|
Time For Weird Problems?
DR. JARROD D. HARDKE AND DR. GUS LORENZ
STUTTGART, ARK.
Since we do have an early start to the season coming off a mild winter we need to be on the lookout for strange things. Last week we reported cutworms in rice – a rarity if there ever was one. And now armyworms in seedling rice behind cover crops (Fig. 3). That should emphasize that the mild winter has insects present in numbers uncommon for this time of year and in the absence of a normal host plant they’ll take what they can get. And some of the normal ones could be bigger problems this year.
Chinch bugs could come into play with a lot of late burndown applications. They’re small and like to hide – field patterns of injury are usually patchy and irregular. No reports so far but something to keep an eye out for.
Rice that has been in the ground for over a month now may see the benefits of insecticide seed treatments (ISTs) begin to wear off. It’s possible that we’ll to take additional action to manage insects this year such as making an insecticide application rice water weevil. ∆
DR. JARROD D. HARDKE: Rice Extension Agronomist, University of Arkansas
DR. GUS LORENZ: Entomologist, IPM Coordinator, University of Arkansas
Fig. 3. Armyworms attacking seedling rice planted into cover crops.
|
|