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Kentucky strawberry producers should check with their supplier on the origin of their plugs after two viruses were found this spring in the state, said Nicole Ward Gauthier, assistant professor in the University of Kentucky College of Agriculture’s Department of Plant Pathology.
The viruses, strawberry mottle virus and strawberry mild yellow edge virus, were found on plants that originated in a nursery in the Great Valley area of Nova Scotia. Three known Kentucky growers received a shipment of plants from this nursery, but only one of them has reported symptoms of the viruses.
For more than 20 years, specialists with the University of Kentucky Integrated Pest Management Program have trapped moths of Kentucky’s major agricultural pests to give producers an early warning about potential outbreaks. A recent UK College of Agriculture survey shows this program is paying financial and environmental dividends for the agricultural industry.
From Southeast Farm Press
Winning soybean yield contests is a common occurrence in recent years for Eastover, S.C., grower Jason Carter.
But winning last year’s contest with a rare and new-to-South Carolina insect handicap was an adventure he doesn’t want to try again.
Carter says he found the rare Dectes stem borer in his soybeans and finding out what was killing his beans proved to be about as frustrating as dealing with the problem.
Soybean cyst nematode (SCN) is the most widespread and damaging disease pest of the crop in Kentucky.
It is my opinion that SCN is the main cause of the so-called, “yield ceiling” that is evident in many Kentucky soybean fields.
SCN is managed by rotating fields to non-host crops, such as corn, and by planting soybean cultivars that resist SCN. The problem is that in order for these tactics to be used properly, their effectiveness must be monitored over time.
The cowpea aphid attacks more than 200 plants and 50 crops worldwide but prefers legumes, particularly alfalfa. It is a major pest in the Tropics, but since the 1990s, cowpea aphid populations caused enough damage to alfalfa in the United States to warrant insecticidal sprays.
A naturally occurring wasp, Lysiphlebus testaceipes, helps keep aphid populations under control, but is not effective against the cowpea aphid in alfalfa. A University of Kentucky College of Agriculture researcher suspects that this natural biological control agent may have failed with the cowpea aphid because of the type of bacteria the aphid possesses.
From the Roanoke Times
On Friday a Virginia Tech research team working to stop destruction of Appalachia’s iconic hemlock trees unleashed a new microscopic weapon in the fight against the tree-killing woolly adelgid.
Tech entomology professor Scott Salom and graduate student Katlin Mooneyham seeded infested hemlocks on private property near Mountain Lake in Giles County with about 1,000 laboratory-grown eggs of the Laricobius osakensis, a newly discovered beetle species from Osaka, Japan, that preys almost exclusively on the woolly adelgid.
The University of Kentucky College of Agriculture will present the 3rd Conference on Invasion Biology, Ecology and Management, April 3 at the UK Student Center. This year’s conference, titled “Where We Were, Where We Are, and Where We Should Be,” will take a broad view of the environment to plan future strategies through the lessons learned from history.
Previous research studies have shown poultry litter applications have many benefits for corn and soybean producers, but these benefits have not been quantified or integrated into one comprehensive research study. UK College of Agriculture researchers are doing just that.
Researchers in the University of Kentucky College of Agriculture have identified 14 molecular markers in bed bugs that allow them to be resistant to pyrethroid insecticides. Pest control professionals commonly use pyrethroids to control bed bugs because of their safety, affordability, effectiveness and longevity.
Recognizing that solving the problem of climate change will require expertise from all sides of the ideological spectrum, the University of Kentucky College of Agriculture will host a free public forum, Climate Change: Values, National Security and Free Enterprise, at 7 p.m. EDT April 4 in the UK Student Center ballroom.
