Grasshoppers, Blister Beetles Plaguing Drought-Stretched Parts Of Arkansas
RUSSELLVILLE, ARK.
Cattle aren’t the only hungry mouths in
drought-parched Arkansas: so are
grasshoppers and blister beetles.
Exceptional drought covers 10.81 percent of
the state, compared with 3.25 percent in the
previous week’s U.S. Drought Monitor map. The
most intense drought covers all of Conway and
Perry counties, most of Pope County and parts
of Faulkner and a few other counties.
“Blister beetles and grasshoppers are looking
for what little green is left here,” said Phil Sims,
Pope County extension staff chair for the University
of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture.
“That means row crops under irrigation.”
Sims has seen hordes of blister beetles nearly
carpeting row crops; scurrying under short soybean
plants in search of
food and moisture. Blister
beetles are a scourge to
some livestock owners –
they are toxic to horses.
Grasshoppers are also a
problem. Kelly Loftin, extension
entomologist for
the University of Arkansas
System Division of Agriculture,
said he’s been
fielding questions about
grasshoppers for about six
weeks now.
“At the University of
Arkansas farm at Savoy,
grass is sparse,” he said.
“All the grasshoppers are
on the fence line just waiting
for the grass to grow.
And because it’s so dry,
fungal pathogens don’t do
so well, which is limiting
natural control of
grasshoppers.”
They’re also harder to kill with pesticides. “The
best time to control grasshoppers would be the
time period when they’re still nymphs and they
can’t fly long distances,” Loftin said. “When
they’re big adults, they’re more mobile and
harder to control.”
However, nature didn’t give grasshoppers all
the cards.
“Blister beetle larvae eat grasshopper eggs,” he
said, adding that the drought-hardened ground
has forced the grasshoppers to lay eggs above
the soil, leaving them and unprotected.
For more information on coping with drought,
visit Arkansas Drought Resources at
http://arkansasdroughtresourcecenter.wordpress.com or the shortlink,
http://wp.me/2zudK, or contact your county
extension office. Δ