Browse Plant Pests and Diseases Stories - Page 6

Silverleaf whiteflies devastated Georgia’s cotton and fall vegetable crops last year. In response to this crisis, a team of University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences research and UGA Cooperative Extension specialists is studying the pests statewide to help cotton and vegetable farmers avoid another year of disappointing crops.

Whether you work on a large family farm, in a home vegetable garden, or in a small, community garden vegetable plot, routinely scouting for insects should be an important part of your vegetable-growing plan.

Georgia watermelon producers are busy guarding their crops against potential disease pressure following last week’s rainfall.

Pepper weevils are such a threat to Georgia’s pepper crop that University of Georgia vegetable entomologist David Riley says Georgia farmers and agricultural workers should immediately kill any weevils found on fruit, equipment or clothes.

New University of Georgia Cooperative Extension pecan entomologist Angelita Acebes hopes to find more effective, sustainable solutions for Georgia farmers managing pest insects.

Farmers may have more success growing peanuts if they don’t continuously plant in the same field, according to Scott Tubbs, University of Georgia Tifton campus’s research cropping system agronomist for peanuts.

Mother Nature’s freezing January temperatures reduced nematode buildup in southern Georgia fields. But warmer temperatures this spring could spark nematode activity, according to University of Georgia Cooperative Extension plant pathologist Bob Kemerait.

Once a top agricultural commodity in Georgia, the Southern pea’s presence in the state is now minimal. Growers are reluctant to plant the crop due to a tiny weevil, the cowpea curculio.

Hundreds of people get sick each year from inappropriate pesticide use, but those who don’t deal with pesticides daily may not think about it very often. Of the 11 states participating in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) pesticide safety program, workers reported 853 serious injuries from pesticides in 2011, according to the CDC.

Summer may have ended, but Georgia’s silverleaf whitefly infestation has not.