Entomology Update 6-12-25: Thrips Control Options, Plant Bugs, Stink Bugs in Soybeans

In this week's Entomology Update, extension entomologists Nick Bateman and Ben Thrash discuss when to scout for rice water weevils, different control options for thrips in cotton, current plant bug populations and when to worry about stink bugs in beans.

Transcript

[00:00] Intro/Outro

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

[00:11] Ben Thrash

Hey everybody! Today is June 12th and not just a whole lot happening. It's been been a little light, but we got a couple things, I guess, to talk about. What you got happening in rice, Nick?

[00:23] Nick Bateman

It's kind of the same story as last week. Maybe a few more phone calls on weevils, but it really sounds like. And, you know, we got all this sweep net stuff we're doing. I probably talked about it some, but like around Stuttgart, the numbers are pretty dang low, lower than there were last year, like Pine Tree they were starting to pick up, but they're still quite a bit lower or quite a bit less than what it was last year. So don't know if all this flooding and stuff we've had just has them spread out. Or if it's just a down weevil year. But if you got rice that’s about to go to flood, I'd definitely be looking out because this, this is the time of year that they usually start moving.

[01:03] Ben Thrash

So and probably a lot of this rice has sat around for a while before it actually went flood.

[01:09] Nick Bateman

Yeah, there's no telling how many different migrations come into those fields with all the different rains and stuff we've had. I just think weevils are really spread out. So but the fairly low population so far, a lot of the places I've had.

[01:24] Ben Thrash

Yeah. And cotton, I mean, I don't know, it's kind of same story as last week. There's still thrips out there and there's late planted cotton. So people are having to having to manage for thrips still. But we got some plant bugs moving in. You know, on the thrips, I was looking we just got our foliar data all analyzed from from some of those. And, you know, a quarter pound of acephate, I think I had 120 thrips in my check that we were out, and I had a 99 in my, in my quarter pound of acephate, whereas I had about is about 50% control, maybe a little bit better than 50% control with a half pound acephate. Intrepid edge looked better than that. But, you know, I don't know. It's just variable. It seems like we, you know, last year, I think when UT ran our thrips assays, I think we had about 8% control with the diagnostic dose of acephate. And this year, we had 35. So it seemed like this year they seem to be a little bit more susceptible to acephate from our location at Marianna than, last year. But still acephate don't, don't look just real good. But I will say, you know, when in that trial, I added acephate in with Intrepid Edge actually did improve control a little bit. So I don't know, it might be something to consider if they're, if they're really bad, but I gotta say. And last week, where we had acephate in our, in our acephate treated seed in our insecticide seed treatment trial, that cotton actually look slightly worse. So it's just kind of variable. I just I wouldn't rely on the organophosphates too much to get a get a good kill. The plant bugs. You know, it's early in the season, typically this time of year. You know, we want to stick with one of our neonics. Or if you're in an area with nematodes and you're running Vydate, run that. So just hearing of some adults starting to move in to, starting to move into some cotton, this corn still silk and I don't, I don't it's too early for any brown silks. I'm not seeing any brown silk so far. So once that happens, we'll start to have a lot more plant bugs, I think, move into our cotton. So just keep that in mind. I mean.

[04:03] Nick Bateman

Have you had any calls on mites? I wouldn’t expect many with so much rain?

[04:08] Ben Thrash

No. I kind of asked around the past few days. And there's no mites as far as any treatable populations that I've heard of anyway. So the mites seem to be being held at bay, just from this rain, you know, so far. So, we're talking about stinkbugs in beans a minute ago. I'm getting a lot of calls on stink bugs in beans right now.

[04:33] Nick Bateman

Yeah, yeah, we were discussing before we recorded about, you know, we always talk about maybe they kind of ignored a little bit during those bloom stages R1 or 2, but getting a lot more serious about, you know, R3 throuh you know, R6 or R5 or whatever. Then stay on top of it, a lot more. But really, the blooming beans there’s not a whole lot for them to do.

[04:57] Ben Thrash

Yeah, yeah. Once you start getting that R3 and R4, there's, you know, there's gonna be some bigger pods down there at the bottom and so they can start to feed on those and kind of knock some of those pods off. So I just keep keep an eye out for that. In those fields.

[05:15] Nick Bateman

And you're talking about having the, there was a corn with that call on grasshoppers, which.

[05:21] Ben Thrash

Yeah.

[05:21] Nick Bateman

In a way is a little bit surprising because normally those things like a high and dry type thing, but that was a, pretty trashy field when they planted into it. But it may need to be, I mean, if we’re going to force some, some crop into the ground over this next week or so and this very late planted stuff. If it's, if it's, grown up out there, probably better be looking pretty hard.

[05:43] Ben Thrash

Yeah. And then, you know, since there's quite a few stinkbugs out there, you know, I'd keep an eye out for them, maybe in some of this corn that's, about to be putting on ears or anything like that. I think our our thresholds, 5% infested plants on these corn, on this corn that’s forming ears. You don't want to get a bunch of cow-horned ears out there that can end up reducing your yield. So you got to keep that in mind when you're out there looking. Southwestern corn borers, I don't know. I've heard of some in traps. 

[06:23] Nick Bateman

Some of the agents I've talked to, it's either catching nothing or about a half threshold and. Yeah, I mean, it doesn't sound like there's been a big bumper crop of them, but, you know, we're still kind of on the front end of the, the flight as well, that first initial flight. So who knows what we'll see over the next few days, but.

[06:43] Ben Thrash

Yeah.

[06:45] Nick Bateman

Well, the threshold, what, 50 than 100? First generation then second generation.

[06:48] Ben Thrash

Yeah, yeah.

[06:53] Nick Bateman

If you got conventional corn, I'd be getting with your county agent, you know, they all run traps in every county and try to figure out if they got some close to it. If they don't, I would ask them to, to get some over there. 

[07:05] Ben Thrash

Yeah. And, you know, Glen, we ordered a bunch of southwestern corn borer traps this year, and we've got southwestern corn borer traps. So really, if somebody wants some, you can probably get in contact with Glen and we’d be able to to hook you up. So, or talk to your county agent, and they might be able to, Yeah. You know, talk to Glen, get you hooked up. Anyway.

[07:34] Nick Bateman

And I have a ton of calls and seen them ourselves, rice stink bugs out the wazoon on any kind of headed grass right now. You know, a couple years ago, we saw that and just the way the rice crop headed and matured and everything that year, it really wasn't a bad Stinkbug year with things spaced out. What concerns me a little more this year is it feels like we got about three to maybe four planting dates out there, and a few of them got pretty good chunks of rice in there, but I feel like we're spread out enough that way. We might deal with, you know, five two throughout the season. But right now there's a ton of them out there. But we'll know more in about 3 or 4 weeks or some of those earlier stuff heads on just how bad it could be.

[08:16] Ben Thrash

Yeah. And there's there's quite a few bollworm moths out there that's kind of been picked up over this past week or two. So like we said, most of that's probably going to corn. But just keep an eye out in your, in your beans, for, for any worms that you might be picking up. So just kind of keep that in mind. So that's about all I got. Yeah. All right, well, if you need us, call us. My number is (501) 517-3853.

[08:49] Nick Bateman

Mine’s (870) 456-8486.

[08:53] Ben Thrash

Thank you very much.

[08:56] 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.