The following was released by Dr. Pat Porter, district 2
entomologist:
FOCUS on South Plains Agriculture |
|
Posted: 13 Jul 2020 04:29 PM PDT
I found sugarcane
aphid colonies on post-flowering sorghum today at the Experiment Station in
Lubbock. An independent crop consultant reported to Blayne Reed this
afternoon that he had just found some in Hale County, about 6 miles northwest
of Abernathy. So here we go.
In the last few years we have tracked the aphid's arrival on the southern High Plains, and traditionally it comes first through Floyd and Crosby counties, then to Lubbock, Hale etc. So it is most likely that Crosby and Floyd counties have it as well. There is some good news: The aphid is a couple of weeks late in arriving, and many fields will be able to outrun it. And in what is really good news, we are not getting large flights from the south and southeast, so the invading population is relatively small, which gives the beneficial insects the upper hand for now. I have been asked about the 106 - 108 degree days, and whether these will phase the aphid. I don't know. Drought stressed sorghum loses the ability to transpire in the hot part of the day, which means it does not have much evaporative cooling going on at the leaf surface. On days like we had today, I can easily see it being 120 degrees near the soil surface in full sunlight, and this is hot enough to affect some types of insects. Irrigated sorghum is less apt to shut down on these hot days, so it will continue to have some evaporative cooling at the leaf surface. I don't think aphids on these plants will be affected much. |
Thanks Pat!
Blayne
As of late last week, we still have not found the aphid in
our sorghum program fields. Our older sorghum fields are arrayed along
the western edge of Hale county from west of Cotton Center to west of
Edmonson. We will be looking at these fields again as the week
progresses.
My thoughts on the heat and this aphid are this, it is a
tropical aphid. While I would not be surprised either way, I would not
plan for the temperatures to hinder the aphid in the least. This aphid
has taught us to scout and manage for the worst to get the best outcome.
The sugarcane aphid is not the only aphid we are seeing in
area sorghum. We have the yellow sugarcane aphid and corn leaf aphids in
abundance. This provided chart and common sorghum aphid identifying
photos are from our 2016 SCA Management Guide for the High Plains. This
should be useful in reviewing our High Plains action threshold and settle any
miss identifications of aphids in sorghum.
Thanks,
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