Browse Weeds, Diseases and Pests Stories - Page 28

Every summer, Georgians head to the mountains and forests to escape the heat. Many return home with a few unintended souvenirs—ticks.

University of Georgia researchers have found lime sulfur to be an effective option for blueberry farmers treating for Exobasidium leaf and fruit spot, a disease that affects the crop’s yield and marketability.

University of Georgia researchers are studying management strategies for thrips, a pest that cotton and peanut farmers encounter every year.

The University of Georgia’s newest entomologist is eyeing a different approach to studying insects in multiple agricultural crops. Instead of focusing on how to eliminate pests that reduce yield and negatively impact profits, UGA entomologist Jason Schmidt is looking to improve agricultural management systems to preserve helpful insects.

Dozens of calls and samples of roses with a variety of leaf problems are coming into the University of Georgia Extension office in Bartow County. The most common problem diagnosed this year is injury caused by rose sawflies, also known as rose slugs.

Unusually warm weather conditions and high soil temperatures have Georgia farmers itching to plant peanuts, but University of Georgia peanut agronomist Scott Monfort cautions peanut producers to hold off until the end of April or beginning of May.

A University of Georgia entomologist is asking Georgians to help track an insect that loves to stowaway in homes and has the potential to hurt the state’s cotton and blueberry crops. The brown marmorated stink bug, a native of Asia, was first spotted in Allentown, Pennsylvania, in 1998 and has since been found in 42 states and two Canadian provinces, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. To date, it is classified as a nuisance pest in Georgia, but could quickly become an agricultural pest, too.

A University of Georgia entomologist is searching for a way to control tomato spotted wilt virus (TSWV) by studying thrips – the insect that carries the disease.

University of Georgia researchers have found a treatment that kills up to 70 percent of a disease that attacks blackberry plants.