Over the past week we have been getting a significant amount of rain across most of Mississippi. Unfortunately, most insects don’t mind the rain. Other than spider mites and aphids, we will likely have to continue managing insects in all crops despite the rain.
I am getting a lot of calls about various worms in peanuts. In nearly every case, it is a complex of multiple species. It seems that the complex in the Delta region consists mainly of the rednecked peanut worm, granulate
Overall, tarnished plant bug numbers appear to be decreasing across the Delta. Several things are contributing to this decline. The biggest factor is that the hot, dry weather is starting to take it’s toll on a lot of the wild
We have gotten multiple calls over the last week about fall armyworms in soybeans and peanuts. In every case, it has been a situation where people got behind on grass control when we were getting a lot of rain a couple weeks ago. In those situations, they have sprayed the grass during the last two weeks with products such as Select or Roundup that are relatively slow acting. A lot of the grass is infested with grass-strain fall armyworm and big worms start moving over into the crop about a week to ten days after the application when the grass starts to die.
This week has been the turning point on plant bugs and appears to be the week for the mass movement of migrating adults into cotton fields in many areas. Compared to previous years we are 10-14 days behind schedule. There have been quite a few sprays going out for tarnished plant bug this year but as a whole numbers have actually not been as high to date as many of us would have thought with the warm winter.
As some of the rice in Mississippi is starting to approach head emergence within the next few weeks, I wanted to give a brief update on rice stink bug populations that we are seeing across the Delta.
Plant bug sprays are going out this week but overall numbers have not been as high as expected to date. This can change rapidly as plant bugs begin to move into fields from wild host plants. Click to Enlarge
Transform, a new insecticide containing the active ingredient sulfoxaflor, has received an emergency use exemption for Delta counties in Mississippi for the control of tarnished plant bug in cotton. This product represents a new mode of action and has excellent
Plant bug numbers are picking up this week in the Delta areas in the ditch banks. Click to enlarge
In most years it is not uncommon to overspray 20-30% of the cotton acres for thrips in MS. Last year (2011) was an anomaly in that we treated around 70% of the cotton acres for thrips due to extremely high pressure. It appears that this year is shaping up the same way. This week we have had numerous calls on young cotton with very high numbers of thrips. There have also been reports of Western flower thrips on cotton.
There have been a lot of questions recently about thrips control in peanuts. In general, thrips will not hurt peanut yields except in EXTREME situations. Peanut seedlings are relatively vigorous compared to most of the crops grown in Mississippi. Foliar insecticide applications, though rarely needed, should be based on plant injury rather than thrips numbers.
The time until cotton starts to square is still a few months away, but it is not too early to start thinking about managing plant bugs in cotton. With the mild winter, plant bug population densities appear to be a little higher on wild hosts than they have the past couple of years.
Rice water weevil densities appear to be very high at some locations in Mississippi this year. I looked at two fields over the last week where adult feeding was actually affecting plants. Adult numbers were running as high as 4-5 weevils per plant.
The reason for this post is to give an update on insect pests that we may be seeing in the near and distant future. First, we had several wheat fields around the Delta that had some fall armyworms. In addition, we are seeing a fair number of fall armyworms in whorl stage corn. I wouldn’t say the numbers we are seeing are anything of great concern, but the numbers are higher than we normally see this time of year. This tells us that fall armyworms are in the environment and capable of moving into rice. As the wheat is drying down, make sure to keep a close eye on field edges, especially those fields adjacent to wheat.
Last year was a challenging year for insect pests of rice in Mississippi. In general, we experienced higher than normal populations of rice water weevil, rice stink bug, and fall armyworm. Luckily from the rice water weevil standpoint, the two
In Mississippi, the rice water weevil is the most important early to mid season pest in rice. Three years of research have shown that foliar pyrethroid applications provide variable results, and may not always provide acceptable control.
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