Mid-Coast IPM

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