Insects

Reports of slug damage to emerging soybean seedlings (Glycine max) have increased in recent years, though their activity is highly variable from field to field, and within a field from year to year. Spring, 2021 weather was both cool and wet, conditions that many slug species find ideal. Slug eggs overwinter in the soil, hatch in the spring, and the juvenile slugs can begin causing damage to crops in just a week’s time after hatching (Hammond et al. 2009).

This season keeps with the weird and unusual with reports of grasshoppers causing damage in many different vegetables.

Although sorghum faces relatively few pests compared to our other grain crops, it is not a “plant and forget” crop. Sorghum is often grown on marginal ground, in areas with greater deer pressure, dryland fields, and as a rotational component for managing weed and disease pressure. Sorghum is generally a minor component of a farming operation, and as such is easy to overlook during the season, especially now as other pests are requiring more attention and corn is nearing harvest. However, there are two significant insect pests that need to be scouted for to avoid potential losses and both are active right now on Delmarva. 

I have seen and have gotten reports of stinkbug damage in tomatoes over the past few days. 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 part into the fruit and removes material from a large number of cells.

Current corn earworm pheromone trap captures in Maryland and Delaware and pest management recommendations.

IPM Threshold Guide for Vegetable Crops

There exists a lack of control efficacy information to enable decision-making about which organic insecticide product works best for a given insect pest. Here we summarize results of 153 field trials on the control efficacy of common active ingredients in organic insecticides against groups of the most difficult to control insect pests. The performance of organic products Entrust (spinosad), Azera (pyrethrin and azadirachtin), PyGanic (pyrethrin) and Neemix (azadirachtin) varied widely among pest groups, as well as among pest species within a group, providing an overall reduction in pest infestations by 73.9%, 61.7%, 48.6% and 46.1%, respectively.

This Timely Viticulture article is on the periodical (17-year) Brood X Cicadas. The content includes the background, life cycle, damage, and the management of the emergence of the Brood X Cicada in the vineyard.

Greenhouse Insecticides for Vegetables