Heliothine Trap Catches, June 5, 2020

As I have done every year since 2007, 3 or 4 pheromone moth traps each for bollworm and tobacco budworm have been erected in agricultural regions of Noxubee, Lowndes and Oktibbeha counties. They are checked once per week and the results will be presented on this blog each week. In addition, USDA-ARS has traditionally run traps in several MS Delta counties. While they still intend to do that, the coronavirus shutdown has delayed this activity, so no data are available for that region to date.

Bollworm moth catches in pheromone traps in Noxubee and Lowndes counties have been running much higher this year than normal, which may indicate a challenging year ahead for bollworm. In fact, in reviewing trap data since 2007, a non-Delta county only averaged more than 100 moths per trap per week one time during May and the first week of June (Lowndes in 2011), but this year, in 4 weeks of trapping in 3 counties, there have been 3 county averages over 100 moths/trap/week (Noxubee twice and Lowndes once), and another 2 averages were in the 90s (Noxubee and Lowndes, each once). The traps are in the same locations as in previous years, so this appears to be a result of a larger number of moths surviving the winter. Be alert for high densities of bollworm larvae in vulnerable crops. Tobacco budworm numbers are typical for this time of year and should not cause much concern.