agriculture

This week's fall armyworm pheromone trap graph appears below. The 7-year average for this week of June is 110 moths per week. This week's capture was 707. This does not appear to be a phenomenon confined to the Lubbock Research Center, as Katelyn Kesheimer, EA-IPM in Lubbock and Crosby counties, reported several hundred moths in the Crosby County traps she operates. (Rain filled the traps so it was not possible to count all the moths, but there  were hundreds.) Additionally, Blayne Reed, EA-IPM in Hale, Swisher and Floyd counties, drove to Plainview from College Station late last week and reported that fall armyworm moths were very abundant at rest stops along the way. A prior post from April of this year discussed some genetic work being done by Ashley Tessnow, a graduate student in the Dept. of Entomology at College Station. She determined that the Lubbock area fall armyworm moths we sent her last year were 30% rice strain and 70% corn strain as a season average. She also no...

My post two days ago said fall armyworm captures in pheromone traps were a bit above average and that it seemed we were at the start of a big flight. The traps were emptied on Wednesday, and today they had an average of 215 moths per trap. To put this in perspective, the 7-year average for this week of the season is 115 per WEEK. So in just two nights the capture we are already 87% above the historical weekly average. There is no way to know if the numbers will remain at their current level for five more nights, but if they did then next Wednesday I would report 752 moths per trap. Regardless of how things go for the next five days, we are now well above the 7-year average. My non-Bt corn is taking significant damage, and this is before most of the caterpillars are anywhere near large. Egg masses are easy to find. The good news is that fall armyworm is not generally a big problem very far north of Lubbock. My colleagues and I checked research plots with non-Bt corn at both Halfway and ...

It is mid-June, and I am pleased to report that there have not been any serious insect problems in corn and sorghum yet. Well, let me temper this by saying that the drought has brought plenty of problems outside the entomological realm. Wireworms have been a problem in spotty areas, but for the most part seed treatments have kept them in check. Corn in the area is approaching V6 - V8, and sorghum is anywhere from V5 to still in the bag. Sugarcane aphids have not been detected on the High Plains, but sorghum planted relatively late will benefit from seed treatments to control sugarcane aphids, at least if prior years are a predictor. The progress of sugarcane aphid can be tracked here . Fall armyworm trap captures just jumped up, and the weekly average exceeds the 7-year average at Lubbock . We may be at the start of a big flight; last night's capture was 124 moths per trap, whereas the nightly average for the prior six nights was only 25.4. I have non-Bt heirloom dent and sweet cor...

I have noticed some thrips damage on the early planted cotton especially in the areas north of Lubbock. Fields that have already reached 4 true-leaf stage are pretty much safe from further thrips damage. We still, however, have a lot of late-planted cotton in South Plains that ranges from emergence to 1 st or 2 nd true-leaf stages which are very prone to thrips injury. Late planted cotton usually escapes peak thrips flight but the fields at the most vulnerable stages especially those in the vicinity of maturing wheat or pastures will have to be watched closely for thrips. In general, with the current hot and mostly sunny days, I would not be too aggressive when it comes to spraying as cotton plants can outgrow thrips under good growing conditions. Having said that, I wouldn�t wait too long either if the damage is being done. Spraying for thrips after the 3 rd true-leaf stage contributes little towards the yield�so the timing is critical! What are thrips? Thrips are early-season pests...