Hairy Chinch Bug Control on a Home Lawn in State College, Pa, 1984

The lawn consisted of Chewings fescue (10096). Treatment plots were 5 by 6 ft, arranged in a RCB design and replicated three times. Liquid formulations were applied 11 Aug by using a compressed air sprayer with four 6504 Tee Jet nozzles mounted on a 6-ft boom, operating at 25 psi with a 3 gal/1,000 ft2 spray rate. Granular formulations were applied with a hand-held shaker. At treatment time, the following soil and environmental conditions existed: air temp, 80°F; soil temp at 1-inch depth, 72°F; soil temp at 2-inch depth, 72°F; soil type, silty-clay-loam; soil pH, 6.6; % organic matter, 3.0; soil condition, moist; amount of thatch, 0.5 inches; and partly cloudy skies. After all treatments were completed, the entire area was lightly syringed with water. Posttreatment counts were made 7 days later (18 Aug). Hairy chinch bugs were sampled by driving a 6-inch diam open ended steel cylinder into the turf, filling with water, and counting the number of chinch bug nymphs and adults floating to the surface over a 10-min period. Three flotation samples were randomly taken from within each replicate, and the total number of chinch bugs from each sample was recorded and converted to a ft2 count.