We have finally passed through our roughest thrips pressure weeks, although we are still getting a few questions about Thimet burn in peanuts. Looking back, the consequences of the thrips pressure will vary a lot depending on where you are in the state. The southeastern most cotton areas typically sustained heavier pressure and had more plant damage. The pressure seemed generally less in the western areas. As mentioned earlier, pressure in cotton generally happened earlier and was much greater compared with peanut. Overall, peanuts sustained only light to moderate damage so yields may not be affected.
We are turning the page to start focusing on mid-season pests with a special interest in beginning to scout for kudzu bugs in seedling soybeans. Only a few have been spotted in Virginia. More on that as we progress. We are also expecting this to be a ‘stink bug’ year. Our generally warm wet spring and early summer conditions favor stink bug development. Our first indication that this may be the case is the large numbers of brown stink bugs being combined with wheat harvests. As they leave wheat fields, they will be hunting for other food sources moving through many crops including corn, soybean, cotton, tomatoes, etc., as the summer progresses. We are also gearing up for our brown marmorated stink bug soybean field survey. So far, only a few egg masses and nymphs have been reported from weed hosts. Soybeans will not be very attractive to them until plants start getting into the podding stages. More on that later.