Pasture Mealybugs in the Panhandle

I am sorry to report that the “Purple Pasture Plague” has reached the Florida Panhandle.  Pasture Mealybugs (PMB) have invaded three counties in the Panhandle.   PMB was recently split into two species with the more invasive one renamed scientifically as Heliococcus Novovillei (the novel villain).  PMB Novovillei was positively confirmed in Jackson County, in Greenwood, in August 2026, and near Altha, in Calhoun County, in September 2026.  Samples submitted from Gadsden County in September are awaiting positive identification. Bottom line, this is no longer a Texas or a South Florida pest issue, but PMB has established a population in the Central Panhandle.  The map to the right shows the 27 of 67 Florida counties with confirmed PMB infestations by the FDCAS Division of Plant Industry.

According to Dr. Erin Powell, FDACS Entomologist, there are 90 mealybug species in Florida, with 12 that specialize in feeding on grasses.   This new one (Heliococcus Novovillei) is different though.  First identified in Australia in 2012, in Texas and Louisiana in 2025, and then South Florida in May 2026, Pasture Mealybugs (PMB) are capable of rapid population growth and spread through hay fields, pastures, roadsides, and parks.  This mealybug specializes in tropical grass species that includes Bahiagrass, Bermudagrass, sugar cane, and other grass species including turf grasses.  PMB is a source of serious concern for livestock and forage producers in the Southeast, because they are associated with “Pasture Dieback.”  For more specific details read Isaac Esquivel’s article: Pasture Mealybug Detected in Florida Pastures.  There are also two websites, UF/IFAS Pasture Mealybug and FDACS Department of Plant Industry with the most current information on PMB in Florida.

Since there have already been several articles and websites published with the specific details of this pest, this article will focus on answering some frequently asked questions from farmers and ranchers in Jackson County and provide some guidance on management from Texas and Australia.

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How did Pasture Mealybugs come to the Panhandle?

Nobody really knows how PMBs spread such large distances and how they only landed in the middle of the Panhandle, but they most likely blew in with a storm. PMB adult females and nymphs do not fly and can only crawl, so the only other possibility is that they could have hitched a ride on people, equipment, vehicles, and possibly even on livestock or wildlife (cowbirds?).  While this could certainly happen at the farm level, the scale of infestation I have seen in Jackson and Calhoun Counties suggests to me that PMBs blew in and peppered the landscape and were not from a central location.  They were found first in Greenwood, but they certainly did not crawl across the Chipola and Apalachicola Rivers.  The map below shows 28 location that I personally have verified with PMB infestations in September 2026.

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Dr. Caroline Hauxwell, Queensland University of Technology, was the guest speaker in a recent Southern IPM Center webinar:  Understanding Pasture Mealybug: An Invasive Pest of Pasture Grass, Turf Grass, and Sugarcane that is available for viewing on YouTube.  Dr. Hauxwell says that earliest nymph instars move easily in the wind.  She suggests that it very likely that PMB nymphs can be moved large distances with major storms.   We did have Tropical Storm Eduardo that made landfall along the Texas and Louisiana border.  That system brought significant rainfall into the Panhandle in May.  Yet counties to the west of Jackson have not reported infestations.   The truth is that we may never really know how they got here, but they are certainly all over east of Highway 231 in Jackson County, from Marianna to Blue Springs, Grand Ridge, Cypress and Sneads.  Red or puple grass patches can be seen along many of the major roadways in this area.

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Why are Pasture Mealybugs significant?

PMBs are associated with “Pasture Dieback,” a phrased coined in Australia.  If you have a bad enough infestation, pastures or hayfields may die in spots or even over an entire field.  Dr. Hauxwell believes that the insect feeding damage alone does not kill the grass, but instead a secondary infection like Fusarium Fungus, that is common in pastures, takes advantage of the weakened immune system of the grass and kills it.  Much like people who contracted COVID19 but then were actually died from a secondary pneumonia infection.  Sick grass becomes weak from insect feeding and then can’t fight off fungal disease and dies.  Even if the grass is not killed by the PMB feeding, grass growth is suppressed and nutritional quality is significantly reduced.

PMBs are tropical grass specialists and can infest pastures, hayfields, sugarcane, and turf.  Peanuts, soybeans, perennial peanuts and other legumes are not affected by this pest.  They also don’t bother cotton, vegetables, and other broadleaf crops.  However, there are millions of acres of Bahiagrass in pastures, road right-of-ways, and parks in the Southeast.  All are at risk of significant damage in 2027, but we really don’t know how bad it will be.  Florida has never dealt with this pest before.

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What is a Mealybug and how do they damage the grass?

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According to Dr. Erin Powell, Florida Department of Agriculture Division of Plant Industry:

Mealybugs (Pseudococcidae) are a family of tiny sap-feeding insects grouped with the scale insects (Hemiptera: Coccomorpha). They have long piercing-sucking mouthparts and may cause plant damage through direct feeding damage and by vectoring plant diseases.  The pasture mealybug is oval shaped and has a fluffy, wool-like appearance with long, straight rods of iridescent opaque wax projecting from the body. Young mealybug nymphs and adult female mealybugs are a creamy white color, then turn pink after mating. Males turn pink ahead of pupation and remain pink in their winged adult form. They can most commonly be found feeding on the underside of grass blades. Adult females then move to the thatch or soil to reproduce. Pasture mealybug is unlikely to be found on non-grass host plants. 

Pasture mealybug nymphs feed on the sap in the leaves of growing grasses.  As they feed, they inject toxic saliva that causes the leaves to turn, yellow, red, and then purple.  The breeding females eat very little and mainly carry egg casings underneath them until they hatch and start crawling and feeding.   It is believed that the life cycle of these insects is on average 30-45 days, but breeding females have lived as long as 100 days.  These little bugs are tiny but can be seen with the naked eye, especially the fully grown females like the largest insect in the image above.  The issue is not how much each of these tiny bug eats, but instead how many of them build up in a pasture.  Their growing season closely matches their host, so we can expect them to hibernate underground in the late fall and return above ground to feed on green grass in the spring.  In Texas, PMBs disappear in October and return in April.    So, we can expect tremendous growth in the 2027 growing season, if grass is allowed to mature and PMBs go unmanaged.  But the truth is that we have never dealt with this pest in our local environment, so at this point we can only make assumptions based on their effects in Australia and Texas.

While we do not have enough history to know the annual cycle of PMBs in Florida yet, in Australia and Texas, they hibernate underground over the winter.  In Texas, they disappear in October and reemerge in April to begin feeding and breeding again.  Their peak growth period is in the late spring and summer.  As the weather cools in late October and early November in the Panhandle, it is likely they will stop feeding and move underground.

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How do we control or manage Pasture Mealybugs?

The good news is that because they have been working for more than a decade on this pest in Australia, and the past two years in Texas, we do have recommendations to guide what we do to try to minimize PMB damage now and in 2027.

1. Scout your fields for PMBs
   Be on the lookout for grass turning, yellow, red, or purple.  In addition to color change, the stressed grass will also be stunted.  Look especially carefully at areas of mature grass, such as along fencelines, infrequently mowed areas, around barns and buildings, or in hay or seed fields that grow undisturbed for longer periods of time.
2. Manage grass maturity once PMBs are found
   Whether you mow, burn, graze, or harvest for hay, keeping pastures from getting mature keeps the PMB population growth in check.  The more growth you remove the better, because you take away their food source.  Just know that hay harvested from heavily infested fields will likely have some live mealybugs in each bale.  We don’t really know how long these bugs will live in a bale, nor what percentage survive the harvest process.  However, it could be possible to spread PMBs through hay feeding, especially if there is a short period of time between harvest and feeding.  Burning removes everything all at once, but it may be challenging to burn fields that are still green.  Winter burning, which is the traditionally practice, would likely not make a difference, as the mealybugs will be protected underground.  While frequent mowing will limit population growth, it does not eliminate the mealybugs.
3. Utilize insecticide to control the local PMB population
   The Florida Department of Agriculture secured a FIFRA Section 18 Crisis Exemption for Centric 4oWG use on pasture grass and rangeland in Florida.  This pest is new to Florida, so there have only been a few trials thus far, but initial results from Central Florida show that they controlled 95% of the PMBs at 4 weeks, at the 2.5 oz./a rate.   They were able to get 100% control with a follow up treatment.  This was just the first of many trials to be conducted in Florida, but this preliminary data is encouraging.

   

4. Things to know before you spray Centric
   Centric is a systemic insecticide, so it kills the PMBs that feed on the leaves that have been sprayed and die.  The product moves upward in the plant, so only leaves that have absorbed the chemical are protected.  Research from Texas A&M suggests that thick, mature grass should be mowed or grazed first and then allowed to regrow to 6-8 inches before an insecticide application.  They also recommend utilizing at least 20 gallons of water per acre with a surfactant such as methylated seed oil to ensure the product sticks to the leaves.  This combination of practices has been shown to provide the best results in Texas from a Centric 40 WG application.There is a 7-day restriction on hay harvest after application, but there is no restriction for forage grazing.  The label also says there is a limit of 10.32 oz. (4 total applications at the 2.5oz/a rate) of Centric 40WG per acre per year.  On page 7 of the Centric 40WG label there is also warning about using this product on fields near beehives.  It says that hives should be removed, covered, or otherwise protected prior to spraying.  Bahiagrass and other forage grasses are not a primary pollen or nectar source, but it might not be advisable to use this product if beehives are in close proximity to the field being sprayed.
5. Identify natural enemies and PMB tolerant forage varieties
   Australian ranchers and researchers have been dealing with PMB for more than a decade.  The long-term approaches they are now focusing in on are biological controls and tolerant or even resistant forage varieties.  There are wasps that lay their eggs in mealybugs that might provide some population control.  There are also mealybug destroyers that are beetle larvae that feed on mealybugs.  It is possible that natural enemies of this novel villain may build up over time in Florida as the PMB population grows.  The best long-term solution, however, may well be utilizing different forages.  Florida ranchers have been relying on Bahiagrass for decades, but it may be that we have to shift management to include other species.  PMBs don’t affect legumes, so having more diverse pastures may be part of the eventual solution.

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Final Thoughts about PMB in the Panhandle

Insecticide applications for PMB will be a significant cost of production in 2027.  I checked with a few ag supply dealers on the cost that ranged from $3.60 -$5.07/oz.  Mentholated seed oil or surfactant will also add another $5/acre at the 20 gallons of water/acre application rate.  The going rate for ground applications in Texas was $10/acre back in February.   If you add these costs together you are at nearly $20/acre for a single application of Centric 40WG.  If you spray it yourself, your application costs would be somewhat lower, but my point is that it will likely be cost prohibitive to spray every acre multiple times in 2027.   Mowing, burning, and grazing, are other tools that can be used to manage grass maturity and ultimately PMB populations.  Insecticide spraying is just one tool, but will likely not be the only tool ranchers will utilize.

I think this will be much the same as with pasture weed control.  Ranchers are going to target the worst areas or the most important forage, such as hay or seed production fields.  Spot spraying new infestations is always cheaper than whole field treatments but make sure you spray a buffer of green area around the purple grass too.  We also want to scout and make sure the pest is actually present before spraying.  For hay fields, it makes sense to me to manage populations with the combination of insecticide and mowing just like you have in the past with armyworms.  If the field is nearing adequate height, harvest the forage.  If we can get 4 weeks of protection from the insecticide, that should buy enough time to follow that application with a harvest.  Harvesting mature grass for seed may be a little trickier since this takes much longer than 4 weeks.  Plus, PMB feeding damage may considerably reduce seed production, so it may require two applications prior to seed harvest.

Pasture Mealybugs is a new threat for every livestock producer in Florida.  Contact your local county extension agriculture agent to get more information on identifying and managing PMBs in your fields.  There is a lot we don’t know yet, but UF/IFAS has already formed a task force to identify solutions for this new challenge.  Stay tuned as we learn more about managing this new threat to forage production.

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Additional information on Pasture Mealybugs is available using the following links:

Pasture Mealybug: A New Pasture Pest in Florida

Pasture Mealybug: A New Threat for Pasture Grass, Turfgrass, and Sugarcane in Florida

The Pasture Mealybug: A New Invasive Pest of Pastures and Hayfields in Texas

Centric 40WG Florida Pasture Label

Centric 40 WG Product Label

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