Ento Update 6-14-24: Plant Bugs, South Western Corn Borer, Aphids

Extension entomologist Nick Bateman and Ben Thrash discuss control options for thrips and plant bugs in cotton, south western corn borer, sugarcane aphids and more.

Transcript

[00:01] Intro/Outro

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

[00:12] Ben Thrash

Hey, everybody, today is June 14th and you know, not a lot happening, I guess in the in the bug world but you know, a few small things here and there are kind of going on no severe breakouts but what's going on in rice, Nick?

[00:32] Nick Bateman

Man, it’s kind of the same story as last week. There's still quite a few weevils out there. And you know, we just had some some rice flooded in Pine Tree this week. And granted Pine Tree is probably not a great representation of the whole state because the population so high up there but you know within 48 hours of going to flood, we're running like 25-30 on ten sweeps. Which from what we saw is, you know, some of the stuff we've been playing with in a sweep net, that's pretty high population. So any of this rice that's going to flood right now, just they'll be need to be out there pretty quick after that water gets on and see what you got and see if you need to do something there. The other thing, already getting several calls. You know, I know we don't have a headed rice out there, but I got several calls wondering where we're at on the 18, those sort of things with Endigo. And bottom line where we're at this year, is there supposed to be enough Tenchu out there to cover us. We don't, if Tenchu is available we don't have a legal options there to submit an 18. All I can say is is time will tell. If we run out of ten we’ll submit immediately under a crisis. But really where we're at right now is Tenchu is going with the best legal option we got so that we run out. We'll submit for an 18 but that's just the that's where we're at right now. And we don't have a legal standing to submit for an 18. So that's that's pretty much it right now.

[02:05] Ben Thrash

Yeah. Not a not a real good situation on that right now. So I hope there's plenty out there. Yeah, in cotton. I mean, there's nothing really nothing really too pressing right now, from the sounds of it, there's, you know, quite a bit of cotton squaring now. And so plant bugs are kind of moving into that. I haven't really heard of any big numbers of plant bugs. I mean, there are some sprays going out, but you know just not not big numbers. But you know, we like to start off with something like imidacloprid or Centric, you know, I'm a little partial to the Centric. It it seems to do a little bit better in our trials than the imidacloprid. But really just not not a whole lot going on in cotton, I guess are still down south Arkansas. You know some late plants that went in. There's still some thrips out there and I was actually just review on some of our foliar data so our our thrips and I mean really the Intrepid Edge is about your only option the Orthene even at half a pound, I think we were running it was like 60 something in our untreated check per five plants and you look at half a pound of Otrthene and it was, we were at 49 and then even Bidrin in the last time we pulled it was at like 48, it was right there was half a pound of Orthene. So man, I would probably stay off of the OPs and just stick with Intrepid Edge if I got to go after thrips right now.

[03:52] Nick Bateman

Hey Ben, have you heard anything else on mites? I’m just wondering with how hot and dry it’s getting right now they're they're popping back up yet or not?

[04:01] Ben Thrash

With mites? You know they still seem to be kind of down. I really haven't heard anything about them. As a matter of fact, I'm looking for a spot to put out some mite trials. Now, I've asked around it for a few people to keep an eye out for me. Really, if anybody's got aphids or spider mites I need to get some get some trials out. But you know, it seems like there's a few, few aphids out there. We're actually seeing some compared to last year, but I mean, the spider mites, all that rain that we got, you know, a couple of weeks ago seemed to really kind of knock them in the head. So that's one positive out of all that rain, I guess, sort of. How about corn, Nick? We’re kind of in that Southwestern Corn Borer time period.

[04:49] Nick Bateman

It’s time. I mean, I think we said this past or three weeks but it it's time to get real serious about it. Either scouting for them to some extent or you know, trying to get some traps out, visit with your county agent if they have traps out there if you’re in an area where you traditionally dealt with them, you know and you've got non-Bt corn it’s probably not a bad idea to consider Besiege, Vantacor, something like that. I mean with the seed savings, the cost there that you got, you should be able to afford it. I know we're talking about some super cheap corn this year, but you don't want to lose it either to southwestern corn borers.

[05:28] Ben Thrash

Yeah, yeah. And there's, you know, Intrepid or the knockoffs are pretty good options, too. They don't have as long of a residual as as the Vantacor or Besiege does, you know. But they’re still still a pretty good option there. I guess, I got a call and you got to call on corn leaf aphids. 

[05:53] Nick Bateman

Yeah. And we're not concerned about them, you know, like bottom line with them, they’re difficult to control. Really. Your only option, there is bifenthrin and what we saw a couple years when they, years ago when they popped up you know bifenthrin didn't do very well in the fields that did get treated and you know a lot of where folks are finding them are field edges were you know the field’s not watered well on the end of it or on the top side of the polypipe those sort of things, basically the weaker plants out there. But, you know, you really look very like the history on them and stuff. It sounds like you got to have so much of that bolted up honey dew out there that you cut down so much photosynthesis on the plant to really get any yield loss from them, so it's is not a concern. But what I was fixing to say is start to see a few of these sugarcane aphids pop up in grain sorghum and I know we don't have a ton of it out there this year, but it's is something we need to start looking for.

[06:51] Ben Thrash

Yeah, yeah. Well, in soybeans, you know tere's not a whole lot going on in them either. I mean, I'm still getting a few calls down and some some guys finding stink bugs and, you know, in some R2 beans. And remember those are, those stink bugs are seed feeders. They're looking for seed. So, you know, during that time period, you're you're really not going to they're not cause any injuries. They're just passing through. So, you know, if you end up seeing a few, I would hold off and, you know, keep an eye out for a few weeks, but I wouldn’t treat for them, you know, at R2, R3 beans right there. I'd wait till later on in the year because more than likely they're just passing through and you know, another thing that I actually got a call on and I saw them myself over there at the station was there are a ton of grape colapsis out soybeans are out now but they don't really do anything. They're defoliators, but they don't desalinate near as much as even like a bean leaf beetle does. So I would just not even worry about them. They're just out there. Nick I think we were talking a minute ago and he talked about, you know, having a bunch of bean leafbeetles and a field a couple of years ago or something.

[08:17] Nick Bateman

Where we we had a bunch of grape colapsis some of that stuff we were doing.

[08:20] Ben Thrash

Or grape colaspis, sorry.

[08:22] Nick Bateman

In grad school and I mean, we were running, you know, somewhere around 50 on 25 sweeps. It's not quite as high as some of the numbers Ben’s seen in his stuff. But, you know, them things were there for like five weeks. They were there from R3 all the way to the end of the season and the defoliation never got above like 10%. They just, just never really felt a whole lot. I mean, those were big beans, big early planted beans, you know. So there's a lot of foliage out there, but they're not bean leaf beetles. They, they, it takes them a while. They're like the green clover warm compared to the soybean looper.

[08:56] Ben Thrash

Yeah, yeah. They just don't do a whole lot and I wouldn't worry about them. You're not going to like, have I mean, even if you're getting like 100 on 25 sweeps, you're not going to turn around next week and have your crop defoliated. You got time to watch them. So don't get, you know, too up in a tizzy about them.

[09:17] Nick Bateman

Probably ought to mention bean leaf beetles because of a few calls on them there, you know they can hit pods a little bit more really concerned about the defoliation side. But the big thing with bean leaf beetles is we're going to have to tank mix some products there, you know, by bifenthrin by itself, acephate by itself, probably not the best, you know, neonics on their own, probably not the best, but some combination of a pyrethroid with a neonic or acephate is, you know, where we need to be.

[09:46] Ben Thrash

Or yeah like an Endigo with a bifenthrin, acephate, probably be your best options there but you know on speaking of beans today I was down at Tiller our spot down there and we're planted. We got beans planted up next to a hayfield and the guy just mowed his hay down some time this week. I don't know exactly when it was, but I had quite a few army worms moving out into those beans. Now that was a hay meadow and they had mowed it down and they just kind of moved out of that. But, that, I don't know, there's there's several, several army worms out there. I mean, I'm not hearing a lot and anything else. And you had mentioned about just seeing a couple here and there in rice.

[10:35] Nick Bateman

So we're running about 1 per sweep in one field up at Pine Tree, you can't even tell they’re there if you didn't have a sweep net in it. You know time will tell what these populations are going to do. I will say it feels a little early maybe, you know, with us being mid-June, but getting basically no phone calls on them outside of couple spots where they showed up in beans, kind of like what you're talking about. So yeah. I don’t think we're, like, staring down this massive outbreak, but we are a little bit early this year I feel like, to start seeing army worms.

[11:09] Ben Thrash

Yeah, yeah. So you may just keep an eye out on them and watch what any are going to do out there.

[11:15] Nick Bateman

Maybe check your grass before you Spray Roundup or Select or whatever.

[11:19] Ben Thrash

Yeah, yeah. Exactly. Oh, that's about all I got, man.

[11:25] Nick Bateman

Yeah.

[11:27] Ben Thrash

All right, well, if you need us, call us my numbers. 501-517-3853.

[11:33] Nick Bateman

Mine's 870-456-8486.

[11:37] Ben Thrash

All right, thank you.

[11:41] 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.