Category Archives: Insects

Week Ending May 17 – Complete moth trapping results for bollworm (corn earworm), tobacco budworm, beet armyworm and southwestern corn borer are linked below. Clearly, the warm winter resulted in good survival of overwintering larvae as southwestern corn borer moth catches continue to be very high is some locations including traps located in Continue reading →

UT Cotton Scout School on Friday, May 25^th at the West Tennessee Research and Education Center in Jackson. Registration will begin at 8:00 AM (no fee or preregistration required). The program will end with a box lunch and a go-to-the-field session for those interested after lunch.

Actually, thinking of thrips as raining from the sky is pretty accurate; and we are getting a pretty good flood in most areas.  Many people are reporting 2-15 thrips per plant on cotton from the cotyledon stage up to the second true leaf.  These calls are pretty easy to answer.  Spray if multiple thrips are present on plants with less than two true leaves.  Certainly apply a foliar insecticide if the first or second true leaf has obvious signs of thrips injury … Continue reading →

False chinch bugs are a pest that can kill cotton and soybean seedlings.  I see them in a few fields almost every year, but they are causing more widespread problems this year, with reports from Madison, Gibson, Haywood and Hardeman Counties.  Infestations almost always occur in Continue reading →

Saving money when it comes to trips across the field with a sprayer can be appealing, but it’s important to keep some things in mind when deciding to mix herbicides with other pesticides and/or fertilizers.  With these types of applications, you risk mistakes on application timing, appropriate gallons of water per acre, and possibly using incorrect nozzles, all of which can result in poor efficacy.  However, you also risk crop injury with some of these combinations.  Continue reading →

It is amazing how insect populations sync up with the crop.  Like our corn crop, the first generation southwestern corn borer moth flight has started early.  Usually it starts about now, but some folks have been catching moths in pheromone traps for a couple of weeks, and moth catches are higher than usual.  Moth trapping data are linked under the “Quick Links” menu for SWCB, corn earworm (or bollworm), tobacco budworm and beet armyworm.  Compared with this week last year, moth catches are Continue reading →

The phone has been ringing regularly the last few days with reports of fairly high thrips numbers, mostly adults, on seedling cotton.  Most of our cotton is less than the two leaf stage.  I’m not too surprised considering the wheat is drying down just as our cotton is emerging.  Averages of 2 – 8 thrips per plant are being reported, with a few Continue reading →

UT Cotton Scout School on Friday, May 25^th at the West Tennessee Research and Education Center in Jackson.  Registration will begin at 8:00 AM (no fee or preregistration required).  The program will end with a box lunch and a go-to-the-field session for those interested after lunch.

Overall, I’m not getting any reports of widespread problems in any crop, but there has been a smattering of several things including … Continue reading →

I’ve had calls about cutworms and slugs this week.  You can see my comments about slugs in last week’s post (link here).  However, the most common question has been on armyworms in wheat.  Calls have varied from low populations, but some with head clipping, to high populations that have caused severe defoliation.  The picture below is that of near complete defoliation, including the beards of wheat, from Crockett County. Continue reading →

“Planting cotton is the second great urge known to man.” I am not sure who to accurately attribute that quote to, but I have heard it several times from Dr. Will McCarty, former Extension Cotton Specialist at Mississippi State University. Continue reading →

Slugs.  There have been a few calls about slug feeding in corn, and I would expect some similar calls in other crops as they emerge. Slugs, unlike snails, lack shells and commonly feed on plants. They feed on leaves and sometimes cut the stems of cotton or soybean seedlings similar to cutworms. Snails rarely cause economic damage to field crops, and the ones typically encountered do not even feed on the plants. There are no Continue reading →