As Crop Threats, All High Plains Fall Armyworms Are Not The Same
We all respect fall armyworm as a significant threat to High Plains corn, sorghum and cotton, and that is why we run pheromone traps to assess the potential threat during the growing season. Last year we sent some of our moths to Ashley Tessnow, a graduate student working with Dr. Greg Sword in the Dept. of Entomology at College Station. She is looking at the population genetics of fall armyworm. She sent some of her preliminary results this week, and they were a surprise; based on just 2017 moths, we seem to have a baseline level of around 30% "rice" strain. There are two strains of fall armyworm, and the rice strain feeds on rice, Bermudagrass and Johnsongrass (but can feed on corn). The "corn" strain feeds on corn, sorghum and cotton. In another surprise, the baseline level of about 70% corn strain jumped to 93% in the late June sample when we had a sudden influx of high numbers of moths for just a few days. I sent Ashley a draft of this text, and she wisely add...