Mid-Coast IPM

AgriLife Extension Entomology provides weekly or periodic updates from AgriLife IPM Agents on the insect, weed, disease and crop development news affecting crop production. You can find these at the link below: https://www.texasinsects.org/agriculture-audio-updates-home.html The latest updates from this week are here: Cotton Jassid update from Dr. David Kerns and Danielle Sekula: https://on.soundcloud.com/GIEAH0OqbadO2b8feT Corn leafhopper update from Dr. David Kerns: https://on.soundcloud.com/MBCyh8mIqSv7qaRxCO

In Australia, the pasture mealybug emerges in early October but does not usually cause damage until early December.  This would be analogous to emergence in early April and damage in June. As the grass is greening back up following winter, I have begun to scout pastures and hayfields where we found the pasture mealybug last fall. Thus far, I have not found any emergence.   Keep in mind, a hand lens is necessary to find the emerging mealybugs. We are not looking for the 2-3 mm long adult, but the 0.5 mm nymph. Our best management suggestions are to adopt what they are doing in Australia and manage for recovery. I conducted 5 field trials last year to see if we had a product that will provide control of the mealybug.  Only two of the five showed promising results.  Some reason for the poor results can be found in what has been done in Australia. The Australians have determined insecticidal control not to be an effective means for managing the insect and it's damag...

The cold temperatures earlier this week have caused some chilling damage to some corn and cotton fields. While scouting around Victoria County yesterday and today, I noticed a lot of differences in the level of damage caused by the cold temperatures. Some of this difference is explained by differences in crop maturity and corn hybrid. Older corn has been more affected by the cold temps than younger corn. This is very apparent in a few fields with two planting dates.  Dr Ronnie Schnell addressed low temperature stress and chill injury to corn and sorghum in the Texas Row Crop Newsletter in 2021. Dr Schnell's recommendation for assessing damage is as follows: Determine planting date in relation to cold weather. Check fields planted on different days and with different hybrids. Cold soil temperatures occur less than 72 hours of planting, imbibition injury possible. Cold soil temperatures occur greater than 72 hours of planting, cold stress injury possible. Freezing temperatures for em...