Mid-Coast IPM

We are continuing to document the expansion of pasture mealybugs (PMB) being detected across the state.  The map below shows where mealybugs have been identified in dark green. The light green counties are where we expect to find pasture mealybugs. Most of the new detections are from USDA and TDA sampling and identification. They are doing a lot of field surveys to find the extent of the pasture mealybug range. We are unsure how far north or west the mealybugs will go. In Australia, the mealybugs are found in areas with more than 19 to 23 inches of annual rainfall. The map below is from the Texas Water Development Board showing average annual rainfall from 1991-2020. The black lines are added to show roughly where 19 and 23 inches occur. Currently, Val Verde County is the furthest west detection of PMB. I do not expect the mealybug to go much further west, but irrigation may allow it to expand beyond the range of natural precipitation. Movement of the Pasture Mealybug The PMB can m...

The EPA approved a FIFRA Section 18 Crisis Emergency Exemption for Centric 40WG insecticide to control mealybug in pasture grass in the State of Texas. The Section 18 Exemption can be found HERE We updated the Mealybug Fact sheet to reflect the Section 18. The update reads as follows: Pasture Mealybug Management When grass injury symptoms are detected and the pest is present, management with cultural and chemical methods may be used to help reduce mealybug numbers. Cultural control methods include cutting/shredding and heavy grazing. Pasture mealybugs thrive in tall, dense forage, so reducing biomass by cutting/shredding and heavy grazing will also reduce the mealybug populations. Chemical control is still being evaluated, but there are several insecticides that research has shown to have activity against pasture mealybug. Labeled for use in pastures in Texas: Centric 40WG has a Section 18 Crisis Emergency Exemption for use at 2 to 3.44 ounces per acre. ...

The Pasture Mealybug Fact Sheet has been updated to reflect the research done in the past year.  You can read this document here:  https://agrilifeextension.tamu.edu/pasture-mealybug/

The link below is for a Pasture mealybug audio update: Now in 74 counties, detailed control strategies, insecticide update. https://txt.so/AZIHIC For more audio updates and to subscribe, follow this link.   https://www.texasinsects.org/south-texas.html

Will the pasture mealybug be moved in hay bales?  This is one of the many questions asked over the past year. My thought has been, yes, the mealybug can move in hay bales, but we have no research on this topic. The problem with the mealybugs staying in cut grass is, as the grass dries, there is less plant sap for the mealybug to feed on. So the logical assumption is the insects will leave the grass.  A few weeks ago, Dr. David Kerns shared some data on this showing most mealybugs left the grass but about 5% were found in the cut grass 48 hours after cutting. We conducted a similar research test on a field of WW-B Dahl grass near Port Lavaca. The field was sampled on June 30 prior to cutting on July 1 and the cut hay was sampled on July 3, two days after cutting. The results were similar to those of Dr. Kerns. In the Port Lavaca Test, about 100 mealybugs were found in a similar amount of grass as the 2 sq ft samples taken prior to cutting the grass. This is 8.7% of our pre-cutt...

The map below shows where we have found pasture mealybugs and where we expect to find them. The map will be updated as additional counties are added.  If you find them in one of the counties not shown in dark green, please contact me with information on the detection.  You can send pictures of the mealybug, damage and grass species (if known) to my email at:  stephen.biles@agnet.tamu.edu   I also encourage you to inform your County Extension Agent. 

We have seen an increase in stink bugs in cotton over the past few weeks. When scouting fields, pull 20 1-inch bolls from 5 locations and inspect them for internal feeding by popping them open. The 1-inch boll size is important to ensure you are finding recent boll damage. A 1-inch boll is roughly 10 days after white bloom. We continue to sample plants with the vacuums to see if we can find Cotton Jassid. So far, we have not found any cotton jassds in Calhoun, Refugio, or Victoria Counties. In 2026, they have only been found in plant nurseries in the Rio Grande Valley, but not north of there. One insect we are capturing in most samples is the verde plant bug. The feeding of verdes can be similar to that of stink bugs and may explain the higher amount of feeding injury we are finding in cotton bolls. Internal feeding can look like lint staining or other non-white looking seed, but it is typically associated with wart formation on the interior boll wall. Look for bolls with external feed...

This week I was able to visit a field of grain sorghum in DeWitt County that was infested with pasture mealybugs.  The field was ready for a harvest aid application and the grower's concern was the mealybugs may go to the heads after the application and get everything sticky with honeydew.  Pasture Mealybugs on Grain Sorghum Photo by S. Biles Most of the plants had many mealybugs per leaf, generally toward the base of the leaf on the underside. The grower indicated the mealybugs were all over the 60 acre field. We walked a few hundred feet into the field and found them everywhere we stopped. They didn't get there recently; but were first noticed in early June. The mealybugs were found on the lower leaves but caused significant damage to those leaves and the upper leaves were not as green as they should be. I suspect the mealybugs likely caused some yield loss.  While there was sooty mold on the lower leaves, very little honeydew was noticed, and it was not very sticky whe...

1.       Scouting a.       Check edges of damaged areas more than in the middle of dead grass. b.       Look for leaf damage symptoms such as yellowing and red leaves. c.       Look for mealybugs on the underside of leaves, especially the lower leaves. d.        Check the soil surface and thatch below grass canopy for mealybugs. Often a majority of the mealybugs may be in the thatch and on and in the soil. e.       Mealybugs can be as large as 5 mm in length or as small as 0.2 mm. If larger mealybugs are being found, there may be many more small mealybugs that are difficult to see. f.         We have not determined a producer/consultant method for determining the size of the populations while in the field. However, if mealybugs are easily found, they are likely above an economic level. 2.    ...

We are at the time of the growing season where our primary insect pest is stink bugs. This is the case in sorghum, cotton and soybeans. While each crop has its own species causing damage, the fields are important to scout to identify the pests causing potential yield and quality losses. In grain sorghum, many fields are being harvested but there are some fields that are still susceptible to stink bug injury. The primary stink bug of concern in sorghum is the rice stink bug .  The economic threshold for stink bugs in sorghum changes as the crop matures; becoming less susceptible as it approaches hard dough as depicted on the graph below.  For detailed information on the economic thresholds of stink bugs in grain sorghum, look HERE . We are also finding sorghum aphids (AKA sugarcane aphids) in a number of fields in Refugio County. Check these fields to prevent harvest issues from the honeydew produced by the aphids. Cotton is also susceptible to stink bug damage from early bloom...

It seems every day we get phone calls, texts, and emails showing us another county where the pasture mealybug can be found affecting the pastures and hayfields. The map below shows the latest information on the spread of the mealybug in Texas. If you have mealybugs in a county not shown in green, call, text or email me.  361-920-1138 or biles-sp@tamu.edu   Over the past few weeks, we have been conducting insecticide tests to determine what insecticides will be useful in managing the pasture mealybug populations. None of the insecticides we think will control the pasture mealybug are labeled for control of pasture mealybug in pastures in Texas. The only one labeled in pastures in Texas is Sefina, which is labeled for aphids in pastures. The insecticides were applied at 13 GPA using TT11002 flat fan nozzles. All applications included a non-ionic surfactant at 0.25% V/V. As of 14 days after treatment, we were not able to visually separate treatments and I expect it will take anot...

This past week we have seen corn leaves in several fields that have turned red. In the past few years, we have been concerned about the symptoms of corn stunt which is transmitted by the corn leafhopper. In the fields I looked in, the leaf reddening was caused by two things: pasture mealybug or poor pollination.  Some corn plants had yellowed or reddish leaves on the bottom of the plant. These plants were found only on the field edges up to 3-5 rows in, and bordered either the grassy roadside ditch or pastures. The grass in these pastures was infested with pasture mealybugs and the insects were moving into the corn fields.  Pasture mealybug damage to corn leaf So far, I have only found the damage to affect the plants on 4-5 rows into the field. I do not think this is economic damage; mostly because the leaf damage is below the ear leaf. Leaf damage cause by poor pollination In the other fields where I found leaf reddening, the red leaves were above the ear. Inspecting the ears...

The crop tours for this year are as follows: Refugio County     June 10     Austwell Community Center in the morning     Bonnieview Community Center in the afternoon DeWitt County    June 9     Gruenau Hall in the Afternoon Event Flier Victoria County     June 16     Dacosta Hall in the morning Calhoun County     June 16     Extension Office in the Afternoon Event Flier More details to come.

This week we were able to set up and spray an insecticide control test near Cuero, TX.  This test has products we have hope will be successful in controlling the insect, but there is still some uncertainty until we get the data in a week or two.  The other factor is that none of these products are labeled for control of mealybugs in pastures.   Yellow Sugarcane aphids and Pasture mealybug nymph There have been some challenges finding the mealybugs in the fields.  In the field with this study, the majority of mealybugs found are very small nymphs.  We have several observations regarding scouting for the mealybug.  1) Time of day may be important for scouting pastures. It seems we can find more before noon than after the day has heated up. 2) Larger mealybugs may drop off the plant when disturbed so being careful when handling the plants may increase your chance of finding the insects. Moving the mealybug from infested fields to un-infested fields...

Other than looking for fall armyworms and bermudagrass stem maggots, I have to admit that I have not looked closely at the insects in pastures until this past year. From using a sweep net scouting for armyworms, we know there are many different insects in the field. But until we began looking closer into the grass canopy, I didn't think there was much to see. What we have found is there are more insects feeding on the grass than we knew were there. Some of these include at least three different mealybugs, two aphids, and the predators of these. While our knowledge of these insects in incomplete, it is important to identify what is being found and what could cause damage symptoms in your pastures.  Of the mealybugs, the most concerning is the pasture mealybug, which has been found across much of the southern half of Texas. In addition to this mealybug, the rhodesgrass and bermudagrass mealybugs have been found. Yellow Sugarcane Aphids (Photo by S. Biles) One difference between the p...

 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

The online course for the 2026 Auxin applicator training is now available.  Please share with anyone that is interested in taking the course online. Users can access the course at the link below or by searching “auxin training” on AgriLifeLearn.com: 2026 Auxin Specific Applicator Training