the
last 4 day and 20 miles east where the alfalfa is, they have had over
4". Faster, we have finally got decent spring moisture so seems like
something has to test out ability to survive.

 

[Faster horses]

I think we are talking about the same bugs, DP.
I'm not sure what you meant by this statement:


Sure makes you think that
it has been sprayed with roundup.

Could you explain what you meant? Thanks.

 

[Dakota Plainsman]

I think we are talking about the same bugs, DP.
I'm not sure what you meant by this statement:


Sure makes you think that
it has been sprayed with roundup.

Could you explain what you meant? Thanks.

When you spray with roundup, The plant leaves start turning
yellow when it first start to die. Our wheat grass does kinda the
same thing with the bugs in it.

 

[Faster horses]

Ok, I understand. You described it perfectly. It looks drained
of all nutrients. What I read said if you got moisture the plant
would recover, if not, it could die out.

Sorry about your alfalfa, Dakota Plainsman.
I guess if ranchin' was easy, everyone would be doing it.

 

[Lonecowboy]

FH-

looks like em to me- Dakota plainsman gave good advice if you want to spray.
My understanding is that they have to have standing dead, stemmed grass(CRP) to lay their eggs in for next years batch. we had them bad in some crp, when it came out it took 2 years of hard use to bring them back. this is the 3rd year and no sign of them yet. I would use it and the surrounding area as hard as I could get my cattlle to use it. if you can feed on it too this winter. Knock all the standing dead grass down somehow. they will spread in from the edges, what does this spot border?

 

[Faster horses]

It's a bad piece of ground that should have never been farmed,
and we've managed to get it into crested wheat. That's the funny
thing, we hayed this field last year, so there was no standing grass.
And a native pasture borders this. We've seen evidence of the
Black Grass Bugs before, and it was always as you said, in a
CRP field that had a lot of old standing grass. So this is a bit of
a head scratcher. You could see the bugs on the grass a few
days ago, but we didn't see any today. Just the damaged grass.

What I found online said the bugs have 3 stages, so I'm wondering
if they are done eating and have gone on to the next stage.
We might be too late to spray them. We could mow this ground
this year, if that would help, but it was swathed last year. The bugs
are in the same area as last year. They haven't moved to the rest
of the crested in the pasture.

Too bad the darn things don't eat the cheat grass and leave
the crested alone. :x

 

[rancherfred]

We have them here, in the Nebraska panhandle, on any crested that isn't grazed. Figure out a way to chew the grass to the ground and you won't have anymore trouble with them. I wouldn't worry too much about them killing the stand. We have mostly crested in the CRP around here and the bugs show up most years, but they haven't killed the stand yet. There is literally a fence line contrast between crested that has been grazed and that which hasn't been. It is a pretty stark difference but if you graze it you don't have to do any spraying.