Andrew Sawyer
-
I’ve talked to growers from Fort Valley, Hancock County to South Georgia who have identified Ambrosia beetles being very active this wee. Once we have consistent warm days, the adults start flying. If you have had problems with this pest before OR if you have newly planted trees, it is likely a good idea to…
Posted in: Insect Management -
Many calls we are receiving about spittlebugs in pecan orchards at this time. It is easy to spot the immature stage of the insect which creates a ‘spittle’ mass to protect themselves from enemy insects and also from drying out. This insect is listed as a pest of pecan in our Southeastern Pecan Grower’s Handbook.…
Posted in: Insect Management -
Last year we received a grant from the Pecan Commodity Commission to plant a low-input pecan variety trial for long-term evaluation of scab in Southeast Georgia. The location of planting is at the University of Georgia Vidalia Onion Research Farm. I’m excited to say that we are finished with our initial planting and irrigation set…
-
Pecan Budmoth Following a cool April, we are seeing budmoth pressure increase. At the UGA Vidalia Onion Research farm, our trees sprayed in early April look great. However, I left one row non-sprayed so I could replicate a budmoth insecticide efficacy trial we were doing in Montgomery County. The Montgomery trial was sprayed April 8th…
Posted in: Uncategorized -
The pecan nut casebearer moths are flying now. Starting last weekend and through this week, many locations have reached ‘biofix’ catching moths for two consecutive days. Thank you to all county agents, growers and our USDA counterparts who checked traps the past few weeks. I will clarify how to use the online model and discuss…
Posted in: Insect Management -
UGA Extension agents, USDA collaborators and pecan growers across 14 pecan-growing counties in Georgia are monitoring for pecan nut casebearer again this year. We started on April 12th using pheromone-baited traps (Figure 1). Agents and entomologists are checking traps each day until moths are captured for two consecutive days. The first date of consistent captures…
Posted in: Insect Management -
Growers are starting to see symptoms of shuck decline in the orchard. Symptoms range from shucks turning all the way black to the tips green shucks turning black and peeling back at the suture. In some cases, kernels are black and in other cases, there is no kernel. The degree of declining shucks is different…