Local golf courses work hard all season to keep the bugs out

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Insects, especially biting ones, have been a problem for golfers and golf course owners probably since the first golf course was built.

Pesticides and other chemicals at one time were a popular way to deal with mosquitoes, black flies, and other problem insects.

“When I first started in the business,” said Northport Golf Club pro Peter Hodgkins, “we’d put a couple of ounces of mercury on per green. No more problem.”

With increased understanding of how that and other products affected the environment, clubs have turned to other methods.

At Bucksport Golf Club, the biggest pests, literally, were the horse flies.

“Daily, we’d have 10 to 15 people come in and say they were big enough to carry someone away,” said Lynn Hand, club manager and co-owner with her husband Wayne, who is also the superintendent.

Now, they have a couple of Horse Pal fly traps, which specifically work for horse flies, deer flies, and yellow flies.

“We didn’t think there was anything out there for it,” said Lynn. “Then Wayne saw an ad and decided ‘Why not, we’ll give it a try.'”

The unit is 2 feet square and 51/2 feet high. It looks like a brown canvas tent with the top half made of netting. On top of that is a plastic bottle where the flies eventually end up. As the sun heats the air in the bottle, the flies die.

The Hands put out two near the wooded area where the problem was greatest.

“The members commented how much better it was,” said Lynn.

The flies are visually attracted to the traps, so they have to be where the flies can see them. The traps don’t use pesticides, so it’s just a matter of setting them out and not touching them again until it’s time to empty them.

“They’re pretty expensive [about $250 apiece], but they really work,” she said.

One visually prominent pest is the Japanese beetle. Where golfers see them most often is on the greens as the beetles prepare to deposit their eggs in the sandy soil.

“It was really bad here about three years ago,” said Pam Foss, co-owner of Pine Hill Golf Club in Brewer. “There were large clumps of them. It looked like the guys were dancing out there, but they were stepping on them, grinding them up.”

The larvae overwinter, then feed on roots, including grasses, in the spring. Adults emerge in the summer.

One way to try to control Japanese beetles was by hanging traps. They included a pesticide that attracted the beetles.

“The guy from the state [who checks pesticide and fungicide use] came out and saw ’em and said we can’t have ’em,” said Foss.

But she found that Mother Nature can play a hand, too.

“Sea gulls love ’em,” she said.

While the sea gulls can present their own problems, “when the beetles are gone, so are the gulls,” said Foss.

For years, Pine Hill also had to deal with black flies and mosquitoes. That’s not the case so much anymore.

“I remember years ago you couldn’t leave the [clubhouse] door open. There’d be hundreds of mosquitoes,” she said.

Now with approximately 20 birdhouses up, most doubling as 125-yard markers, the resident swallows make a huge dent in the flying insect population. And they get help on the ground from robins.

“We don’t use any pesticides now,” said Foss. “The birds do a real good job.”

Hodgkins found something else he had to deal with.

“We had some cutworms,” he said, “but I found out you don’t have to use pesticides on ’em. I just have to come and mow the greens at 3 in the morning. That’s when they come out and the mower chops ’em right up.”

Where there’s a will, there’s a way.