Entomology Update: 6-7-24: Southwestern Corn Borer, Stink Bugs in Beans

Extension entomologists Ben Thrash and Nick Bateman discuss the status of rice water weevils, southwestern corn borer, stink bugs and more across the state.

Transcript

[00:01] Intro/Outro

Arkansas Row Crops Radio, providing up to date information and timely recommendations on row crop production in Arkansas.

[00:13] Ben Thrash

Hey, everybody, today is June 7th. And you know, it seems like has been a pretty light week for Nick and I. But I guess we'll start with rice. What's happening? What's happening in rice, Nick?

[00:29] Nick Bateman

I mean, it's kind of the same story as past couple of weeks. A lot of I mean, I say a lot. I feel like this week was fewer phone calls on weevils than the previous two. But, you know, there's still a lot of this rice is just now getting the size it needs to get fertilizer on it, go to flood and all of the historical data, I mean weevils are no different than any other insect pest it seems like the later in the year that you get going the flood the higher those populations are. So we really need to be looking at a bunch of this rice as we go to flood. You know, we've got this large block deal. We're looking at some threshold stuff where they went to flood on Sunday. So we're five days out right now and there's a ton of pairs mating out there, meaning in sometime in the next 3 to 4 days that weevil population's going to be gone and where I'll go with that is you really got you know depending on the weather and how quick they get in there you got maybe up to ten days. But really, to me, you really need to be scouting that thing within seven days of that water going on to to make sure that if you need to make a foliar application, that that you can get out there all the time because once they mate, there's nothing you can do to pull the water off and kill the larvae. So, but really, outside of that, that's that's all I'm hearing about right now. That’s all we’re seeing.

[01:52] Ben Thrash

And I mean in cotton you know North Arkansas is pretty much done with the thrips and it seems like, you know, some other places are done with the thrips. But down in South Arkansas, we still, you know, just driving around there the other day, there it looked like there's a decent amount of cotton that’s about fourth true leaf or so with everything kind of in between. But I don't know, they they just don't seem as bad as as North Arkansas earlier this year. So it just seems like the thrips aren’t too terrible. I'll tell you, my my seed treatments actually seem, they look, you know, pretty decent in my plots this year. And it's probably just a function of not having the pressure that we did have last year, at least in Marianna and Tiller. So, you know, that's good. But I’ll just say, if you you know, if you do need to treat still just our recommend, like our recommendations been I'd probably go with Intrepid Edge or Bidrin, Bidrin’s still been looking pretty good and yeah, we might get some showers on Monday or Tuesday next week so if you got to go ahead of something that looks like rain, you know, especially if you're using Intrepid Edge, you got to go with asurfactant. But if you're if you're going with, you know, Bidrin, both of those products are pretty rain fast but you know, putting a surfactant in there helps them out. We also got some cotton, you know, that squaring now because we did get planted up and in north Arkansas pretty early but so, you know, plant bugs are going to be rolling in before too long, too. So just keep an eye out on your cotton for, you know, adults and stuff starting to come into the field. And of course, you know, this time of year, we tend to like to go with something like Centric or Imidacloprid for one of those first shots or if you're on something where you got, you know, some nematodes underground, probably something like Vydate. But I guess outside of that, I mean there's really not a lot going on in cotton. How about corn, Nick? I heard about a few southwestern corn borers.

[04:14] Nick Bateman

Yeah we've got a few phone calls between the both of us on southwesterns this week and it’s getting that time I mean it's usually, usually the first big flight of southwesterns occurs right at the end of June beginning of July, somewhere in that ballpark. So we do need to start looking for them, making arrangements if you got a history of them to maybe spray, get with your with county agent about traps those sort of things because I think we're right on the front edge of it. It's it's most likely just going to get worse over the next couple of weeks as that flight picks up.

[04:51] Ben Thrash

Yeah. Yeah. But I mean outside of that, I don't know. I hadn’t got any calls on beans this week.

[05:01] Nick Bateman

I did get one on like what the stink bug stuff we talked about last week showing up in smaller R1-2 beans and telling folks just go back and look at it again next week.

[05:13] Ben Thrash

Yeah, yeah. Those stink bugs are getting those blooming beans. Remember, they're seed feeders. They're just going to be in there and they're just passing through and probably be gone the next week. But I don’t know, that’s about it.

[05:30] Nick Bateman

Pretty quiet right now.

[05:31] Ben Thrash

Yeah, well, if you need us, call us my number 501-517-3853.

[05:39] Nick Bateman

Mine’s 870-4568486

[05:43] Ben Thrash

All right, thanks very much.

[05:47] Intro/Outro

Arkansas Row Crops Radio is a production of the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture. For more information, please contact your local county extension agent or visit uaex.uada.edu.