Recent Posts
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One of the last things a peanut grower wants to do is make an insecticide application in late September, and it is one of the last things that I want to recommend. We still have fields in Georgia with velvetbean caterpillar (VBC) infestations, and populations in some fields are high. The question that we get…
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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 ingredients in the recipe for…
Posted in: spider mite -
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 opportunity to see first hand…
Posted in: General pest update -
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 it seems infestations are more…
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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 expect that some of the…
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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 becoming more prevalent in peanut…
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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 pests of peanut: lesser cornstalk…
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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 concern. Though the larger “thrips…
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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 ratings for the same untreated…
Posted in: Thrips -
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 treatment for thrips in peanut,…
Posted in: Thrips