If enough eggs are present, a reinfestation may occur in the next growing season. One well timed application of insecticide may reduce bug numbers to a non-economic level for many years. If control is successful, the insecticide cost is spread over many years. Several insecticides are labeled for black grass bug control on rangeland and grass seed production. Timely grazing or burning dead grasses in the fall are management techniques that destroy black grass bug eggs and may limit the need of chemical control.
Graze wheatgrasses heavily for a short time in the late fall or early spring of each year.
Wheatgrass pastures that are not fully utilized by grazing or haying provide egglaying sites, winter protection, and a habitat that favors black grass bug survival. Mowing and removal of hay may be a management technique for reducing the number of eggs in some circumstances. Black grass bugs will move into wheat planted adjacent to infested areas. Movement is usually limited to field edges closest to the source of bugs, with field centers rarely infested. Damage to the wheat appears as a whitish stippling on leaf sites where bugs have fed.