Sugarcane Aphid

It’s not like we don’t have enough insects to deal with but this year we have added a new one and its a bad one.  There are  several aphid species that attack sorghum including corn leaf aphid, greenbug, yellow sugarcane aphid and now sugarcane aphid.  

Aphids are a unique insect.  They feed but inserting their stylet into phloem cells that transport plant nutrients.  They suck the plant juices through their bodies and excrete excess which causes the honeydew (sticky mess on the leaves) that gets on leaves and windshields under trees.  

Aphids are also unique in that the female reproduces asexually in the summer giving birth to live young every few days.  This means that populations can increase exponentially as you can see in the picture.  For some reason the sugarcane aphid seems very adept at reproducing as you can see in the picture.

The other problem with this aphid is that the typical chemical controls like imidacloprid  don’t work well at all.  This past year a TDA Section 18 was granted for Transform from Dow because it was about the only product that worked.  In some cases sorghum growers had to spray 3 times and still had problems.

There is a little hope in this desperate situation.  This aphid doesn’t survive well in cold weather and so experts believe it will die back to the Valley/Winter Garden area each year.  This means it will have to migrate to this area each spring but as we saw this year it won’t take long!

Khaki Weed - Problem in Yards

Khaki weed (Alternanthera pungens) also known as creeping chaffweed or matt chafflower, is probably one of the worst yard weeds we can have.  As you can see in the picture it is very low growing so that the mower never touches it.  Khaki weed will grow all season and you barely notice it and then in the fall it becomes exposed and flowers.  The flowers you see are spiny, very spiny, and those spiny flowers will stick in your shoes or even worse in your feet.  
Control must take place early in the season or like most weeds it gets mature and almost impossible to control.  For homeowners the Fertilome Product called Weed Free Zone will do the job but it must be used early before Khaki weed develops a large root system.

Pastora Fall Treatments

 Great pictures of the September 20 application of Pastora Herbicide on a bermudagrass pasture.  We are looking at the potential for Pastora to control KR Bluestem in bermudagrass and so far the results are great.

Pecan Weevil Can Be Bad

Weevil death rate in a 2 year cycle is 66.9-96 percent and for 3 years is 99.6 percent.  We lose a lot of pecan weevils before they ever get out of the ground.  Males feed on an average of .29 nuts per day while females feed on .23 nuts per day.  We always worry about the number of pecans damaged from feeding but that is very small compared to egg lay.  Males live on average 21 days while females live 23.8 days.  It takes 5 days from ground emergence for a female to start laying eggs.  Females lay eggs in an average of 22.7 nuts per female.  It doesn’t take too many weevils to mean a lot of damage.  For many commercial growers even one weevil is too many.  These early emerging weevils can be the most costly but the late weevils can end up in a sack of saleable pecans which is a real problem. 

Cold Tolerant Citrus

Thanks to Dr. Larry Stein who has been working with citrus cold tolerance and variety selection for years.  He has tested Satsuma Mandarin Miho and found it will tolerate the cold around Georgetown.  It gets 10-12 feet tall and 13-15 feet wide, perfect for our yards.  You would pick it in or around Thanksgiving.