Southwestern Corn Borer Trap Counts, July 9, 2016
Southwestern corn borer trap counts remained very high in some areas this week. The highest counts reported were in Sunflower, Quitman, and Coahoma counties.
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Posts From Don Cook, Entomologist
Southwestern Corn Borer Trap Counts: July 2, 2016
Southwestern corn borer trap catches appear to be peaking this week. Several counties had individual traps with numbers at or near the current threshold and a couple well above threshold. As a reminder, the current threshold is 50 per trap
Southwestern Corn Borer Trap Counts: June 25, 2016
Southwestern corn borer numbers increased significantly in some areas this week. The highest numbers were 377 caught in Leflore County and 450 caught in Coahoma County. The current threshold in the 2016 Insect Control Guide suggests spraying when 50 moths are caught
Caterpillars Infesting Field Corn
Much of the corn has reached the reproductive stages, while some is still in the vegetative stages. Several caterpillars, including fall armyworm and corn earworm, can infest corn, especially non-Bt corn, during both stages of development.
Southwestern Corn Borer Trap Counts: June 18, 2016
Overall, southwestern corn borer traps remained low throughout the state. However, one trap in Leflore county captured 178 moths over a 7 day period. Although they do not appear to be widespread, this indicates that there may be pockets with
Southwestern Corn Borer Trap Counts: June 11, 2016
All southwestern corn borer trapping locations did not report this week, but numbers were very low across the state. The highest numbers were in the south Delta, but still well below threshold with the highest number being 22 in one trap
Rice Disease Calendar
Included in this blog post are a rice disease calendar. Information presented in the calendar deals with the most commonly observed rice diseases throughout the MS rice production area. In general, the occurrence of diseases on rice will depend on the planting date, general field history as related to previous crop, and the environmental conditions throughout the season.
Comment Period is Open for Transform Section 18
In March, the Mississippi Bureau of Plant Industries and other states in the Mid-South submitted Emergency Exemption (Section 18) requests to use Transform for tarnished plant bug control in cotton. The reason for this request is that the original registration
Rice Seed Treatments and Cool Wet Soil Conditions
Every year we have a point in the planting season where we start getting questions about how heavy rainfall and cool temperatures affect seed treatments in rice. The one thing to remember is that the clock starts ticking on the
Cutworms Showing Up in Mississippi Crops
We have had several calls over the last week about cutworms reducing plant densities in cotton, soybean, and non-Bt corn. Based on the number of calls, it appears that cutworm populations are much higher than they have been the last several
2016 Scout Schools
Mississippi State University will be hosting 5 scout schools this year. We have transitioned over the years to make these trainings much more diverse than insect pest alone. This year we will be including insects, disease, fertility, and herbicide symptomology.
Seed Treatments and Thrips 2016: Expectations
Although commodity prices have not been exciting for any crop we grow, Mississippi is expected to see cotton acres increase as much as 40% this year. As we have been traveling the meeting circuit, the common denominator has been, “What inputs can we cut in an off year?” This has been asked of all crops lately, not just cotton. It seems that seed treatments are the first thing that comes up during this conversation in every crop; however, this is not a viable option in cotton.
Tarnished Plant Bug IPM and Impact of the Transform Label Cancellation
We posted an article last spring about utilizing several best management practices in an overall IPM program to manage tarnished plant bug in cotton. We included a pdf that highlights all of the research we have conducted over the last
Future of Agriculture Graduate Student Competition
On February 4th 2016, Mississippi State University will host the fourth annual Future of Agriculture Graduate Student Competition. The competition will be open to M.S. and Ph.D. students working in production agriculture. Over the last several years, there has been
2016 Insect Control Guide Now Available
The 2016 Insect Control Guide for Agronomic Crops is now available online. Hard copies will be available in January. Notable changes this year include the removal of pyrethroid insecticides for bollworm control in all crops due to resistance and poor
EPA Orders Cancellation of Dow’s Sulfoxaflor (Transform)
By now many of you may have heard that Sulfoxaflor, the active ingredient in Transform, recently lost a major court decision in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The suit was led by the Pollinator Stewardship Council, beekeepers, and other bee
2015 Delta Area Rice Growers Meeting: November 5, 2015
The 2015 Delta area/Bolivar Co. Rice Meeting will be held at the Bolivar Co. Extension office on November 5, 2015. Mississippi rice producers, industry professionals, and other interested parties are invited to listen to presentations from MSU research and Extension
Mississippi State University Turn Row Talk – Clarksdale, August 25, 2015
An agronomic crops field day will be held at Stovall farms, west and north of Clarksdale on Oakhurst Stovall Road. The field day will be held at Mr. Pete Hunter’s farm shop beginning at 10 am. MSU Extension Specialists will be present to discuss topics in corn, cotton, grain sorghum, peanut, rice and soybean.
Terminating Spider Mite Sprays in Mid-South Cotton
There has always been a struggle with properly defining the correct cutoff for spider mites in cotton in the Mid-South region. For years we always loosely considered Node Above White Flower 5 (NAWF5 = Cutout) and 650 heat units the
Dectes Stem Borer: Biology, Damage, and Management in Soybeans
There have been numerous calls and questions about Dectes Stem Borer over the last few years. It seems that numbers are increasing each year. This is not surprising when you consider the biology of the insect coupled with an increase in soybean acres in MS.
Soybean Loopers and the Effect of Defoliation on Yield
We have been getting calls on loopers showing up in soybean for about 2 weeks. In recent days there have been reports of defoliation exceeding 20% or numbers exceeding threshold in some areas in the central to southern part of the state. The bulk of our soybean loopers typically show mid to late August or even into September so this is a little early but certainly not unusual. Soybean loopers are migratory and work their way north each year from southern latitudes. Early arrival could be due to a number of reasons.
Bean Leaf Beetles High in Delta Soybean Fields
Over the last week we have been getting a lot of calls about extremely high bean leaf beetle numbers. Most calls have come from the Northwest Delta region of the state. We have actually made bean leaf beetle targeted sprays on a number of acres in recent days. Yield loss is caused by defoliation and less frequently by pod feeding
Controlling the Headworm Complex in Mississippi Grain Sorghum
There have been numerous reports lately of high numbers of corn earworm and sorghum webworm in grain sorghum. I have heard some reports of numbers as high as 10X threshold. It is critical to scout and treat as needed to control these pest. There are three species that make up the headworm complex in grain sorghum; the corn earworm (bollworm), fall armyworm, and the sorghum webworm.
Reminder – MSU DREC Rice Field Day – July 30, 2015
The MSU-DREC Rice Producer Field Day will be held in conjunction with the annual Mississippi Farm Bureau Federation Summer Rice Grower Meeting this year on the afternoon of July 30 at the Capps Center in Stoneville.. The Farm Bureau meeting
Bollworms Showing up in Soybeans
In just the last 3-5 there have been several reports of bollworms now showing up at threshold numbers in soybeans in the Delta region of the state. In many other areas of the Delta folks are reporting flushing extremely high
