Pest and Turf Management

Registration of pesticides in California requires field efficacy and turfgrass tolerance data obtained from California. Therefore, pest management research at the University of California, Riverside supports agricultural chemical company petitions for herbicides, fungicides, insecticides nematicides, and plant growth regulators. In doing so, our research also provides the California turfgrass industry with information on the best products available to control each pest.

Herbicide research focuses on selective control of annual bluegrass in creeping bentgrass, PRE/POST control of grasses, broadleaves, and sedges in warm- and cool-season turf, and selective removal of overseeded ryegrass in bermudagrass turf. Fungicide research focuses on the major turfgrass diseases in California including anthracnose, summer patch, rapid blight, dollar spot, southern blight, gray leaf spot, spring dead spot, fairy ring, and snow mold. Nematicide research focuses on the pacific shoot-gall and root-knot nematodes.