By Clint Thompson
Insect pests are currently not a problem for specialty crop producers. That’s good news for growers trying to navigate vegetable production in South Georgia, North Florida and South Alabama. And that was before last week’s heavy rain events that flooded parts of the Southeast region.
Stormy Sparks, University of Georgia (UGA) Extension vegetable entomologist, discussed what producers are facing right now with respect to insect pressure following the storms.
“Right now, we don’t have a lot of insect problems. It’s probably not going to have a huge impact. What (rain) we’ve gotten should help if anything is out there like whiteflies that are starting to build up. Those rains over a whole area have much more of an impact than those isolated showers, even when they’re heavy. But right now, insect wise, it’s been fairly light this year,” Sparks said. “Stuff like pickleworm, stuff that overwinters in Florida, starts moving up this time of year. It’s still a bit early for that.
“Spring in general is usually fairly light for us. Whiteflies are always light in the spring, but that spring population likes to build into the summer and fall populations. We’ll keep an eye on that. Pepper weevil has been light this year. I think a lot of that has to do with the freezes we had. It didn’t kill the weevils necessarily, but it kills the host plants, and they eventually starve. Right now, we’re experiencing fairly light insect pest pressure.”