Browse Weeds, Diseases and Pests Stories - Page 7

The wild relatives of modern peanut plants have the ability to withstand disease in ways that modern peanut plants can’t. The genetic diversity of these wild relatives means that they can shrug off the diseases that kill farmers’ peanut crops, but they also produce tiny nuts that are difficult to harvest because they burrow deep in the soil.

It has been 17 years since a set of billions of periodical cicadas emerged from their underground chambers and filled the air with boisterous buzzing and desperate mating calls.

New research funded by the Southern Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education program and conducted at the University of Georgia shows that imidacloprid residue harms wild bees.

If you're seeing brown areas in your landscape trees or hedges where you should be seeing green, University of Georgia Cooperative Extension can help. Wet winters and severe weather have been causing disease and other issues in landscape plants, especially Leyland cypress and boxwood.

University of Georgia Cooperative Extension and the Georgia Department of Agriculture are partnering to offer the Using Pesticides Wisely training program in a virtual format again this year.

Fusarium wilt, caused by a soilborne fungus, is one of the most damaging diseases of watermelons worldwide. Since it was discovered in 1894, it’s been a battle for producers to manage through crop rotation and chemical fungicides.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has approved new five-year registrations for two dicamba products and extended the registration of an additional dicamba product for use on dicamba-tolerant cotton and soybeans in a decision estimated to save growers and producers of the products millions of dollars in lost revenue.

A unique study conducted by University of Georgia entomologists led to the discovery of a distinctive supergene in fire ant colonies that determines whether young queen ants will leave their birth colony to start their own new colony or if they will join one with multiple queens. Researchers also found that ants were more aggressive toward queens who don’t possess the supergene, causing colony workers to kill them. This critical finding opens the door to new pest control methods that may be more efficient in eradicating problematic fire ant colonies. 

With the fall migration underway for monarch butterflies through November, gardeners should soon start seeing the colorful creatures on their travels south. It's also time to be on the lookout for pests of common milkweed (Ascelpias tuberosa), the most popular milkweed plant grown in Georgia butterfly gardens.