Recent Posts

  • Spider mites have been reported on a number of crops including vegetables and cotton since this spring, and as conditions continue to be hot and dry in many locations, we are beginning to see populations jump in peanut. The two spotted spider mite is a challenging pest to control. It thrives in hot, dry conditions…

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  • We currently have a diverse mix of foliage feeding caterpillars in GA peanut fields. Right now, the heliothines (tobacco budworm and corn earworm) are most common, but beet armyworm, fall armyworm, soybean looper, cutworms, and even some velvet bean caterpillars have been reported. Several species are commonly found in the same field. Fields where granular…

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  • Folks who have ventured into a peanut field in recent weeks may have seen something similar to the picture posted below. The white mass is a cluster of pupal cases (cocoons) of a parasitic wasp. The tiny wasp lays its eggs in a caterpillar, the eggs hatch, and the wasp larvae feed on the still…

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  • Lesser cornstalk borer (LCB) is probably the most serious pest of peanut in Georgia, and we are seeing quite a bit of LCB activity. This pest thrives in hot, dry conditions and light sandy soils…something we have plenty of in South GA right now. Fields need to be scouted to determine if LCB is present.

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  • There is some insect activity in GA peanut fields this week, and growers need to be watching

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  • The following pictures  are of peanuts from untreated plots (no insecticide) in a trial planted on 8 May in Tift County.

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  • Tobacco thrips dispersal dropped to nearly nothing over the past seven days indicating the end of the 4th generation flight. There are still

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  • It is not hard to find tobacco thrips in peanuts right now. We have seen adult thrips in the crop for a couple weeks, and immature stages are present now as well. Adult numbers on the yellow sticky traps

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  • Thrips have been moving over the last week, and trap numbers did reflect the increased activity. In terms of actual thrips pressure in peanut, we are seeing a lot of variation from field to field in our research trials.

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  • The tobacco thrips dispersal model predicted a fourth generation flight beginning around 18 May for the Tift County area, and it looks like that might be pretty close.  While the number of tobacco thrips on our yellow sticky traps remained low over the last seven days, we are seeing adults in our untreated peanut research…

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