Black Grass Bug

 Utah State University agricultural experts say a tiny black grass bug poses a serious threat to farms, rangeland and conservation reserves across Utah.

 They claim these bugs  which are ¼-inch long kill grasses by sucking the chlorophyll out of the leaf. This causes the plants to dry up. In Utah the bugs have developed as a serious economic threat to agriculture over the past 10 to 15 years. Holmgren said most damaged plants can recover with enough moisture, but a severe infestation during a drought could mean the damage is irreversible.

Farmers began spraying from the air for the bug in April at the first sign of a spring infestation.

 Here’s black grass bug expert Jeff Knight with the Nevada Department of Agriculture with some advice for Idaho rangeland users. “They get on these crested wheat pastures or what we call re-seedings like where there’s been burns or where people have tried to do range improvements and planted the various rye grasses and wheat grasses for cattle forage. The perennial type grasses. So they would be well advised to go out and look and what you see is these little yellow or white stiplings all along the leaf and the leaf will sometimes turn completely yellow or white.