In the News - July 2008
'Major league' flight of moths concerns university ag experts
Large numbers of moths that can quickly develop into crop-damaging worms are
moving into cotton and soybean fields all across Arkansas' Delta.
"A major league moth flight is coming from corn fields and moving into
cotton, soybeans and irrigated grain sorghum fields," said Dr. Gus Lorenz,
extension entomologist with the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture.
"We're finding up to 500 per trap on a three-day catch," he said. Extension
specialists in those crops are also concerned.
Lorenz said traps in cotton fields blew up in the last few days.
Fortunately, he said, there's a lot of cotton still not blooming.
"That's good because if any eggs are laid on non-blooming Bollgard or
Bollgard II, the larvae that develop won't fare well," he said. "If the cotton
is blooming, growers need to be watching closely for developing populations of
bollworms."
Major numbers of moths are also turning up in soybean fields. If beans are
blooming and setting pods, those fields need to be watched closely, he advised.
In young, late-planted soybeans, farmers and county extension agents are
finding yellow stripes – another insect pest – fall armyworms and bollworms.
"Many late planted fields are getting hit and damaged across the Delta and
even into the Arkansas River Valley," Lorenz said.
Bollworms have many names, depending on the crop they're eating. In corn,
they're known as corn earworms; in cotton, they're called cotton bollworms; in
soybeans, they're known as soybean podworms; and in tomatoes, they're called
tomato fruitworms.
"It's all the same critter, and because it jumps from crop to crop, that's
why it's the No. 1 pest of Arkansas row crops," the entomologist said.
Lorenz said moths are the adults that emerge from pupae. They mate and lay
eggs on all parts of a plant. The eggs hatch in three days, and the larvae began
feeding.
He recommended that farmers scout fields closely and treat with insecticides
when worms reach treatment levels recommended by the U of A. The level for
Bollgard cotton is two or three bollworms per 14 row-feet, and in soybeans, when
the level is nine per 25 sweeps with a net.
For more information on insect pests and treatment, contact your county
extension agent or visit www.uaex.edu and
select Agriculture. The Cooperative Extension Service is part of the U of A
Division of Agriculture.
July 7, 2008
Media Contact: Lamar James
Extension Communications Specialist
U of A Division of Agriculture
Cooperative Extension Service
(501) 671-2187 or (501) 753-0207
ljames@uaex.edu
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