Entomology Update 6-27-25: Rice Stink Bugs, Bollworms, Southwestern Corn Borer

Extension entomologists Ben Thrash and Nick Bateman discuss rice stink bug pressure, economic thresholds for bollworms, and more in this week's Entomology Update.

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 27th, about to be July and I don't know, there's not just a whole lot going on, but I've got a few things to talk about. Nick, what's happening in rice?

[00:27] Nick Bateman

You know, actually we've looked at several stinkbugs this morning in that field, or I say that field is about 100 acres zero grade. You know that that rice is right at about 70, 80% headed, it honestly wasn't as load as loaded as I thought it would be with it being the only field that’s headed around there it was running 15 to 20 stinkbugs on ten. So, I mean, it was well over threshold, but I was expecting some 50s or 60s. I don't know that that's any implication of what we're going to have, you know, over the next couple of weeks. But just to reiterate what I think, we talked about it last week, we changed that threshold this year to where it's a straight ten all season. So we're not we're not going to do the five during flower and milk like we used to. It's a, it's a straight ten all season. But that's that's pretty much it. 

[01:24] Ben Thrash

Well plant bugs have been kind of spotty, it seems like from some people got quite a few plant bugs and are having to spray, and then there's other folks out there that are like, man, you know, maybe running about three or 4 or 100 sweeps of adults, but, so it just kind of depends where you're at. I think a lot of this rain and stuff we've had, we've got a lot of wild hosts out there. And, those plant bugs just hadn't been, hadn't been ready to come off a lot of those wild hosts quite yet. It does sound like probably if you're next to some early corn and those silks are turning brown, you probably got quite a few plant bugs coming off of them right now. I have been finding quite a few plant bugs in in some beans and stuff that I've been sweeping, on occasion. So I think I think they're out there and maybe what if, if things start to dry up, these wild hosts start to dry up. And once this corn, this corn silk starts turning brown we might have quite a few plant bugs, but, right now, right now, they just seem kind of spotty. You know, we had quite a few moths this past, this past week. It seems like our bollworm numbers have jumped up quite a bit over this past week. And, we had, you know, over a thousand counts. And I was driving by some traps just the other day up around Lonoke. And those those trap tops look pretty full. Nick, you had mentioned that you had got some calls on bollworms in beans?

[03:11] Nick Bateman

Yeah. And it's I mean, it's all been South Arkansas and, you know, generally, generally the numbers folks are finding and a lot of ones and twos quite a few actually fours and fives out of those phone calls and just a couple of them at threshold. I think that corn still silking up. Well, we looked at the threshold a minute ago. And essentially, if your application is going to cost you around 20 bucks, you're at about nine worms and around that $25 price range, you're at, what, 20, 11, something like that.

[03:45] Ben Thrash

Yeah. So some are 9 to 11 worms on 24 sweeps. Yeah. And like you said, I think a lot of these, this corn still silking up some of these, bollworms. I stopped and looked at a few fields and, looking at some silks. And there's quite a few bollworm eggs on those silks right now. And there's still stinkbugs out on corn. I don't know about soybeans that I'm hearing, you know, some threshold levels of stinkbugs. And it's typically been greens. You know, one thing to look out for, it seems like, seems like there's a pretty good number of spined soldier bugs out there, too. So don't get those spined soldier bugs confused with with, you know, brown stink bug. They look pretty similar, but they get a lot of your shoulders, and then they're they're, proboscis. Their mouth part is a lot more stout than you regularly see on a on a regular stinkbug. So kind of keep that in mind and make sure you're not counting, you know, spined soldier bugs instead of brown stink bugs. Out on out on those.

[04:59] Nick Bateman

Another thing. And, and I don't know if it will be an issue for us or not this year, but I actually got I think it was two calls, one at a Lake village and one out of Southwest Arkansas, a few army worms just showing up in pastures. Yeah. You know, and this is kind of the time of year. Last year we started getting a few of them, maybe a week or so late this year. And then they kind of moved over to us. But I don't know, it's like I just noticed a few sticking to the legs, that kind of stuff walking around out there. So I don't, there ain't no telling what the larvae are going to do. And it does, there's a few will start a trickle in.

[05:38] Ben Thrash

Yeah, not heard a whole lot on some on corn, but, nothing. Nothing major yet. Yeah. Southwestern corn board traps seem to have jumped up in some places pretty good this past, this past week. You know, a lot of a lot of what guys are using are the dime. So sticking with your, you know, your besiege, vatacore, those type products, there's what a lot of guys are running. Intrepid does a really good job. Methoxy, if inside, you don't get quite as long a residual, you know, ten, 14 days is what you get. Residual control. But, you know, if guys are trying to save a little money, out here on the southwestern corn borer flat, it does a good job. You just don't get quite the residual, out of that intrepid that you get out. Those those other products, those diamide products. You know, we were talking a minute ago about all these pop up showers, and we were looking at the forecast, and it looks like a lot of the state kind of got, scattered, scattered showers for next week, you know, in the forecast. So just kind of keep that in mind before you go out with your insecticide applications, you know, as if it's not very rain fast, it you know, the longer the better. Honestly, with it, I'd want probably 16, 24 hours, something like that. But as of late, I mean, it's pretty, it's not very rain fast, but if you do, if you do go out with asphalt or really any other product, and there's a chance of those pop up showers, throwing a surfactant in there can really help with the rain fastness. So just kind of keep that in mind. Before going out in, somewhere where there's chance of of having rain showers that afternoon. Anything else? Nick, I'm trying to think we talked about.

[07:48] Nick Bateman

You know, that's really about it.

[07:50] Ben Thrash

About it. So. Well, if you need us, call us. My number (501) 517-3853.

[07:59] Nick Bateman

Mine’s 870-456-8486

[08:04] Ben Thrash

All right. Thank you very much.

[08:07] 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.