News Stories - Page 44

Once a nuisance for soybean farmers in the Southeast, kudzu bug populations appear to be declining in the U.S. The decline began in 2014 and is believed to have been brought on by two of the kudzu bug’s natural predators: a fungus and a wasp.

Many food items, including fresh fruits and vegetables, would never make it to grocery store or farmers market shelves without the help of beneficial insects like honeybees and butterflies. The number of these pollinating insects in the U.S. is declining, and to help, Georgia agricultural experts developed a statewide plan to teach gardeners and landscapers how to care for their plants and protect these vulnerable insects that are vital to food production.

With reports of declining monarch butterfly populations and honeybee deaths, the plight of pollinators and other beneficial insects has been headlining the news for months now.

With warmer temperatures around the corner, Georgia’s mosquito season won’t be far behind. This year the remote chance of a southeastern U.S. outbreak of Zika — a mosquito-borne virus now prevalent in parts of South America — has university and public health officials doubling down on their message of how to control the pest.

In an effort to combat the threat of thrips infestations in cotton, University of Georgia Cooperative Extension cotton entomologist Phillip Roberts encourages Georgia growers to be proactive with insecticide application in planting this spring. Failure to apply an insecticide treatment at planting leaves cotton plants vulnerable to increased thrips pressure, which could impact growth.

Sugarcane aphids have turned their back on their namesake and become a major pest for Georgia’s grain sorghum growers. The pest began infesting fields in the state two years ago and, last year, devastated farmers who chose not to apply spray controls, said University of Georgia small grains entomologist David Buntin.