Now is a critical time for insect management in Georgia peanuts. Hot, dry weather is here, and the decisions we make over the next few weeks are going to be very important in determining how much impact insect pests will have on this year’s crop. Lesser cornstalk borers (LCB) have…
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June will bring a shift in insect concerns in peanut, and as usual, the weather will play a large role in determining what happens next. April and May insect questions were primarily about thrips, so I will give a short summary of the 2020 thrips situation. Thrips pressure in my…
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Insect activity is beginning to pick up in some of our Georgia peanut fields, and now is a really good time for growers who may not have a consultant or scout to get out and walk the crop. I have seen a mixed bag of caterpillars in my research plots…
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Everyone in the peanut industry in Georgia knows that burrower bugs are bad. That is why I get several calls each spring from folks who have found burrower bugs in their fields and are understandably concerned. Sometimes the offending creature is the peanut burrower bug, but most of the…
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It has been a while since anyone asked me about garden fleahopper in peanut, but this is the time of year when they begin to get noticed. After a couple years with more fleahoppers than “normal”, populations in Georgia peanut fields in 2016 were typically low or nonexistent. We are…
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Velvetbean caterpillar (VBC) numbers are on the rise across south Georgia, and this is a good time to remind growers who may not have a professional crop consultant or scout that they need to check their fields for insect pests. Velvetbean caterpillar populations should be relatively easy to manage, but…
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I have received some nice pictures of “hopper burn” on peanuts over the last week. The insect responsible for this damage is the potato leaf hopper (PLH). It is a tiny, bright yellow-green insect that feeds on the mid-vein of the leaf causing the characteristic “v” shaped yellowing at the…
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Here is an entry I wrote last week and realized today that I never published it… Things have been relatively quiet in terms of insect pressure in most peanut fields so far in 2017, but that could change quickly. I have been getting reports of heavy caterpillar pressure in some…
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Insect Scouting Schools will be conducted on June 12, 2017 in Tifton and June 20, 2017 in Midville. Crops to be covered include cotton, peanuts, and soybean. These programs offer basic information on insect pest identification and damage, natural enemies, and scouting procedures. The training will serve as an introduction…
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Drs. Monfort, Srinivasan, and I spent several days last week walking peanut fields to get a measure of how severe tomato spotted wilt is in this year’s crop. Incidence of virus symptoms varied from 0 to over 30% in the fields that were surveyed. This effort also gave me an…
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