Tag Archives: pest management

UGA Researcher Warns Georgia Farmers: The Pasture Mealybug Is Moving Fast and Treatments Are Limited

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Tifton, GA |

Most Georgia farmers have never heard of the pasture mealybug — but researchers say it has the potential to cause serious damage across the state’s forage industry. Lisa Baxter, State Forage Extension Specialist with the University of Georgia, says while the pest isn’t new to the world, it’s a newcomer to the United States — and it’s moving fast.

“It’s been in Texas for probably two or three years. It was officially confirmed there last year, but this season it’s really started moving through the Southeast. It’s been decimating sugarcane in Louisiana, moved up through Florida, and luckily we’ve been able to head it off so far and keep it to just a handful of counties,” Baxter said. “But it’s so different than any other pest I’m normally talking about.”

NOT YOUR TYPICAL PEST

Baxter says many producers want to compare the pasture mealybug to the fall armyworm — but the two operate very differently. Rather than moving quickly and visibly destroying a field, the mealybug works slowly, draining the plant of nutrients and leaving it vulnerable to secondary diseases.

“They both cause desiccated grass at the end, but where the fall armyworm happens quickly and moves on, this pest is slower acting. It literally pulls all the good juices out of the plant. That itself won’t kill the grass, but it makes it more vulnerable to all these other stressors,” Baxter said. “As we’re heading into a pretty soggy fall and winter, the likelihood of Fusarium and other diseases showing up is very likely — and that’s what could come in and take out our grass.”

LIMITED TREATMENT OPTIONS — EARLY DETECTION IS KEY

So far, treatment options are limited. Standard insecticides won’t work on this pest, and researchers are still working to develop reliable suppression strategies.

“This type of pest isn’t going to respond to any of the normal insecticides. We’re having to look at temporary and emergency labeling for other products — but even then, they’re suppression only in any case I’ve seen from other states,” Baxter said. “If you see something that just looks a little off, take a picture of it, send it to your agent, and get somebody out there to look at it.”

GEORGIA IS ESPECIALLY VULNERABLE

What makes Georgia’s situation particularly concerning is the sheer diversity and breadth of its forage systems — far more complex than most states where this pest has been reported.

“Warm season grasses extend far beyond pasture and hay fields. We also have a lot of grass crops — corn, sugarcane, sorghum, millet — and a big turfgrass industry, a big sod industry, a big seed industry, not counting home lawns. And all of that is connected by warm season roadsides,” Baxter said. “Our agricultural landscape looks a lot different than other states where this has been reported, and especially other countries.”

For producers looking for the latest guidance on identification and management, Baxter points to the Georgia Forages website as the go-to resource — and urges anyone who suspects they may have seen the pest to report it to their local extension agent immediately.

By: John Holcomb

New World Screwworm Threat Has Georgia Cattlemen on High Alert This Calving Season

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Thomaston, GA |

With the U.S. cattle inventory now at a seventy-five-year low, the industry has little margin for disruption. That’s why the recent detection of New World Screwworms in the southwest is raising serious concerns among cattlemen across the country. The last major outbreak — more than six decades ago — caused losses of as much as ten percent for producers. With calves being especially susceptible to the pest, Georgia cattlemen are keeping a close eye on their herds as spring calving season winds down.

“Getting towards the end of spring calving season, most of our cattlemen around here are seeing their cows every day — and we just need to continue to do that,” said Danny Bentley, an Upson County cattleman. “Once all these calves are born and on the ground, we have to be vigilant. We have to be good stewards. We’re looking for open wounds, navels on newborn calves. When we tag and band these calves — we band them now, we don’t cut them anymore — we try to do it in the first two days of birth so we can see the calf from one end to the other. We’re looking at those weak areas like the navel and the rear end, and checking for things like barbed wire cuts on cows to make sure there’s no infection, no worms.”

REPORT IT QUICKLY

If anything unusual is found, Bentley says getting it reported as quickly as possible is the top priority — starting with a trusted local veterinarian and then moving up the chain to state officials.

“We’d call our local veterinarian first — we have a good relationship with our local vets,” Bentley said. “And then obviously the next call would be to our state veterinarian through the Georgia Department of Agriculture, because they would need to know as well. Right now, this is strictly an animal situation. There’s no harm that could come to any resident of Georgia. Meat is still safe. We’ve got the safest meat in the world.”

A FIRSTHAND PERSPECTIVE

Bentley brings a unique perspective to the issue — he saw firsthand what the screwworm could do the first time around. While the Southeast was less severely impacted than other parts of the country, it wasn’t spared entirely.

“With the animal, you clean those things out. I don’t remember all the specifics, but you sprayed them and doctored on them real well,” Bentley recalled. “With the technology we have today it might be different, but as I recall, the sterile male fly program was what got rid of them — and that’s what made the difference.”

GEORGIA’S POSITION IN THE MARKET

As for the overall concern level for Georgia producers, Bentley says the state is somewhat insulated from the worst-case scenarios — largely because Georgia is a significant net exporter of beef cattle rather than a finishing state.

“So much of ours is going out. We’ve got twenty, twenty-one stockyards in Georgia, and with all the private sales, most of that cattle is leaving the state. We don’t have feed lots here — maybe one,” Bentley said. “So yeah, we’re not as pressed on that side as a lot of producers in other states are.”

Still, with the national herd at historic lows and the screwworm making its presence known again, Georgia cattlemen aren’t taking any chances. Vigilance, Bentley says, is the best tool they have.

By: Damon Jones