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From Delta Farm Press
Yes, those are stink bugs in your wheat field. No, you probably shouldn’t start spraying just yet.
That’s the assessment of Gus Lorenz, Extension entomologist for the University of Arkansas.
After weeks of significant rain and mud, “I guess it got dry enough to walk some fields today,” Lorenz said. “My phone was ringing off the wall with calls, mostly about stink bugs in wheat.”
From Delta Farm Press
The kudzu bug, an insect that has caused up to 20 percent yield losses in some untreated soybean fields in North Carolina, is inching its way nearer to Arkansas.
Native to India and China the pest was first found in the United States in 2009. It’s a tiny insect — just one-sixth to one-quarter of an inch long and is olive green with brown speckles. They waddle when they walk, but are excellent fliers.
Most corn insect control decisions are made before the planter hits the field. “Of course, decisions to control stalk borers in non-Bt corn, as well as cutworms and stink bugs in all corn, are made in-season,” says Auburn University entomologist Kathy Flanders.
Through work done at the University of Arkansas, plant pathologist Yannis Tzanetakis (pronounced Zan-tak-is) has identified a new virus which is called Soybean Vein Necrosis Virus. The researchers now have proof that the virus causes the disease Soybean Vein Necrosis.
From Delta Farm Press:
Invasive pests cost the United States an estimated $130 billion in damage and preventative measures every year, and information is the best defense.
The Arkansas Forest Resources Center has just launched a website, www.ARInvasives.org, dedicated to managing these destructive pests of our forests.
By Bob Scott, Arkansas Extension Weed Specialist
There is little money left for hoe crews and no chemical options remain. Many of these fields will be combined, surely spreading the weed — not only in these fields but in others that the combine goes into later. I do not blame you for cutting these beans; there is money out there. Most fields are clean enough and were clean enough long enough that yield may not even be affected.
From Delta Farm Press:
Red imported fire ant quarantines must still be heeded as out-of-state suppliers try to help out Arkansas livestock owners short on hay.
“Many producers from across the southeastern U.S. are offering hay for sale to help their colleagues in Arkansas,” said John Jennings, professor-forage, for the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture. “However, Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana and most of Texas are in fire ant quarantined areas, which means hay suppliers have to use care to comply with USDA quarantines.”
The lack of prolonged winter weather followed by a spring that broke many high temperature records was bound to have an effect on Mid-South crops. That has certainly proven out with the early arrival of the insect complex.
This article, from Delta Farm Press, concerns Arkansas, but it can be applied to the entire southern region.
Spring-like temperatures in late winter will mean one thing for Arkansans in the outdoors: prepared to be bitten early and often.
