Emerging pests, diseases and weeds to watch in 2025
As the 2025 golf season creeps closer, we sought out advice from the industry about the problems that golf course superintendents need to keep an eye out for on their courses this year.
Below, experts share the weeds, diseases and pests that might pop up on your course in the new year.
Kyllinga
Kyllinga is an annual sedge — similar to yellow and purple nutsedge — that requires a different type of control than its fellow sedges, primarily seen in the southeast. But that’s changing, according to Bret Corbett, Ph.D., product development manager at Albaugh Specialty Products.
“We’re seeing it in a lot more golf courses up the Eastern Seaboard,” says Corbett. “It started primarily in the Southeast, but now there’s hardly a golf course that you can find without kyllinga on it.”
According to Corbett, the sulfonylurea herbicides good for other sedges aren’t as effective on kyllinga. He adds that sulfentrazone has worked on the weed, but with such widespread use, there is a resistance starting to form in certain areas of the country — like the Northeast.
Bermudagrass mites
Since the emergence of newer bermudagrass varieties, bermudagrass mites have begun to rear their ugly heads once again, according to Jeff Rampino, Florida territory manager for Quali-Pro.
“Over the last five or six years, it’s become a problem in Florida because we’re no longer using just regular hybrids; we’re going back to some of these offshoots of common (bermuda),” he says.
Rampino adds that outside of Florida, he’s seen the mites in Georgia, Alabama, most of the coastal regions and as far north as Delaware.
“When you’ve got them and you fertilize, the turf gets worse,” he says. “They’re eating up the foliage and everything like that. So once they get new green tissue, they go hog-wild.”
In terms of control, Rampino says that Quali-Pro’s Suprado can provide control of the pest in its early stages.
“We dedicated one hole on a golf course to it, and the hole that (was) sprayed, we never had to spray after the first application. Whereas the rest of the course had to be sprayed two to three times with adulticides,” he says of a test in Sarasota, Fla., with Suprado.
Mini Ring
Mini ring — or Rhizoctonia zeae — is a disease that might sound familiar to some superintendents, as it’s been plaguing bermudagrass putting greens for roughly the last 10 to 15 years.
But according to Lane Tredway, Ph.D., technical representative with Syngenta, “of late, it’s being seen more frequently on higher heights of cut, like fairways, tees and green surrounds.”
That’s a problem for superintendents because the main method of control is repeat applications on a 14-day interval. Tredway adds that superintendents aren’t used to having to make applications with that kind of frequency on those higher height-of-cut areas.
“Superintendents who are seeing these mini ring outbreaks on those higher heights of cut have to rethink their fungicide programs,” he adds.
Fall Armyworm
Fall armyworms aren’t a new pest for superintendents, specifically those in the southeastern U.S., but they are becoming more ferocious, according to Syngenta’s Tredway.
Tredway adds that if that trend continues, superintendents in the transition zone will need to make scouting for fall armyworm a much larger priority much earlier in the year.
“They can develop and spread quite rapidly, and you can find yourself behind the eight ball (with armyworms),” he says.
Annual bluegrass weevil
An old friend for some golf course superintendents and a new foe for some others, annual bluegrass weevil is a pest for superintendents too keep an eye out for in 2025.
“When it comes to golf course turf, the one you have to highlight is annual bluegrass weevil,” says Chris Williamson, a research scientist with PBI-Gordon who covers the Midwest and Great Plains regions.
“What makes it such a challenge is that it’s moving, and we’re not exactly sure how. It’s popping up in places you might not have expected. It’s in Kentucky, parts of Indiana, parts of Ohio. There are even some reports of it being found in Wisconsin. Fortunately, there are tools that help effectively manage it, but it will remain an ongoing concern for superintendents.”
White grubs
Williamson also sounded a warning about white grubs, which he described as one of the “most problematic insect pests for turfgrass across the board, whether it’s golf course, athletic fields, home lawns … you name it.”
In golf, white grubs target mainly roughs and fairways, and Williamson says there are tools available to manage them. But preventative treatments are key, he says.
“The preventative products that are available do a great job, but there are huge shortcomings for curative treatments. It’s really important to be on the lookout for them and know the timing of when you need to make those preventative applications,“ he adds.
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<p>The post Emerging pests, diseases and weeds to watch in 2025 first appeared on Golfdom.</p>