Insect Update 7-8-26: Rice Stink Bug Thresholds, Bollworms and Redbanded Stink Bugs in Soybeans, Aphids in Sorghum

Extension entomologists Ben Thrash and Nick Bateman discuss thresholds and control methods for rice stink bugs, a few redbanded stink bugs in south Arkansas soybeans, and sugarcane aphids in grain sorghum.

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 July 8th and there's not just a whole lot going on, but, I mean, they've been talking about a few things. What you got going on in rice, Nick? 

[00:26] Nick Bateman 

Yeah. Well, you know, first, it's kind of ironic. I feel like for the past month, we've been saying there's not a whole lot going on. It just feels like things are building up. But from a from a rice standpoint, you know, we finally got a, a decent chunk of rice headed out there. Some of the fields we've stopped and just randomly jumped in haven't had real high populations of stink bugs and the phone calls I've been getting. It sounds like there's a lot of five, six, seven, eight type numbers out there on ten sweeps with the occasional, you know, 25 plus out there, but way more phone calls around that half threshold to three quarters threshold. Keep in mind too, on thresholds, we've changed that to where it's ten all season. 

And really you need to be waiting till it's about 75 to 100% headed out there before you even worry about putting a sweep net in it. You know, of course from like a control option, you know, Tenchu and the Sharda product, they both look good. The dinotefurans, also, you know, transform has a label for rice stink bugs in the initial testing. So I've tested it a little bit and so have my counterparts basically in all the Midsouth. And it looks comparable Tenchu. It's one of them that I'd like to get a little bit more data there. But it's another option as well from a residual standpoint, with any of them products, you know, ten days seems pretty easy. It's fairly common, at least with Tenchu to see it go out 14 plus. So anyway, I, I don't know, I just think a lot of these stink bugs right now are still in the road ditches. 

And, you know, there's a bunch of headed barnyard all over the place. I just don't think they fully pushed into rice yet. 

[02:24] Ben Thrash 

Yeah. You were talking about billbugs earlier, too, that you've got kind of plot a few calls on them. 

[02:31] Nick Bateman 

Yeah, and not as much in a row rice as what I have in flooded rice. And really, what I think happened there was we got caught with all those rains and folks trying to get their urea out on, on good, dry ground instead of spoon feeding. And I think a lot of that rice just got big enough to be hostable for them. And now folks are seeing the damage out there. But I mean, billbugs they, for the past 4 or 5 years, it just seems like I'm getting more and more calls. They're building up as far as population goes. And and unfortunately outside of Fortenza and Dermacor seed treatments, there is no there is no good option there from a foliar standpoint. And those two seed treatments, they're not bulletproof by any means. They're they're good at suppressing them. They reduce the damage. 

But we've yet I mean, even a bunch of the off-label stuff that Ben and I have been playing with, just trying to find something like we haven't been able to find it. So I, I'm not sure what to do. 

[03:35] Ben Thrash 

We've put everything out under the sun. I mean, we've tried out a lot of stuff and just haven't had any luck. No. 

[03:46] Nick Bateman 

The most consistent thing we saw were those those seed treatments. And like I said, they're they're not bulletproof. But it wasn't uncommon to see, you know, a 50, 60, 70% reduction in in tiller damage out there. So they're they're definitely providing some benefit there. But they're, they're kind of a band aid too, they're the best band aid we got though. 

[04:10] Ben Thrash 

Yeah. And when you looked at yield on that, I mean it, we saw a reduction in the amount of yield loss from it, but you still found a bunch of billbugs out there. So it's it's like you said, it's kind of a bandaid. That sucker, it's kind of a hard one to to work on. Yeah. I mean, in cotton, I'm hearing everybody, you know, has relatively light plant bugs across the state. I've got them fairly heavy over at Marianna, but I got I got corn on four sides of my plots over there. And so I figure I'm probably the exception and not necessarily the rule. But I've got several questions on, you know, where should I put this Vertento if I don't have a lot of plant bugs right now, I'm only picking up, you know, 2 or 3 on a hundred sweeps. Out there. Should I go ahead and use this Vertento or should I kick it on down the road? 

You know, we've always recommended wait until at least first bloom, not like you got to go out at first bloom. Wait until at least first bloom to put it out. If you don't have any plant bugs, push it on down the road. If you got a few you need to treat, you know and you're going across the field with pix, I would use one of your cheaper options. And then, you know, here in a couple of weeks if we get a big influx of plant bugs, you know, third week of bloom, then pull the trigger with the Vertento and then you'll get your plant bugs, any spider mites that might come in later on in the season. And then it's got pretty good activity on on stink bugs as well. So a lot of those stink bugs I see typically show up later on in the season, so hopefully that'll take care of some of those stink bugs that we do we see later on in the year for us. 

So you know, you don't gotta go out with at the first bloom with it. You don't even, you can push it on down the road, you know third week of bloom. It's always a look good for us as well. It's just I would wait until first bloom at least to put it out before you, before you try it. And remember, you need to put like a crop oil or some kind of surfactant blend with it. They seem to do better than just regular old NIS with that product, we're trying to collect some more data on that this year. On what surfactants actually look good with this product. So hopefully we'll have some better data this next year. But anyways, I would stick to one of those, whenever you're using it.  

Few spidermites out there. It doesn't seem like we're having blowout mite populations, but, you know, there's a few showing up here and there, so just kind of keep that in mind. Really, that's kind of about all, I guess. Cotton jassid, you know, they've got in Alabama. I saw some pictures of it yesterday of some guys having it in Alabama. So it kind of seems like it's moving this way, but it's still kind of on par for what it was last year. I think so. Sebe, we talked to him the other day up at Tennessee. I think they had found some on hibiscus up in at some box stores. In kind of eastern and middle Tennessee. So if you happen to be at any of these big box stores that got hibiscus, you might go just take a look at them. I'm trying to get around to one sometime this week and, and take a look at a couple of them to see if I can find any Jassid on them. 

But, you know, just keep an eye out if you happen to be shopping at one this weekend or something like that. Well, what's going on in beans? Nick. 

[08:15] Nick Bateman 

I think everybody's biggest concern is where the worms are at. Right. It seems like more calls about can't find bollworms or finding some extremely low levels. And, you know, Gus has always talked about the 4th of July moth flight and some of the trap count numbers we've seen supports that this year, that there's a pretty good flight going on right now. I think the the bigger question is going to be in the next seven, ten days, these moths that are flying where those eggs are going to be laid. And I mean, of course, we would be more worried about any of our open canopy blooming beans. But at the same time, some of these areas that I've been in, it's big acres of beans that are R5, R6 with no real young beans around it. 

So while they shouldn't get in there, you know, it's not uncommon for that to happen whenever those sort of areas exist. So, I mean, it looks like we're going to outrun, at least in a lot of our beans, you know, issues with bollworms. But it may be some pretty high populations based on this flight going on in some of these younger beans over the next two weeks. 

[09:25] Ben Thrash 

Yeah. And then the other thing we're kind of hearing is stink bugs. And it's generally hadn't been a lot of high numbers of stink bugs. I hear a lot of like fours and fives on a, on a set of sweeps. I mean, I've heard some fields that have needed treatment for sure. And so just keep an eye out for them. It seems to be just, you know, your most mature beans, like it always is. I know both of us have heard a little bit about some red bands down south. Not high numbers, but but a few. What are you heard on on that niCK? 

[10:02] Nick Bateman 

I feel like I've had a few more calls this year than I did last year, but it's still low enough numbers that I'm not overly worked up about it, you know? But but I do feel like I've had a few more phone calls this year so far on red bandeds, and I've had last year, but it's one of them. Some of them fields have been treated, but it's because they had enough greens and browns mixed in to justify treating it. Not necessarily red bandeds causing the treatment. 

[10:28] Ben Thrash 

Yeah, it was a lot of kind of 1 or 2 red bands. And the rest of it was was, you know, our green and brown stink bugs. Yeah. Oh, that's kind of all that I've heard going on in beans. But the other thing, I guess is grain sorghum. There seems to be a little bit more grain sorghum than, we've had in, in past years. Still not just a high number, but a lot of sugar cane aphids kind of popping up right now. A lot of this sorghum is, you know, heading or going to head right now. And a lot of times it seems like when we get those sugar cane aphids, out there in the sorghum. And then that also kind of coincides with midge. So if you're starting to have blooms out there, you want to be out there scouting for midge. As far as control for sugar cane aphids go, transform or sivanto. 

I kind of like Sivanto, has a little bit better residual control than transform, but it's also tends to be more expensive. So just kind of weigh your options there, I mean both of them will get the job done. As for midge, you know, you got to have a pyrethroid pretty much for them. And then, you know, we'll have head worms come in there, kind of at the same time. So, you know, if you could zap that all in one shot, that would be nice. But that's not always the case. But just kind of keep that in mind, I guess. We've had some corn leaf aphids mixed in with these sugar cane aphids, too in sorghum. Have you got any calls on that net? 

[12:10] Nick Bateman 

Yeah. And I mean both corn and grain sorghum. Right. And the grain sorghum part of it, maybe they've been a little more consistent there. A lot of what I've got in corn has been, you know, up and down the poly pipe, nothing really be too worked up about. And it's kind of the same way in grain sorghum like to me. I'm going to let them corn leaf. It's probably fester until I can find some sugar cane aphids and get my most bang for my buck out of that sivanto or transform like you were just talking about. 

[12:41] Ben Thrash 

Yeah, yeah for sure. And then that's other thing is, remember, whenever you go out for the at that midge shot, if you got midge out there that a lot of times blows up those sugar cane aphids. So if, if I'm about to go out with the midge shot, I want to look really close and see if I've got any sugar cane aphids out there, because you'll liable to be turning around and spraying the next week. Sugar cane aphids, if you hadn't already, you know, treated for them. But I don't know. I think that's about all I can think of Nick. 

[13:17] Nick Bateman 

Yeah, I should have. You were mentioning jassid, it made me realize I didn't say nothing about rice delphacid. But to be honest with you guys, things are moving extremely slow down in Texas this year compared to last year. I'm not going to say we're not going to get them, but I right now, the the odds aren't real high. I think we'll probably outrun them on a vast, vast majority of this rice. So things are just progressing extremely slow down there this year compared to last year. 

[13:51] Ben Thrash 

Yeah. Well that's good news for everybody. Yeah, well, if you need us, call us. My number is (501) 517-3853. 

[14:04] Nick Bateman 

I’m 870-456-8486. 

[14:08] Ben Thrash 

All right. Thank you. 

[14:11] 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.