Plains Pest Bugosphere: June 2022

Wednesday, June 29, 2022

June 29, 2022 High Plains IPM Podcast

Season is rolling along, and pests are starting to come into the picture. Here is this week's High Plains IPM Podcast:

https://soundcloud.com/user-766365640-259391064/high-plains-62922

Friday, June 24, 2022

June 24, 2022 Plains Pest Management Newsletter

https://hale.agrilife.org/files/2022/06/Plains-Pest-Management-News-2022.pdf

Grasshopper Apocolypse 2022 Coming?

I do not know how widespread this is, but in southern Swisher I have noted on the ever-diminishing islands of truly green grass and Johnson grass clumps in bar-ditches an incredible population of grasshopper nymphs congregating on their preferred foliage. This week I took the time to count a typical square foot of area in these areas and counted 79 grasshopper nymphs of varying species. It is true that grasshoppers are usually higher in drought areas and years. This is because they only have one generation per year with eggs lain on the soil surface, typically near a food source. If rains are short and water never stands in the area where the eggs are lain, fewer eggs/nymphs drown. This is usually in conjunction with a reduced population of predators in that area who would normally be ready to devour several nymphs each if the area were attractive or could otherwise support higher populations. So, in drought areas and seasons, grasshopper population flourish without any checks or balances and develop into large insects that can better defend themselves before predator populations can build under the situations.

What this means bottom-line level is that if the drought situation continues and these green islands falter to grasshoppers or drought, hungry waves of grasshoppers will eagerly flock to the nearest green vegetation with biblical plague like waves. We should not only be ready for this pest in production fields margins and hay crops when and if this move takes place, but yards, golf courses, gardens, and horticulture plants are all about to be in serious danger. We may have somewhere between a week to a month before we start seeing this apocalyptic wave of pestilence hits civilization in West Texas. If we can receive widespread rains the situation could be abated keeping the higher than normal grasshopper population spread out across pastures and in bar-ditches with predators hopefully reducing their number. Otherwise, we should prepare to receive some unwelcome chewing pests on just about everything green in the area.

Blayne

Wednesday, June 22, 2022

June 22, 2022 High Plains IPM Podcast

Here is the link to this week's High Plains IPM Podcast: https://soundcloud.com/user-766365640-259391064/high-plains-62222

High Fall Armyworm Numbers from Lubbock and southern Hale

The following was written by Dr. Pat Porter about his moth trapping numbers from Lubbock. I can add that our FAW trap numbers across southern Hale are up as well.

Highest Fall Armyworm Numbers in 12 Years of Trapping

The title of the article pretty much says it all; for the week ending today on June 22 I caught 1,242 fall armyworm moths per trap at Lubbock. The prior record, 912, was set in 2021 when FAW caused extensive damage as far as the upper Midwest.

Thanks to some genetic work done by Ashley Tessnow, a post-doctoral researcher at Texas A&M, we know the vast majority of May moths were "corn strain" fall armyworms. However, she found that our summer flight might be a much as 35% "rice strain" mixed in. This is not to say the majority of moths from this week won't go to sorghum or pasture grasses, for they surely will - the host preference between strains is not that strong.

The bottom line is that any of our crops that are susceptible to fall armyworm should be scouted. Our Bt corn will provide good control of these larvae on whorl stage plants. However, sorghum, especially small sorghum, is at significant risk, as are any of the other host crops including vegetables.

In looking back on my 12 years of data it is apparent that FAW numbers have increased on average over the years. I don't have an explanation for this, but I know what I am seeing. I am using the same pheromone lure year after year, and the traps are in the same place, so I think it is fair to say that increasing fall armyworm is a real phenomenon.