Tag Archives: rice stink bug

Stink Bugs and Headworms in Grain Sorghum

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Some sorghum fields across the Mid-Coast of Texas have been inundated with Rice Stink Bugs or Headworms; or in some cases, both stink bugs and headworms. Adding to this problem, I have received several reports of pyrethroid insecticides failing to control rice stink bugs. Scout sorghum using a 2-gallon bucket and beat heads into the bucket and see what is being captured in the bucket. Look here for a brief video. Economic thresholds for stink bugs and headworms depend on the cost of control, expected crop value, and… Read More →

Stink Bugs in Sorghum, Cotton and Soybeans

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We have reached the time of the growing season when Stink Bugs are the primary pest in most of the row crops on the Texas coast. Sorghum maturity is from bloom to soft dough and will be susceptible to stink bugs until hard dough. Scout for stink bugs and headworms using a bucket to beat sorghum heads into until you have sampled 10.  Then stop and count the stink bugs and headworms in the bucket.  This should be done at 10-20 places per field and average the number of stink bugs… Read More →

Mid-Coast Grain Sorghum Update

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Grain sorghum maturity ranges from boot to soft dough.  Some fields are turning color. We are finding varying populations of Sorghum Midge in fields ranging from 0-5 per head.  Treatment thresholds are 0.5-1 midge per head depending on the number of flowering heads per acre. We are finding headworms in Refugio County sorghum fields ranging from 0-4 per head.  Many of these are fall armyworms.  The economic threshold for headworms ranges from 0.15 to 1 large worm (> 0.5 inch) per head.  For medium worms (0.25-0.5 inch) the ET… Read More →

Economic Thresholds of Pests in Sorghum Heads

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Maturity of sorghum fields varies widely across the Texas Coast.  While some fields have had harvest aids applied and are being harvested this week, other fields are just beginning to head.  Sorghum maturity is complicated even more in some fields which have parts of the field blooming while other areas of the field are at hard dough. Varying maturity within a field makes for tough decisions on what to protect from insect pests.  Will the young heads be mature when the more mature heads are ready for harvest? … Read More →

Scouting Sorghum with Mixed Maturity

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In the grain sorghum fields of the Mid-Coast, we continue to find sorghum midge, stink bugs, headworms and both sugarcane and yellow sugarcane aphids.  10-20% of the fields have one or more insects at or above economic levels. Many grain sorghum fields in the Mid-Coast have plants with maturity that can range from boot to soft dough.  In some fields these different maturities are in different parts of the fields while other fields have these plants all with in 20 feet of each other.  Many of these fields… Read More →