Entomology

Knowledge is power when it comes to controlling insect pests of vegetables, and one of the key sources of knowledge is pest monitoring. Pest monitoring, or scouting, allows you to determine when pests arrive in your vegetables, which species are present and how many there are. This information in turn allows you to determine if actions need to be taken to control pests and if these prevent enough damage to offset costs of control. By analogy, an army commander that knows when an enemy will attack, what types of weapons they have and their troop strength will be able to make intelligent decisions about if, when and how countermeasures will be effective. Just like armed forces use reconnaissance to get this information, you can use monitoring to keep track of insects attacking your vegetables. For some insect pests and life stages, including onion thrips, eggs of  Colorado potato beetles , caterpillars in cole crops  and squash bugs, the easiest way to track numbers is to get down on

Recently with the record-breaking cold temperature in the World and especially in US, headlines in newspapers suggested that with this freezing temperature there will be fewer insects next spring. Like  National Public Radio:  “The Upside Of The Bitter Cold: It Kills Bugs That Kill Trees” The New York Times :  “Celebrating Deep Freeze, Insect Experts See a Chance to Kill Off Invasive Species” Minnesota Public Radio News:  “Extreme cold may wipe out high percentage emerald ash borer larvae”

Prevathon  ( Rynaxypyr ) has received  registration for use on cereal crops, including wheat, sorghum and  most other small grains from U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) . Prevathon was first registered in 2011 for use on cotton, corn, pasture and hay crops, including alfalfa. Since then, in farm fields and research trials, Prevathon has demonstrated superior protection against a broad range of yield-robbing insects for many commercially grown crops including soybeans and sunflower. Prevathon provides control against lepidopteran worms, such as fall armyworm, true armyworm, corn earworm, sorghum webworm and loopers as well . “Many of the worm pests that attack corn, soybeans, cotton and pastures or hay fields also attack sorghum and small grains. As these pests move from field to field and from one crop to another, Prevathon adds flexibility to a grower’s integrated pest management program while helping to protect developing crops.” In addition to offering insect c

Insect molts when it want to grow. Insects grow in increments; in fact, all arthropods do. Each stage of growth ends with molting, the process of shedding and replacing the rigid exoskeleton. People often think molting is the simple act of an insect breaking out of its skin and leaving it behind. In truth, it's a complex process involving hormones, proteins, and enzymes. When Molting Occurs: Insect growth occurs in the stage immediate following egg hatch. As the immature insect feeds and grows, its exoskeleton remains an inflexible container. Eventually, the larva or nymph must shed this unyielding overcoat to continue its development. Without the exoskeleton for protection and support, the insect could not survive. The old exoskeleton cannot be shed until a new one is ready underneath, a process that takes days or even weeks. The Molting Process: When there is no more room for the insect to expand inside its exoskeleton, a hormone triggers molting. The exoskeleton

The name comes from their remarkable resemblance to leaves and other plants of their environment and from the fact that they often "hop" for quick transportation like  grasshoppers . However, planthoppers generally walk very slowly so as not to attract attention. Distributed worldwide, all members of this group are plant-feeders, though surprisingly few are considered pests.  Some of the awesome shots of the different species of planthoppers are.   via  Flicker

Most insect control methods for stored grain work against all species. So you don’t need to identify the storage pests to make decisions about most control methods. But if you intend spraying grain with insecticides you may need to know which species are present if: •  a previous application has failed and you want to know whether resistance was the reason - if more than one species survived, resistance is unlikely to be the cause •   you intend using a residual protectant to treat infested grain – Actellic, Fenitrothion and Reldan are ineffective against lesser grain borer, and Actellic and Fenitrothion are generally ineffective against sawtoothed grain beetle •   you intend using dichlorvos to treat infested grain - if lesser grain borer is present you need to apply the higher dose rate. Insecticide sprays are not registered for oilseeds and pulses, so identification of pests in those grains is not so important. Common species Cereal grains   Cereal grains

Tagging the branches during the Murree project