Few pests of peanut are as dreaded or as difficult to control as the two spotted spider mite. Spider mites generally start to show up in peanut fields in late July, and if conditions are favorable they can severely injure or even kill plants. Hot and dry are the main…
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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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The first call I received about corn rootworm in peanut a couple weeks ago seemed like one of those interesting oddities that show up in a field or two every year but do not amount to much more than that. Since then I have gotten a couple more calls, and…
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There continue to be lesser cornstalk borers (LCB) in Georgia peanut fields, and I do not see any reason that should change over the next few weeks. Interestingly, most of the heavy pressure has not been in the Southwest but in the middle and eastern portions of South GA. I…
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I mentioned last week that we were getting some reports of lesser cornstalk borer (LCB) in peanut, and that hot, dry conditions could result in more pressure. Over the last three days I have received a number of calls and emails from agents, growers, and consultants indicating that LCB is…
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There has been no rain in Tift County this week, and as I walked my plots and a commercial field this morning I saw a few lesser cornstalk borer larvae in the sandy parts of non-irrigated fields. High temperatures combined with dry conditions favor three of the most troublesome arthropod…
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Thrips numbers on our traps have mostly been trending downward since 18 May. This pattern is typical of what we have seen in Georgia over the last few years. Many if not most of our peanut acres are getting to the point at which thrips injury is no longer a…
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The damage progression over the last seven days in our UGA thrips trials was not as severe as I expected. On a 0 to 10 damage scale (0= no damage, 10 = dead plant) untreated check plots that were planted on 29 April averaged a 4.8 on 17 May. Damage…
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It will come as no surprise to anyone who has been walking through peanut and cotton fields over the last seven days, but tobacco thrips are still on the move. While there is no definitive answer to the question of when should we pull the trigger on a foliar insecticide…
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More peanuts are emerging this week, and as expected the phone calls and text messages about thrips have started coming more frequently. Fortunately not many problems have been reported in fields where recommended soil insecticides were used at planting. I have heard of some severe injury in volunteer peanuts and…
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