Name _________________
Golf Course
In recent years, golf has been increasing in popularity around the world. You are
in charge of a beautiful golf course located in Henrico County, Virginia called Belmont
golf course. Unfortunately your course has a host of problems that you must deal with in
order to keep the golfers happy.
Green June beetles are known to be one of the top five insect pests’ golf courses
and have been ranked as one of the most common golf course pests in the Eastern United
States. Green June beetle larvae (grubs) kill the grass by eating its roots. Large patches of
dead turf can be rolled up like a carpet, become unsightly, hinder play, and contribute to
erosion. Your course also has a problem with rove beetles. These critters are a major
problem because they burrow underneath the grass which results in surface mounding
and pocketed turf which leads to what the industry calls heat injury of the grass.
Besides the insect problems you also have some weed problems. Bluegrass can
be a major weed problem for turf and landscape managers. In turf it forms a weak sod
that provides poor footing for athletic fields and golf courses. In addition, unsightly seed
heads of annual bluegrass reduce the aesthetic quality of the turf. It forms a dense mat
that can reduce the vigor of desirable landscape plants by reducing available nutrients in
the soil surface. Because dense seedling infestations can occur, hand-pulling or hoeing to
remove annual bluegrass is often futile as new flushes of seedling plants germinate after
the older seedlings are removed. The other weed your golf course is having a problem
with is called Russian thistle. This plant was planted along the road way just outside of
your course but somehow it has managed to migrate to your course and now it is growing
in many areas of your course and spreading.
Your golf course also has one more problem and it is not an insect nor a weed but
a bird. Your course has a lot of Canada geese, but they are not members. Nor are they
welcome, picturesque though they may be. These delightful birds eat 2 to 3 pounds of
grass per day and they poop out 1 to 2 pounds per day. A golf course's lush grass,
attractive water hazards and lack of predators constitute room, board and security for a
goose and now they don’t even fly south for the winter.
Your assignment is to develop an IPM for your golf course which should include a
detailed description of the chemical you chose to use and why you are using it. (Include
how it works, the hazards, the decomposition rate, the number of times used, the
organisms it affects). There is a large wet land surrounding a portion of your golf course
that has been preserved as a habitat sanctuary. Your management program must take this
into account.
