Insect Pest - Invasive

Agronomy News, November 2024, Volume 15, Issue 8. Inside this issue: Winter Crop Production Meetings, Slug Damage Survey & CDL Grant, Tank Mixes for Postemergence Weed Control in Soybean, Stink Bugs in Cover Crops, Corn and Soybean Variety Trials, UMD TAPS: New Kind of Farmer Research, Growing Giant Miscanthus in Maryland, Evaluation of Early Maturity Soybeans, Using NDVI to Determine Nitrogen Needs, Grid Sampling for Variable Rate Lime, Ag Tech Conference, Pesticide & Nutrient Management Training Dates, Storing Mycotoxin-Affected Grain, New Corporate Transparency Act Reporting, Weather Outlook and, Regional Crop Reports.

Insect Pests of Tomato

Insect Pest Management in Peppers

In order to capture the range of pest pressures and growing conditions in Maryland, we replicated our study across 3 UMD research farms (Keedysville, Beltsville, and Queenstown) and over 3 years (2020-2022). At each location we planted one field of a Bt hybrid and one field of a similarly-yielding non-Bt hybrid as early as possible in the growing season (Table 1). In 2020 our Bt hybrid was LC1196 VT2P (Local Seed, Memphis, TN) which expresses Cry1A.105/Cry2Ab2 proteins. In 2021 and 2022 we planted P1197YHR (Pioneer Hi-bred International. Johnston, IA) which contains Cry1Ab and Cry1F proteins. We planted P1197LR (Pioneer Hi-bred International, Inc. Johnston, IA) for our non-Bt hybrid all three years. All hybrids had excellent yield potential and were grown with standard no-till practices. In each field we established 3 replicates of 3 treatments at planting: 1) an untreated control, with bare seed and no in-furrow product, 2) an in-furrow pyrethroid treatment using Capture LFR® (active ingredient: bifenthrin, rate: 13.6 fl oz/acre), and 3) an NST treatment using Poncho® (active ingredient: clothianidin, rate: 0.25 mg/seed). Each replicate consisted of 24 rows of corn at 30 inch row spacing, and was 200 feet long.

Agronomy News IPM Insect Scouting Tips

IpM Scouting Tips posted in the Fruit and Vegetable News.

If you grow leeks or onions or other Allium species, now and for the next few weeks is the time to watch for the tell-tale marks left by Allium leaf miner. Allium leaf miner Phytomyza gymnostoma tell-tale marks consist of several small round white dots (made by the female’s ovipositor) in a row that appear on the middle towards the end of leaf blades (fig. 1) of their preferred hosts of leeks, onions, garlic and other Allium species.

This has been a bad year for stink bug damage in tomatoes. Just about every field I walk into has at least some damage while others have moderate to heavy damage (>20% tomatoes not marketable). Cloudy spot of tomato fruit is caused by the feeding of various species of stink bug (SB). On green fruit the damage appears as whitish areas with indistinct borders (Fig. 1).

Parasitic wasps are beneficial wasps that generally lay their eggs inside the egg, immature or adult stage of another insect commonly called its host. Eggs of these wasps then hatch, leaving the larval wasp which resembles a maggot to consume the contents of the host egg.

I have seen and have gotten reports of (and some really nice pictures of) stinkbug damage in tomatoes over the past few weeks from all over Maryland including the Eastern Shore. Stinkbug feeding damage is called cloudy spot in tomato fruit (fig. 1). It occurs when the adult or immature stinkbug puts its needle-like mouth parts into the fruit and removes material from a large number of cells. On green fruit the damage appears as whitish areas with a black dot in the center and indistinct borders (fig. 2) on ripe fruit the spots are golden yellow (fig. 1).